PROPAGATION OF STOCKS. 135 



5th. Stocks for the Plum. It is difficult, in this country, 

 to get good plum stocks. If seeds be taken promiscu- 

 ously from any variety that is to be had, as is done with 

 most other trees, the probability is that, of the seedlings, 

 not one in 500 will be suitable for a stock. I have seen 

 bushel* of seeds planted that were said to have been col- 

 lected from strong growing trees ; but out of the tens of 

 thousands of seedlings produced from them, not 100 were 

 ever worked, or fit to be. It is not only necessary to ob- 

 tain seeds from vigorous-growing, healthy trees, but from 

 a species or variety that reproduces itself from seed. 



The Horse Plum, an oval, purple, freestone sort, with 

 vigorous downy shoots, reproduces itself from seed, and 

 makes good stocks. On a suitable, well-prepared soil, its 

 seedlings often attain two feet or more in height in one 

 season, and are then fit for the nursery rows. They re- 

 quire a rich, substantial soil, prepared as recommended 

 for pear seeds. Other vigorous sorts have been recom- 

 mended in various parts of the country, but, on trial, 

 they have been found quite inferior to the horse plum, 

 and, as a general thing, worthless. The " black-knot," a 

 fungus which infests the plum, is now so prevalent in this 

 country, that we regard- it as unsafe to take seeds pro- 

 miscuously gathered ; hence we now import our plum 

 stocks from Europe, where this disease does not exist. It 

 is doubtful, however, whether the seed will inherit the 

 disease, but it is well to be on the safe side. 



The Canada, or Wild Plum, which abounds in Ohio, 

 Michigan, and other Western States, is a distinct species, 

 and reproduces itself from seed. Some of the seed- 

 lings grow extremely rapid, making fine stocks, in one 

 year, on any good soil. They continue in a thrifty, grow- 

 ing state until late in the autumn ; but they should not 

 be worked above the ground in the usual way, as their 

 growth does not keep pace with the species to which most 

 of our cultivated sorts belong. The best way to manage 



