68 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



tree after it begins to color for about three weeks. The Satsuma 

 will color about three weeks before it is ripe but when it remains 

 on the tree until it is finally ripe, that brilliant purple color 

 through the flesh seen as it is on the outside makes it a very fine 

 looking plum, and it is a very good canning plum, but not equal 

 to the Reine Claude, which is one of the richest plums for can- 

 ning. None of the Japans compare with the European plum 

 Reine Claude. Prune plum trees in the spring before the leaves 

 come out. 



O. I would like to ask if the plum can be grown successfully 

 on low. intervale land, and on heavy soil? If so, what variety? 



A. Almost any variety, particularly of the European, if the 

 ground is thoroughly underdrained, but like any other tree it 

 will not bear wet feet. If it is underdrained so the water will 

 drain off, there is no difficvilty in growing it on low clayey soil. 



Dr. TwiTCHEix: I was glad to hear Mr. Pope say what he 

 did or hint at his thought in regard to the varieties. It seems to 

 me that we have been running wild after foreign varieties and 

 have lost sight of the fact that while we perhaps have some addi- 

 tional troubles in the oversight and protection of the European, 

 yet when we want quality we want to sit down by a European 

 plum tree. Perhaps the Burbank may be the easiest to grow of 

 almost any, coming into use early in the season and hanging on 

 the trees until the last of October as they do with me, yet I cannot 

 class it better than inferior except in the early stages for canning. 

 Abundance is a better plum but there is no plum for eating which 

 will take the place of the Green Gage. Whether the climatic 

 conditions this year have been the cause or not, I think all of us 

 who have attempted to grow plums have realized that the black 

 knot was afiBicting us more than usual. During the last eight or 

 ten years since I have been on the place where I am now, I have 

 been trying to grow a few trees and I have had more trouble this 

 year than in all the time past. The Japanese trees have been 

 afflicted less, but still showing a good deal of trouble and calling 

 for constant watchfulness. In pruning I have practiced nipping 

 the shoots after they had made what I considered good fair 

 growth in the season, nipping them back, and in that way I have 

 been pretty well satisfied with the yield of fruit that has followed 

 in succeeding years. 



