244 Plums and Plum Culture 



standard tree. In the Mississippi valley it is subject 

 to root-killing in cold winters. 



Marianna. — The Marianna plum appears to be 

 about two parts Myrobalan and one part Chicasaw. 

 It has much the same characters, used as a stock, as 

 the seedling Myrobalan trees imported from France. 

 Its advantage is in the ease with which it may be prop- 

 agated by cuttings, especially in the south. This ena- 

 bles nurserymen to grow their own stocks, — an op- 

 portunity of which they often find it advisable to avail 

 themselves.- As the growing of cuttings is especially 

 easy in the southern states, the Marianna plum has 

 been more often used as a stock in the states south of 

 the Ohio river. Some southern nurserymen use it 

 exclusively; but it seems to me that it is waning some- 

 what in its popularity. In choosing between Mari- 

 anna and Myrobalan, however, a nurseryman would 

 be influenced chiefly by the matter of price, and would 

 nearly always select the cheaper — which is apt to be 

 the Marianna. 



Peach. — The peach has several important advan- 

 tages as a stock for the plum. The seed may usually 

 be had cheaply from the canning factories, the pits or- 

 dinarily give a good stand of strong stocks fit to bud 

 the first year, and after budding the young trees grow 

 thriftily in the nursery. These circumstances make it 

 possible for the nurseryman to grow the best grade of 

 marketable young trees at a minimum expense. More- 

 over, the peach roots are known to be especially well 

 suited to light, sandy soils. Nevertheless, there has 

 always been more or less prejudice against the use of 

 peach stocks for plum trees. This prejudice has taken 

 two points of view : First, it has assumed that the peach 

 stock and the plum scion do not make the best possible 

 union, and that the tree is therefore liable to be short- 

 lived in the orchard; and second, plum trees on peach 



