FRUIT-GARDENING. 177 



with cart-loads in such a chilly, shady, and blighty country as 

 England ? " 



I would answer this query by informing the reader that the 

 inhabitants of our parent country, with a view to derive the 

 full benefit of the sun's rays for the cultivation of Plums, 

 Peaches, Nectarines, and such other fruit as require extra heat, 

 train their trees against walls, fences, or trellis-work ; and from 

 their having these means of support, gardeners have no induce- 

 ment to plant them deeper than is necessary ; whereas, from 

 the circumstance of the American climate being sufficiently 

 warm to ripen those fruits on standard trees, they are generally 

 so cultivated. Many persons, to save the trouble of staking 

 or otherwise supporting their trees, plant them too deep, and 

 thus defeat the operations of nature. That this is a prevalent 

 error has been shown in the articles Nectarine and Peach, to 

 which the reader is referred for a more concise view of the sub- 

 ject. 



New varieties of the Plum are produced from seed ; and the 

 old kinds are generally propagated by budding on stocks of 

 free-growing Plums, in preference to grafting, because Plum- 

 trees are very apt to gum wherever large wounds are made in 

 them. All the sorts produce their fruit on small natural spurs 

 rising at the ends and along the sides of the bearing shoots of 

 one, two, or three years' growth. In most sorts, new fruit 

 branches are two years old before the spurs bear. The same 

 branches and spurs continue fruitful, in proportion to the time 

 which they take to come into bearing. 



After the formation of the head is begun, it takes from two 

 to six years before the different sorts come into bearing. Stand- 

 ards must be allowed to expand in free growth, occasionally 

 pruning long ramblers and irregular cross branches. In annual 

 pruning, thin crowded parts, cut away worn-out bearers, and 

 all decayed and cankery wood. The Plum may be cultivated 

 in small gardens, trained as an espalier, or to a close fence, like 

 the Apricot. The tree is of further use than for its fruit as a 



dessert. The bark dyes yellow ; the wood is used by turners ; 



8* 



