46 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



six inches came out with black knot and I have not succeeded m 

 keeping it back. 



Mr. Augur. I presume many of you know the Hon. J. F. C. 

 Hyde, the agricultural editor of the Congregationalist of Boston. 

 This last summer I was on his land where he has a plum orchard. 

 He has recommended cutting off as the great specific for keeping 

 clear of black knot. When I was on his grounds the black knot 

 was coming out all over his trees, and he said to me, "I give it up, 

 I don't know where to cut unless I cut to the ground." And we 

 have almost had that same experience ourselves. For years and 

 years we said "3'ou can kill it b}^ cutting off at sight," but it has 

 broken out all over and we have been completely set back in all our 

 ideas as to stopping it, and we have cut down a good many trees. 



Mr. Nelson. I am very glad to hear Mr. Augur speak of the 

 Wild Goose plum. I have a tree that I have had some twelve 3^ears 

 which never has borne a black knot or a plum. 1 want to ask him 

 what kind of a plum I shall place beside it, or whether I shall put it 

 between two, that I may fertilize it so as to raise some plums from 

 that tree. 



Mr. Augur. I would like to say to Mr. Nelson that it is barely 

 possible that he may have been served on his Wild Goose as I was.. 

 The plum trees that I had for Wild Goose at first were no more like 

 the Wild Goose than a chicken would be like a goose. They were 

 entirely untrue to the name. But we now have the genuine Wild 

 Goose plum. I have regarded the Wild Goose as being an imprac- 

 ticable thing, but I am more and more getting to think that as it 

 grows in proximity with other varieties it may be the means of ob- 

 viating that difficulty. I do not think they bear as young as other 

 varieties. The Lombard plum you could not keep from bearing if 

 3'ou wanted to. But that is not exactly the case with the Wild Goose. 

 If I were to suggest a mate to plant near the Wild Goose, on the 

 spur of the moment, I would say plant the Lombard near it. It has 

 ver}^ abundant pollen, very perfect flowers, and not only that but it 

 is loaded with plums, and if the branches are so that they can inter- 

 lace I think probably, if Mr. Nelson has a genuine Wild Goose plum 

 tree, he would be very likely to get fruit from it. 



Question. What varieties are subject to rot? 



Mr. Augur. We are troubled considerably in that way. The 

 Lombard is particularly^ liable to rot. You will often find clusters 

 of plums a foot or fifteen inches long where they touch each other all 



