THE ABUNDANCE PULM. 



Melons should be picked in the morn- 

 ing when they are cool and before the 

 sun has made them warm, for they can 

 then be kept longer and in better condi- 

 tion. 



In marketing melons I have found it 

 the best method to sell to the retail 

 dealer. If the melons are warranted to 

 him to be good and ripe, and he can 

 rely on the grower to replace them if 

 green or bad, he will be a staunch 

 friend of the grower. Always patronize 



home industry instead of sending your 

 product away to some distant whole- 

 saler, for you run the risk, after paying 

 the freight, of getting some of your ship- 

 ments classed as bad and in a long run 

 losing a good share of your expected 

 profits. It also gives your home dealer 

 an opportunity to dispose of some of his 

 goods in trade for melons, as the grower 

 can conveniently take such goods in ex- 

 change as he has present need of. — 

 Rept. Minn. Hort. Soc. 



THE ABUNDANCE PLUM. 



UT of the great company of 

 plums the public has sorted 

 the two Japs, Abundance 

 and Burbank, as some one 

 neatly puts it. There may be nothing 

 specially new to tell about these, yet 

 there are two interesting items which a 

 Country Gentleman correspondent says 

 he has never seen in print concerning 

 the Abundance plum, and these he 

 gives as follows : 



The first is that the crop does not all 

 mature at once. In fact, in looking 

 over the tree while the fruit is yet green 

 it will be found that the plums vary 

 greatly in size This seems to be a 

 difference in age because it is main- 

 tained to the full period of maturity. 

 Hence the crop of a single tree never 

 ripens all at once or anything like it. 

 While some of the specimens are fully 

 ripe others will be hard, green and not 

 even grown out. While this may be an 

 objection to it as a market variety, 

 because of the increased labor of gather- 

 ing, it certainly is a most valuable feature 

 in the family orchard or garden where 

 the entire crop is not wanted at once. 



Another point which, if it has been 

 noted, has escaped my attention is that 

 in order to secure the best flavor and 

 the highest coloring in the Abundance 

 plum it must be picked early and ripened 

 in the house like a Bartlett pear. If 

 allowed to become soft and fully colored 



on the tree, half the flavor is gone, and 

 the bees and wasps will often be found 

 garnering the little which remains. It 

 may be gathered while yet green, and if 

 placed in a dark drawer it will color up 

 beautifully with a delicate bloom and 

 reward you with a flavor of surprising 

 excellence. It is very juicy, sweet and 

 rich, and I can compare them with 

 nothing so well as the old genuine 

 Green Gage, which I have always re- 

 garded as the standard for flavor and 

 quality. While the flesh does not part 

 so readily from the stone, which is very 

 small, it does not cling to it as tena- 

 ciously as others of this species. Like 

 the Green Gage, it is breaking and 

 buttery in the mouth. And I have often 

 seen specimens of that grand old variety 

 ripened in the full sun that were colored 

 much like the Abundance. In the 

 Abundance I think we have its full 

 cousin at least as to flavor, while the 

 brilliant coloring is more attractive, and 

 its general vigor and productiveness 

 make it more desirable. 



The little knight of the crescent calls 

 around on time, of course, and leaves 

 his well-known autograph. But that is 

 the last of it for this thick skinned 

 Japanese member of the Prunus family. 

 The plums grow right along and ripen 

 up sound and perfect without either 

 eggs or larv£e of any foe. Why not 

 plant the Abundance plum ? 

 489 



