348 [ THE PLUM 



time of the winter tillage, and in March or April when 

 the plant is in full bloom it is digged in, and the soil 

 trenched in the following autumn. 



In our orchards the plum tree is grown as a bush 

 and occasionally as a standard, and owing to its light 

 habit and foliage it is never trained to any particular 

 shape. Pruning is limited to the removal of dead or 

 diseased wood, and to the thinning of branches which 

 cross each other, and therefore their blossoms and fruit are 

 liable to injury with every breeze. Trees grafted on the 

 wild plums should not be subjected to root-pruning. In 

 years of heavy production the fruit may be thinned, 

 otherwise it will remain too small and consequently will 

 compete badly with finer produce. Our gardeners are 

 singularly averse to this operation, and as an alternative 

 they usually have recourse to irrigation where possible, 

 watering the trees twice or thrice in May-July to keep up 

 the vigour of the tree and cause the fruit to swell 

 properly. 



The following sorts of plums are cultivated in our 

 orchards : 



i. THE ST. JOHN'S PLUM. (M.=Pruna ta San 

 (ruann.) The tree is vigorous and a fast grower, and is 

 always well laden with fruit. The leaves are rather 

 narrow and lanceolate. The fruit is middling, oblong or 

 pear shaped, very elongated, with a young slender stalk 

 and a shallow groove. The colour is canary yellow or 

 golden yellow with a whitish bloom. The flesh is yellow, 

 mealy, juicy, sweet and of good quality, completely sepa- 

 rated from the stone, which is very long, flat, pointed at 

 both ends. The fruit matures in June, and is our earliest 

 plum, but its peel is liable to crack during maturity. This 

 plum strikes well from cuttings, and is often propagated 

 directly by cuttings or by its own suckers. 



2. THE SMALL YELLOW PLUM. (M. = Pruna safra 

 irkieka). The leaves are ovate, or ovate acuminate. 



