AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 407 



THE PLUM. 



This is a pleasant and rather useful fruit, which every house- 

 keeper wishes to possess, but can not always secure, the varie- 

 ties which are in a- measure exempt from fatal disease or the de- 

 structive assaults of insects being so few that, in selecting this 

 fruit, we rather take what we can get than what we might de- 

 sire. 



Many different varieties of this fruit are dried, and become 

 articles of commerce in the form of prunes, prunelles (that is, 

 prunes skinned and pitted), and common dried plums. 



Plums may be planted at the distance of ten or twelve feet 

 each way ; and wherever they can be raised successfully, or in 

 particular seasons when the fruit is perfected, they constitute 

 a profitable market crop. 



The trees should be carefully planted while quite young, and 

 the head properly formed and balanced by both winter and 

 summer pruning, many of the varieties having a natural tend- 

 ency to long growth, which carries the fruit out of reach if 

 pruning is neglected. 



A strong loam or a clay soil is thought best suited to plum- 

 trees, although they will grow thriftily even in very light soils ; 

 and it may be that a heavy cold clay soil is rather specially 

 unfavorable to the insects which injure them than directly fa- 

 vorable to the fruit. 



SELECT LIST OF PLUMS 



Numbered nearly in the order in which they will be found to 

 ripen in any given soil and latitude. 



The ordinary time of their ripening at New York accompa- 

 nies the figure and following description. Those marked with 

 a star are green or yellow. 



1. Ottoman. 

 *2. Hudson Gage. 



3. Peach. 



4. Duane's Purple. 



5. Schenectady. 

 *6. M'Laughlin. 

 *7. Green Gage. 



*8. Lawrence's Favorite. 

 *9. Washington. 

 10. Lombard. 

 *11. Bleecker's Gage. 



12. Smith's Orleans. 



13. Cruger's Scarlet. 



14. Columbian Gage. 



