PLUM 



PLUM 



1375 



The Miner-like varieties are hardly to be distin- 

 guished from the Americanas in any way. They have 

 practically the same geographical range, and may be 

 given the same treatment in the orchartl. 



The Wayland group includes several varieties of 

 great value, especially for the South. Of these Way- 

 land, Golden Beauty, Moremah, Benson, and Kanawha 

 may be mentioned. They are not to he recommended 

 generally for localities north of Massaciiusctts and Ne- 

 braska, their northern limit being determined less by 

 their non-hardiness than by the very late ripening. This 

 habit of late ripening, combined with very late bloom- 

 ing, makes them desirable for late marketing, particu- 

 larly in southern markets. They are very prolific and 

 constant bearers. Tlie trees are free-growing, usually 

 of rather spreading habit, and will bear heading-back 

 better than the Americanas. The pruning knife, if used 

 in season and with good judgment, will assist in mak- 

 ing comparatively open-headed and amiable trees of 

 these varieties. 



The Wild Goose group includes varieties like Wild 

 Goose, Milton, Wooton, and Whitaker, specially adapted 

 to the latitude of Maryland, Kentucky and Kansas. The 

 same varieties succeed only less well southward; but 

 are not generally valuable to the north of this line. For 

 the section named, the varieties of this class have un- 

 questionably been the most profitable Plums grown up 

 to the present time. They are propagated chiefly on 

 peach, Marianna and Myrobalan. These stocks are all 

 fairly satisfactory, though not equally good for all va- 

 rieties ; but when peach stocks are used the union 

 shovild be made by whip-grafting on the peach root. 

 Otherwise the peach stock comes above the ground and 

 is a prey to the peach borer. The trees are mostly 

 rapid, willowy, rather zigzag growers; and are amena- 

 ble to the pruning knife in about the same degree as 

 the Wayland-like varieties already mentioned. Whit- 

 aker makes an open-headed tree without much trouble. 

 So does Sophie. Wild Goose is more inclined to be thick 

 and thorny in the top, but may be thinned carefully to 

 make an accessible head. Milton is much like Wild 

 Goose. Wooton makes a fine vase-form top, which, with 

 a little timely pruning, is almost ideal. Wilder, James 

 Vick, and some others, are prone to make thick, bushy, 

 thorny tops, and are hard to manage. These varieties 

 are all considerably subject to shot-hole fungus, which 

 often strips them of their foliage in midsummer. They 

 are mostly thin-skinned and liable to crack at ripening 

 time, especially if the weather is wet. They should be 

 picked rather green for shipment, the point to be ob- 

 served being that they have attained their full size, 

 rather than that they are dead ripe. 



The Chicasaw varieties are very effective pollinizers 

 for all the Wild Goose and Japanese varieties blooming 

 at the same time; but very few of them have sufficient 

 value in themselves to make them profitable orchard 

 trees. A few varieties, like Munson and McCartney, 

 are still planted for their own fruit; but in general 

 they have been displaced by other types of Plums. The 

 trees are mostly bushy, thorny and thick-topped, some- 

 times so thick and thorny that the blackbirds can 

 hardly get in to steal the fruit. It is difficult to prune 

 them enough to make really satisfactory trees. The 

 Chicasaw Plums are specially adapted to the southern 

 states, though Pottawattamie, an exceptionally hardy 

 variety, succeeds as far north as southern Iowa and 

 central Vermont. They propagate readily on any kind 

 of stocks. 



Other types of native Plums, such as the Sand Plum, 

 the Beach Plum, the Pacific Plum, etc., are not suffi- 

 ciently numerous in cultivation for their treatment to 

 have been determined. 



Hybrid Plums of various strains are now beginning 

 to come to the fore. Most of these hybrid varieties 

 resemble rather strongly one or the other of their par- 

 ent species; and the best that can be said regarding 

 their culture at this early day is that they may be safely 

 treated like the varieties which they most closely re- 

 semble. Wickson, President and perhaps Climax, with 

 some others, resemble the Simon Plum, and ought to 

 have much the same treatment, that is, practically the 

 same treatment as the Japanese varieties. Gonzales, 

 Excelsior, Golden and Juicy, on the other hand, resem- 



87 



ble the Wild Goose type, and may have the same general 

 treatment as Wild Goose. 



All the native Plums, with very unimportant excep- 

 tions, requii'e cross-pollination. For the most part, 

 however, they are fully inter-fertile, so that a given va- 

 riety will pollinate any other variety, providing the two 

 bloom at the same time. Simultaneous blooming is of 

 chief importance in adjusting varieties to one another 

 for cross-pollination. To determine which varieties 

 bloom together, careful observations should be made in 

 the orchard and recorded, or recourse must be had to 

 the published tables. Pollination is effected chiefly, 

 if not exclusively, by the bees, so that their presence 

 should be encouraged. 



Most of the native Plums make comparatively small 

 trees, so that they may be set somewhat close together 

 in orchard-planting, say 12 to 20 feet apart, usually 

 about 15 feet. Some varieties, particularly in the 

 South, need 20-30 ft. space. Putting a Plum orchard 

 down to grass is not admissible under any circum- 

 stance?; but cultivation should cease with the first of 

 July, or certainly by the middle of July; for the native 

 Plums are especially liable to make too much late sum- 

 mer growth. High manuring of the soil is not iisually 

 necessary, or even desirable: yet something consider- 

 ably short of starvation will be found the best treat- 

 ment for native Plums. F. A. Waugh. 



The Plum in California. — The cultivation of the 

 Plum in California differs widely from that in the 

 other Plum -producing sections of the U. S. Here 

 the dreaded curculio is unknown, and while the equally 

 dangerous black -knot has been found infesting a 

 native wild cherrj' ( P. demissa ) it has never been 

 observed in cultivated orchards. The former has been 

 kept out by rigid inspection and quarantine regula- 

 tions, and the latter is undoubtedly held in check by 

 the existing climatic conditions — excessive dryness be- 

 ing unfavorable to its development. Here, then, the 

 most delicate varieties of the Old World find a very 

 congenial home, and therefore, tinlike the prevailing 

 custom of much of the eastern Plum -growing, form the 

 basis of practically all orchard planting. In early min- 

 ing days the California native Plum (Prtmvs subcor- 

 data ) was frequently cultivated, and before the introduc- 

 tion of European standard varieties attempts were made 

 to improve the fruit by the usual methods of selection. 

 Some very promising results were obtained; but since 

 the demonstration of the great success of the more 

 delicate and higher-flavored varieties, there has been 

 little incentive to the use of the native species. There 

 are two varieties, the type being a low shrub, rarely 

 over 3 ft. high, branching from the ground; the fruit 

 oblong, about % in. long, "almost the shape and color 

 of a Damson when ripe," but the pulp is described as 

 "inferior." The other variety (Kellfxjgii) forms a larger 

 shrub, from 10 to 15 ft. high, with larger fruit, round, 

 yellowish in color and much more acceptable, both for 

 eating and preserving. The two varieties are usually 

 found associated, "growing in patches at the heads of 

 ravines, on rocky hillsides and in open woods." The 

 larger variety is not so widely distributed, and seems 

 to have reached its highest state of perfection in the 

 Sierras, where (in Sierra county) it is still preferred in 

 the local markets, and where, it is said, the imported 

 varieties "do not pay for the picking." 



With the Plum fruits might also be mentioned the 

 "oso berry," or so-called "California false Plum" (Nnt- 

 tallia cerasiformis), a shrub sometimes 15 ft. high, and 

 found "in moist places and the north sides of hills 

 from San Luis Obispo northward." The bark is 

 smooth, much resembling that of the Plum or cherry; 

 the fruit is plum-like, pulpy, when ripe covered with a 

 deep blue bloom, handsome in appearance, and has 

 been used in the kitchen for making pies, preserves, 

 and the like, though it is rather bitter to the taste. So 

 far as known, no attempts have been made to improve 

 it by cultivation. 



It seems hardly fair to make a distinction between 

 "Plums" and "prunes" in discussing this subject from 

 the California standpoint. With the exception of the 

 differences in the preparation for market, what may 

 be said of the Plum applies as well to the prune ; for 

 a prune is simply a Plum which dries sweet without 



