856 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



Aug. 



BLEECKEK'S GAGE PLUM. 



What is the use of tantalizing us with cuts 

 of plums, -when everybody knows that the cur- 

 culio destroys all the fruit, and the black knot 

 all the trees ? may be asked by the readers 

 of the Fakmkr, as their eyes fall on the above 

 illustration while unfolding its broad sheet. 

 We are aware of the dlfliculties which for 

 many years have discouraged the most careful 

 and intelligent cultivators of this fruit in most 

 parts of our country, but we believe that this 

 seeming triumph of insects and disease is but 

 temporary. When we think of our agricultu- 

 ral colleges, of our pomological associations, 

 of our scientific men and of our skilful gar- 

 deners, we must believe that eventually the 

 battle will be to the strong, the swift, and the 

 industrious. Every insect and every disorder, 

 like every <log, may have its day, but to man 

 belongs the "dominion," and he will resume 

 the sceptre and rule, as he should, "over the 

 earth, and over every creeping thing that 



•creepeth upon the earth." This we hold is 

 our "manifest destiny." Our wheat is not to 

 be given up to the weevil ; our potatoes are 

 not to be abandoned to the rot or the Colora- 

 do bug ; nor is the cureulio to have and to 

 hold all the right, tiHe and usufi-uct of the 

 thirty-six different varieties of the plum re- 

 commended in the catalogue of the American 

 Pomological Society, noticed in another col- 

 ume. 



In this faith we present the above beautiful 

 engraving of fruit raised by IMr. II. P. Wis- 

 wall, of ^larlborough, Mass., and believe that 

 the reader will agree wi;h us in pronouncing 

 the illustration a beautiful workof art, however 

 faint-hearted he may be as to the possibility of 

 re-producing its original. 



Downing says it is a "fruit of the first qual- 

 ity ; remarkably hardy, and a good and regu- 

 lar bearer. It was raised by the late ]\Irs. 

 Bleecker, of Albany, about thirty years ago, 



