PLUMS : THEIR CULTIVATION AND VARIETIES. 103 



afterwards the eureulio came, and not only destroyed the plum 

 crop, but caused apples to drop and left its mark on pears. They 

 are now gone, however. 



E. W. Wood had hoped the essayist would be able to tell us 

 how to get rid of the black wart, the greatest enemj^ to the plum 

 tree. For some years after he joined the Society he hardly saw a 

 dish of plums shown, but after that Mr. Butcher of Hopedale 

 exhibited collections of twenty or more varieties, and later the 

 speaker visited his grounds, where he found half an acre planted 

 with plums and enclosed with a wire fence to confine hens therein. 

 The hens destroyed the curculios, but the black warts had come in 

 to such an extent that the trees were much cut and mangled to get 

 rid of them, and some were reduced to mere stumps. Mr. Moore's 

 experience at Concord was the same, and now the speaker does 

 not know of any considerable plantation. If we could only get 

 rid of that one disease, the plum would be one of tlie most profit- 

 able fruits. It is still grotvn extensively in the Hudson River 

 Valle}'. Experiments are being made at the Agricultural College 

 with liquid applications to destroy the black wart, on which they 

 are not yet ready to report. Where it is not convenient to jar 

 trees, Mr. Wood approved of enclosing the plum orchard and 

 putting in hens to destroy the eureulio. 



Mr. Hyde said that he could not count upon more than two or 

 three good crops of plums before the trees will be rendered worth- 

 less by the black warts, as you cannot count upon more than 

 one or two crops from a peach orchard. But he had headed in 

 his plum trees when they had become badly infested with the 

 warts ; the trees then sent out a new growth and he got altogether 

 five or six crops. The warts come more upon some trees than 

 others. His trees are now six years old from the bud, and he has 

 had a growth in one season of five, seven, and even nine feet. 

 He sold Bradshaws for eight dollars per bushel, and a hundred 

 dollars' worth from sixty or seventy trees on a piece of ground 

 about one hundred feet by two hundred. Some varieties are more 

 inclined to rot than others. If intended for market the fruit must 

 not be allowed to get too ripe. Everybody is attracted by beauty, 

 and large, handsome plums sell best. He wished it understood, 

 first, that plum trees must have a suitable soil — a heavy stiff 

 soil is the best ; and, second, that we must fight the eureulio, 

 which has not yet disappeared. Hens are a partial preventive. 



