724 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. Part III. 



4554. Selection of sorts. The following are recommended by Forsyth for a small 

 garden : — 



Jaunehfttive | Royal I Saint Catherine and impera- 1 Magnum bonum ; for baking 



Early damask Green gage (different sorts) trice VVinesour ; for preserving. 



Orleans I Drap d'or I 



4555. The table fruit in the Dalkeith garden are as under, placed in the order of their 

 ripening, all of them being planted against walls : — 



Voilet de hative I Early Morocco I Blue perdigron I White magnum bonum 



Early hative Green gage Apricot plum Imperial. 



New Orleans I Blue gage | Fotheringham | 



4556. Propagation. Most of the varieties are propagated by grafting or budding on the muscle, St. Julian, 

 bonum magnum, or any free-growing plums, raised from seed, or from suckers ; but seedlings are prefer, 

 able stocks for a permanent plantation." The common baking plums, as the damson, bullace, wentworth, 

 &c are generally propagated by suckers, without being either budded or grafted. Plum-grafting is per- 

 formed in July or March ; budding in July or August. Miller prefers budding, because plums are very 

 apt to gum wherever large wounds are made on them. The mirabelle, a small plum shaped like a cherry, 

 and resembling a May-duke when half ripe, is planted to form hedges about Ghent, and used by the Flemish 

 nurserymen, as stocks for both nectarines and peaches. (Neill, in Hort. Tour.) 



4557. New varieties are procured by propagating from seeds on the general principles already stated. Knight 

 (Hort. Trans, iii. 214.), in an attempt to combine the bulk of the yellow magnum bonum with the richness 

 and flavor of the green gage, produced a fruit which partook of both parents, but which has not yet been 

 given to the public ; but a good variety of the Orleans plum. {Hort. Trans, iii. 392.) 



4558 Soil Plums, according to Miller, should have a middling soil, neither too wet and heavy, nor 

 over light and dry, in either of which extremes they seldom do well. Abercrombje recommends any mel- 

 low fertile garden or orchard ground ; and where a soil is to be made, " one half fresh loam, one fourth 

 sharp sand, one sixth road-stuff, and one twelfth vegetable remains, or decomposed dung or animal 



4559 Site. The plum is cultivated like other indigenous fruit-trees : the hardier sorts, as standards ; 

 and the finer varieties against walls. It is sometimes forced ; but the blossom, like that of the cherry, is 

 difficult to set, and on the whole, it is a fruit not well adapted for forcing. The finer varieties are almost 

 always planted against walls, which, Miller says, should have an east or south-east aspect, which is more 

 kindly to these fruits than a full south aspect, on which they are subject to shrivel and be very dry ; and 

 many sorts will be extremely mealy, if exposed too much to the heat of the sun ; but most sorts will 

 ripen extremely well on espaliers, if rightly managed. Some, he adds, plant plums for standards, in which 

 method some of the ordinary sorts will bear verv well ; but then the fruit will not be near so fair as those 

 produced on espaliers, and will be more in danger of being bruised or blown down by strong winds. 

 Abercrombie says, " have some choice sorts against south walls for earlier and superior fruit ; others on 

 east and west walls, and espaliers, to ripen in succession, with full and half standards in the orchard." 



4560. Choice of plants. Miller recommends trees of not more than one year's growth from the bud ; for 

 if they are older, they are very subject to canker ; or if they take well to the ground, commonly produce 

 only two or three luxuriant branches. Abercrombie and Nicol take plants from one to five years old. 

 Forsyth chooses " clean straight plants with single stems, and of two or three years' growth." 



4561. Final planting. Miller says, it is common to see plum-trees planted at the distance of fourteen or 

 sixteen feet so that the walls are in a few years covered with branches ; and then all the shoots are cut 

 and mangled with the knife so as to appear like a stumped hedge, and produce little fruit ; therefore the 

 only way to have plum-trees in good order, is to give them room, and extend their branches at full length. 

 Abercrombie directs full and half standards to be planted at forty, thirty, twenty-five, and twenty feet 

 distance : dwarfs generally twenty feet apart, and wall-trees or espaliers fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five feet 

 from stem to stem. Forsyth says, plums and cherries thrive best by themselves ; and he prefers a wall for 

 each, placing plums on walls ten feet high, eight yards apart ; and at seven yards' distance on twelve-feet 

 walls. 



4562. Mode of bearing. " All the sorts produce their fruit on small natural spurs, 

 rising at the ends and along the sides of the bearing shoots of one, two, or three years' 

 growth. In most sorts, new fruit-branches are two years old before the spurs bear. The 

 same branches and spurs continue fruitful in proportion to the time which they take to 

 come into bearing." 



4563. Mode of training. Forsyth and Harrison decidedly prefer the horizontal man- 

 ner, and both head down the leading upright shoot twice in a year. Forsyth says, " if 

 the leading shoot be very strong, you may top it twice in the summer, as directed for 

 pears, and at the same time that you top them (spring or winter pruning, and June) ; re- 

 peating the same every year till the wall is rilled to the top." ( Tr. on Fr. Tr. ch. ii. ) 



4564 Pruning. After the formation of the head is begun, it takes from two to six years before the dif- 

 ferent sorts come into bearing. Miller trains horizontally, and is against shortening the branches of 

 plum-trees, since the more these trees are pruned, the more luxuriant they grow, until the strength of 

 them is exhausted, and then they gum and spoil ; therefore the safest method to manage these trees is to 

 lay in their shoots horizontally, as they are produced at equal distances, in proportion to the length of their 

 leaves pinching off the points of young shoots where lateral branches are desired, and displacing tore-right 

 and irregular shoots, or such as shade the fruit. With this carefully going over these trees in the growing 

 season, there will be but little work to do to them in the winter. 



4565. Abercrombie agrees with Miller in not shortening fruitful branches. Standards, he says, must be 

 allowed to " expand in free growth, occasionally pruning long ramblers, and cross-placed or other irregu- 

 lar branches. Thin crowded parts, cut away worn out bearers, also decayed and cankery wood. 



4566. Forsyth says, " Never cut the stems of young plum-trees when first planted, but leave them till 

 the buds begin to break ; then you may head them down to five or more eyes, always observing to leave 

 an odd one for the leading shoot: remember to cut sloping towards the wall, and as near to an eye as 

 possible ; thus managed, the shoots will soon fill the wall with fine wood. If you find that some ot the 

 shoots are too luxuriant, you may pinch the tops off with your finger and thumb, about the beginning ot 

 June, in the first year after planting ; by doing which you will obtain plenty of wood to fill the bottom ot 

 the wall. A great deal depends on the first and second year's management of your trees. 



4567. Renovating decaying trees. Proceed as directed for the peach ; but observe that 

 the plum-tree, when cut down, is very apt to run to wood, therefore the new soil must 

 neither be very rich, nor laid on in a very deep stratum. 



4568. Protecting blossom. This is sometimes done with the tenderer sorts, in the same 

 way as for peaches and apricots. 



