350 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



years these plums have been grown and im- 

 proved under special cultivation and selec- 

 tion by the gardeners of Europe and Asia, 

 and where these succeed as they do in the 

 southern parts of this Province, there is no 

 reason why they should not be planted freely 

 for commercial purposes. For convenience 

 sake they have been divided into several sub- 

 classes, as for example : (i) The Gages, 

 roundish plums, green or yellow in color, 

 with green flesh, including Reine Claude, 

 Green and Imperial Gage, Washington and 

 General Hand ; (2) the Prunes, oval plums, 

 blue purple in color and rather firm, green- 

 ish yellow flesh, including the German 

 Prunes and Prune d' Agen ; (3) the blue 

 plums with large oval fruit, dark blue in 

 color, with firm yellow flesh, including such 

 varieties as Kingston, Quackenbos, Shipper 

 and Arctic ; and (4) the Red plums, of 

 which the fruit is obovate, purplish with thin 

 skin and soft juicy flesh, as Bradshaw, Vic- 

 toria, Pond, Duane and Lombard. 



Of course the above distinctions are more 

 or less arbitrary, for, in these days of cross 

 breeding, classes are being more and more 

 obliterated and individuality alone seems to 

 remain for study. For the home garden a 

 large assortment of these plums is most in- 

 teresting and desirable, but for the commer- 

 cial orchard it is best to make the list as 

 limited as possible and to plant only three or 

 four of the very best varieties. The time to 

 decide upon what varieties are most profit- 

 able for one to grow is just now in plum 

 season when the fruit is being harvested and 

 sold. 



PICKING AND MARKET PLUMS 



PLUMS need to be handled a little on 

 the green side, especially the " Red 

 Plums," such as Bradshaw, which quickly 

 become too ripe to ship, and indeed they can- 

 not well be sent to very distant markets. 

 The Prunes are much better shippers, and 

 this class of plums is being forwarded by 



steamer from CoUingwood for distribution 

 to towns on the north shore of Lake Huron 

 and points farther west. 



Plums in Ontario have usually been packed 

 in a basket containing eleven quarts, but 

 since new sizes have been introduced this 

 basket will be discarded for one holding 

 twelve imperial quarts, which is rather large 

 for plums. A very suitable standard sized 

 basket for choice plums is the 6^ quart 

 basket, which also holds about nine pounds, 

 and will soon become a favorite basket for 

 all kinds of choice tender fruit in our markets. 



TOO MANY VARIETIES OF PLUMS GROWN 



IT IS an old saying, that you should not 

 put out all your eggs in one basket, for 

 an accident might cause the loss of all, and 

 no doubt this applies to plums as well as to 

 eggs ; and yet the more common mistake is 

 the planting of too many varieties. Not 

 knowing anything about them the young 

 planter is guided almost entirely by the 

 agent or by the nurseryman's catalogue, 

 from which it would seem desirable to plant 

 the whole list, for all of them are lauded 

 most highly. Just here the work of our 

 fruit stations comes in, to determine the 

 varieties best suited to each section for 

 home use and for market, and the reports 

 from the experimenters will prove more 

 valuable each year. 



Mr. L. L. Hagar has 2800 bearing plum 

 trees, and has planted such varieties as 

 Washington, Bradshaw, Yellow Egg, 

 Quackenbos, Reine Claude, etc. The first 

 two varieties have been favorites with him, 

 but this year the Washington neatly all 

 dropped off". The Bradshaws were too full, 

 and needed thinning by nearly one-half. 

 On the whole, the Bradshaw has been a 

 favorite variety for profit in Mr. Hagar's 

 orchard. 



*' My principal varieties for profit are 

 Bradshaw, Reine Claude, Quackenbos, and 

 Gueii," said Mr. Albert Smith, "and these 



