HORTICULTURE 229 



In common with all fruits, the plum demands good tillage and 

 liberal feeding if satisfactory results are to be obtained. The ex- 

 tended remarks upon the tilling and fertilizing of fruit lands apply 

 with full emphasis to the plum. Well-tilled trees should begin to 

 bear when three years set, and, at eight and ten years of age, the pro- 

 lific varieties should be bearing three bushels of first quality fruit 

 in every good year. 



Varieties. The most popular variety of the plum, and also one 

 of the poorest, is the Lombard. Its redeeming merits are its great 

 productiveness and the vigor and hardiness of the tree. The fruit is 

 of only fair quality, it comes at a season when the market is full of 

 plums and other fruits, it is very susceptible to the leaf-blight fungus 

 and the fruit-rot, and its color is not of the best. The very fact that 

 it is the commonest and cheapest plum would seem to indicate that it 

 is not the best variety from which to make the greatest commercial 

 success; yet there are many orchards of it which are very successful 

 commercially. The best markets are likely to be found for the early 

 and late plums, and for those which have very pronounced colors, 

 especially those which are dark red or purple. Some of the dark 

 yellows are also very excellent for market fruits. Fruits of non- 

 descript colors, like those which border on the ill-defined reds, the 

 browns and the lemon yellows, are usually not profitable. There is 

 some exception to all this in the case of the Reine Claude, which is 

 a yellowish-green plum; but its great merit as a culinary variety 

 and its established reputation save it from the general condemnation 

 of plums of that class. There is also an exception in the small Dam- 

 son plums, which are highly esteemed in some markets for culinary 

 purposes. 



It would be impossible to give any list of varieties which would 

 be adapted to any particular orchard. The question of varieties is 

 very largely a personal one. Very much depends upon what ideal 

 the grower has in his mind, and also upon his soil and location and 

 the like. Amongst the plums which can be most confidently recom- 

 mended for the latitude of New York are the following: Field, 

 Bradshaw, Coe's Golden Drop, Hudson River Purple Egg. Italian 

 Prune, Empire, Grand Duke, Arch Duke, Monarch, Gueii, Peter's 

 Yellow Gage, Reine Claude and Copper. Amongst the Damsons, the 

 French and the Farleigh are perhaps the best. The Japanese plums 

 recommended are the Red June, Abundance, Burbank and Chase. 

 So far as known, the domestica and Japanese plums are self-fertile, 

 but it is always the safest course to plant varieties in alternate rows. 

 (Cornell E. S. B. 131.) 



Marketing. Plums are apt to overbear so that the fruit runs too 

 small for the best market price. Some plums habitually set many 

 times as much fruit as they should ripen. Even when such trees are 

 heavily manured the trees are short-lived. The market is becoming 

 more discriminating every year as to size and quality of fruit so 

 that the man who has a few trees well cared for will realize a better 

 price than one who raises more than he can take care of properly. 

 Thinning is done as soon as possible after the June crop. This ques- 



