THE PLUM. 195 



Beeville, in Southwest Texas, and only last week in Beau- 

 mont, on the east, where two orchards on Marianna, seven 

 years old, had died the past summer. The same experience 

 has been related by Mr. J. W. Steubenrauch, of Mexia, 

 Texas, one of the most successful orchardists of North Texas, 

 and also by several growers in Tyler, the greatest fruit center 

 in the state, while similar reports come from Louisiana and 

 east of the Mississippi. It may, therefore, be set down as 

 proved beyond all doubt that this stock is unsuited and un- 

 congenial to the Japan race of plums. In a recent letter, 

 Mr. Luther Burbank tells me that it is also of doubtful value 

 in California. Several nurserymen of East Texas are now 

 propagating the Japan plums on the common wild plum of 

 this state, the Prunus Americana, and claim that it is well 

 suited to them. I have had some experience with that plum, 

 and so far it seems to dwarf whatever was put upon it even 

 more than the Myrobalan. However, as there are a great 

 number of different seedlings of this species, some differing 

 considerably from others, they may have one better suited 

 than mine. I have seen some seedlings in the woods near 

 Beaumont that suckered badly, though others do not. As it 

 has been only recently that experience has shown the want of 

 congeniality of the Marianna and Japan plums, it is doubtful 

 whether there are trees of the latter race more than five or 

 six years old on the Americana stock, so it is entirely un- 

 settled yet how they will ultimately succeed, and assertions 

 of interested parties must be taken with great caution. 

 Enough money has been fooled away on the oriental plums 

 worked on Marianna to make people go very slow with this 

 new stock. On firm, well-drained ground, fertilized and 

 regularly mowed, but not plowed, I believe the peach is the 

 best stock for the Japan plums, unless the Myrobalan is supe- 

 rior. The latter is almost universally used in California and 

 France, and is said to be especially adapted for stiff soil and 

 damp ground, and is entirely successful as a stock in such 

 locations in California. I have heard no objection to this 

 stock, except that the Japan plums do not grow as fast on it 

 as on Marianna. This is no objection at all, if the trees live 



