FRUIT CULTURE. 



277 



lov) Egg, Lombard and Reine Claude 

 will be found among-st the hardiest, 

 notably the two first. Among- the 

 native plums, Wolf, De Soto, Haivk- 

 eye and Rollingstone may be recom- 

 mended. These are ver}- hardy, 

 comparatively free from disease, and 

 though small, are excellent for can- 

 ning purpases. In the milder sec- 

 tions the following list of the Euro- 

 pean class are sugg^ested for com- 

 mercial purposes, in order of ripen-, 

 ing; Bradshaitt, large blue ; Imperial 

 Gage, greenish-yellow; Washington, 

 large greenish-yellow ; Smith's Or- 

 leans, blue ; Lombard ; Yellow Egg; 

 German or Italian Prune, h\\xe; Reine 

 Claude, green ; Coe's Golden Drop 

 and English Damson. 



For the planter's own use, Hul- 

 ings Superb and McLaughlin may be 

 added, both plums of the gage kind, 

 and of the highest quality. Other 

 excellent sorts are Prince of Wales, 

 Duane's Purple and Goliath. Lombard, the 

 most commonly grown plum, is probably 

 over-planted. It is a vigorous grower, pro- 

 ductive and fairly hardy. On the other 

 hand, it comes in at a bad time — mid-sea- 

 son — is very subject to rot and black-knot, 

 and is of poor quality. It needs good care 

 and thinning to do really well. The Japan- 

 ese types are proving as hardy as many of 

 the European class, but many of them are 

 of inferior qualit}'. Abundance (see Fig. 

 46a), Red June and Burbank, are the ones 

 recommended here. The Abundance is an 

 upright grower with slender branches, a 

 good and early bearer but rather subject, as 

 is Burbank, to rot. Fig. 47 shows the 

 characteristic growth. This variety should 

 be shortened in to outside buds to encour- 

 age a spreading habit. Burbank, Fig. 48, 

 runs to the opposite extreme, throwing out 

 strong, wide-spreading limbs, and must be 

 pruned accordingly. 



A PRECOCIOUS SPECIflEN. 



Bur BANK \ 



2 YRS. FROM TtiE BUD. 

 FIC. 4«A. 



M.BURRELL^ ■ 



Diseases. — Monilia, or rot, is by far the 

 worst thing to contend with in plum culture. 

 It has been referred to under the peach. 

 Thinning will tend to lessen it, as will sys- 

 tematic spraying with Bordeaux mixture. 

 When' the plums are ripening, all specimens 

 showing rot should be gathered separately 

 and destroyed. None should be left on the 

 tree, as the shrivelled plums that pass the 

 winter on the tree will undoubtedly carry 

 the spores of the fungus to the next year's 

 crop. 



Black-knot is also a fungus, maturing its 

 spores twice a year, in May or June, and 

 and again in Februarj- or March. Constant 

 cutting out and burning of all knots will 

 control this disease in any orchard, but it 

 becomes a diflRcult matter to subdue the dis- 

 ease unless the whole neighborhood co- 

 operates in the task with something like 

 thoroughness. 



Curculio and plant lice are the insects 



