PLUM 



PLUM 



2719 



All the native plums, with wholly negligible excep- 

 tions, require cross-pollination. For the most part, 

 however, they are fully inter-fertile, so that one given 

 variety 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 



fermentation around the pit in the process of drying, 

 which prevents their being successfully dried without 

 its removal; these are known as "plums." The prune 

 varieties are, however, much richer in sugar which 

 determines their adaptability to drying whole. As 

 California has to find distant markets for most of its 

 immense fruit crops, by far the greater portion of the 

 plum areas are devoted to the production of prunes. 

 The total amounts of plums produced in 1914 are as 

 follows: Dried prunes, 51, (XX) tons; canned plums, 



3074. Forms of tree of Japanese plums, at early bearing age. Left to right: Abundance, G eorgeson, Bar bank, Wickson. 

 The Wickson is probably a hybrid with P. Simonii. 



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 to 30 feet space. Putting a plum orchard 

 down to grass is not admissible under any circum- 

 stances; 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 usually 

 necessary, or even desirable; yet something considerably 

 short of starvation will be found the best treatment for 

 native plums. F. A. WAXJGH. 



The plum in California. 



The cultivation of the plum in California differs 

 widely from that in the other plum-producing sections 

 of the United States. Here the dreaded curculio is 

 unknown, and while the equally dangerous black-knot 

 has been found infesting a native wild cherrv (P. 

 demissa) it has never been observed in cultivated 

 orchards. The most delicate varieties of the Old World 

 find a very congenial home and form the basis of prac- 

 tically all orchard planting. In early mining days the 

 California native plum (Primus subcordata) was fre- 

 quently cultivated, and before the introduction 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. 



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 removing the 

 pit. In most of the varieties of plums there occurs a 



90,000 cases or 2,160,000 quarts; overland shipments, 

 7,906 carloads of fresh fruit. 



The plum has an exceedingly wide range in California. 

 It is thrifty and healthy on the immediate coast, in 

 the interior and coast valleys, and well up into the 

 foothills. This is perhaps most strikingly shown by the 

 fact that every county in the state ? except two perhaps 

 (one being the city of San Francisco), contains plum 

 or prune orchards, or both. When it is considered that 

 this covers an area of nearly 160,000 square miles, 

 extending through 9J^ degrees of latitude, a fair esti- 

 mate of the adaptability of this fruit to varying con- 

 ditions of soil and climate will be obtained. By choosing 

 varieties ripening in succession, the California plum 

 season may be extended from May to December. It is 

 not surprising, then, that the acreage devoted to plums 

 and prunes is one of the largest in the state, reaching a 

 total of nearly 142,000 acres, an aggregate of nearly 

 11,000,000 trees, of which about four-fifths are prunes. 

 Placer County leads in the acreage of plums with 



5,500 acres, and 

 Santa Clara in 

 prunes with 58,400 

 acres. This great 

 industry has devel- 

 oped since the dis- 

 covery of gold. The 

 early Mission plant- 

 ings (1769-1823) 

 included varieties 

 of European plums, 

 a few of which were 

 able to survive 

 after the abandon- 

 ment of the Mis- 

 sions in 1834, by 

 reproducing them- 

 selves by suckers. 

 One variety found 

 at Mission Santa 

 Clara was grown 

 and marketed as the 

 3075. The americana type of plum.- "Mission prune"as 

 Weaver (Prunus americana). (XD late as 1870. Ine 



