1692 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



Plants 



«tt.i 60ft J8 



42tt X 42ft 24 



42ft.x 4Sft 21 



42ft.x 54ft }9 



42ft.x soft ll 



48ft.i 4Stt ;^ 



48ft. I 54ft 1^ 



48ft. X 60ft |'2 



SOft.x 50ft ]l 



50 ft. X 54 ft '; 



SOft.x 60ft J^ 



54ft.i 54ft J 



54ft.x 60ft ';; 



60ft.x 60ft '^ 



70ft.x 70ft ° 



80 ft I SO ft ° 



90 ft. X 90 ft ^ 



100 ft. X 100 ft •• 



(Bailey's Rule Book. pp. 117, 119 ) 



Plant Food Requirements. See Soils. 



Hungarian Prune 



Yellow Egg Plum 



Plums 



♦The plum belongs to the general genus 

 Prunus. which also Includes prunes, 

 peaches, apricots, almonds and cherries. 

 Numerous species of plums grow wild in 

 the north temperate zone in both the 

 Eastern and Western hemispheres. There 

 is probably greater variation in the spe- 

 cies of plums than in any other of the 

 wild fruits, there being over 100 distinct 

 varieties found north of the equator. 



Of all the stone fruits, plums furnish 

 the greatest diversity of kinds. Varieties 

 to the number of 2,000, from 15 species, 

 are now or have been under cultivation. 

 These varieties give a greater range of 

 flavor, aroma, texture, color, form and 

 size — the qualities which gratify the 

 senses and make fruits desirable— than 

 any other of our orchard fruits. The 

 trees are greatly varied in structure, 



• Plums of New York. 



some of the plums being shrubs with 

 slender branches; some species have thin 

 delicate leaves and others coarse heavy 

 foliage. In geographical distribution, 

 both the wild and the cultivated plum 

 encircle the globe in the north temperate 

 zone, and the cultivated varieties are com- 

 mon in the countries of the Southern 

 hemisphere. 



The great varieties of plums and the 

 variability of the kinds, seemingly plastic 

 in all characters, the general distribution 

 of the fruit throughout the zone in which 

 is carried on the greatest part of the 

 world's agriculture, and the adaptation 

 of the several species and the many va- 

 rieties to topographical, soil and climate 

 changes, make this fruit one of much 

 present importance and one of great 

 capacity for further development. 



Plum Culture 

 Propagration 



Since plums do not come true from the 

 seed, the usual method of propagation is 

 by grafting upon root stalks. The plum 

 can be successfully grown on a variety of 

 stocks, and for this reason the practices 

 of nurserymen differ, depending upon the 

 cost of the stocks and their adaptability 

 for the purpose. 



In the North Atlantic states and New 

 England the myrobalan is the almost uni- 

 versal choice, except for the Japanese 

 sorts, which are worked upon peach roots, 

 especially for sandy soils. This seems to 

 be the practice in the Atlantic states 

 southward to the Gulf, except that the 

 peach is more nearly the favorite. J. W. 

 Kerr (Plums of New York, page 115) says 

 that there are a great many varieties of 

 the Domesticas that refuse to unite firmly 

 with the peach. For these the marianna 

 or the myrobalan give best results. For 

 all of the Japanese plums the peach has 

 proved most satisfactory, when the trees 

 are propagated by root grafting on the 

 whole-root plan. 



On the Pacific coast the myrobalan and 

 peach are used in about equal quantities, 

 the first named for heavy soil and the 

 latter for the lighter soils. The native 

 jjlums are not grown in this region. 



