THE PLUM. 63 



some villages an oven for prune-drying is dug in the 

 earth, which, for one season at least, does as well as a 

 built one. 



"What are known as G-errnan Plums are made from the 

 Quetsche, a variety largely cultivated in Germany, Bel- 

 gium, Switzerland, and the North of France, for the pur- 

 pose of drying ; for though less sweet, and therefore less 

 fit for this use, than many other kinds, it has the advan- 

 tage of coming to perfection at a convenient season, when 

 people are tired of the fresh fruit, and when cultivators 

 have little else to attend to ; besides that, it will nourish 

 in colder climates, and is less liable to fail than almost 

 any other sort. In Lorraine an orchard of these plums 

 brings four times more profit to the owner, according to 

 Bosc, than could be derived from any other crop on the 

 same amount of land ; and the same author bemoans the 

 ignorance or carelessness of his countrymen in not plant- 

 ing this kind of plum throughout the length and breadth 

 of France, so that Prunes might become a hundredfold 

 more plentiful than they are at present, since he considers 

 that the sun alone would suffice to dry them 'in warm 

 provinces, and in others, four days of care, such as the 

 children of a household could in great part assist in ren- 

 dering, would suffice to lay in a large stock of wholesome 

 and pleasant provision for the winter. M'Intosh, too, 

 laments that his Scotch compatriots make no efforts in 

 this direction, plums being little used now by the poor, 

 even for ordinary preserving, whereas drying sorts fit to 

 be made into Prunes for home use could be well grown in 

 Scotland, in hedgerows and on banks not available for 

 anything else, and their produce thus become an article 

 of common consumption. 



There are three species of wild plums indigenous to 

 America, from none of which, however, has any cultivated 

 kind been reared ; but our Prunus domestica, early in- 

 troduced there, found that country so congenial an abiding- 

 place that it soon became naturalized, and in the Middle 

 States grows almost spontaneously, sporting continually 

 into new and fine varieties. Among these the magnificent 

 Washington Plum holds a pre-eminent place, yielding, it 



