Orchard and Garden Management 279 



It should be noted that many of the plums, and 

 particularly the Japanese and Wildgoose varieties, are 

 very readily damaged by applications of bordeaux 

 mixture. The mixture burns the foliage, often causing 

 it to fall. Bordeaux mixture for plums must be weaker 

 than for apples. For Japanese varieties it should be 

 about one-third the strength usually recommended. 



Thinning. — Thinning is important with many 

 kinds of fruit, but with none more than with 

 plums. Many varieties, particularly of the Japanese 

 and Americana classes, have a great tendency to over- 

 bear. They will set twice to ten times as much fruit 

 as they ought to mature, and do it year after year. 

 Burbank, De Soto and Lombard may be mentioned 

 as examples. This overbearing tends to weaken the 

 trees. In fact, hundreds of trees are killed by it. At 

 the same time it makes the current crops small of fruit 

 and less valuable on the market. One bushel of fine 

 large fruit is worth three bushels of sour, undersized 

 plums, and it is much easier for the tree to produce it. 

 Thinning is a well-recognized practice among the 

 best growers. 



The fruit should be thinned immediately after 

 the June drop. The thinning is usually done by hand, 

 and though this is a slow and somewhat expensive 

 business, it is not half so expensive as it is not to do it. 

 Some less fastidious growers thin the fruit roughly 

 by running a fine-toothed garden rake over the 

 branches. This is much better than no thinning at all, 

 but not so good as the hand thinning. When the work 

 is done by hand, the workman must use his judgment 

 as to how many fruits to leave, and which ones. Usu- 

 ally he leaves too many. A good Vermont grower 

 who makes a specialty of fancy Burbanks thins to 

 leave the fruits nine inches apart on the stems. An 

 average of six inches apart may be taken roughly as 



