380 



The Goose. 



Vol. XII 



leaves in a basket. When the baskets are 

 filled, without tlie plums touching each 

 other, they are removed to the fruit room, 

 where they are left for two or three days 

 exposed to the sun and air; after which, the 

 same process is employed as for the others; 

 and in this way the delicate bloom is retained 

 on the fruit, even when quite dry. 



The plum is usually propag-ated in this 

 country by sowintj the seeds of any common 

 free ijrowinff variety, — avoiding the damsons 

 which are not readily worked, — and budding 

 them when two years old, with the finer 

 sorts. The stones should be planted as soon 

 as igathered, in broad drills, — as in planting 

 peas, — but about an inch and a half deep. 

 In good soil the seedlinfjs will reach eighteen 

 inches or two feet in height the next season, 

 and in the autumn or the ensuing spring, 

 they may be taken from the seed beds, their 

 tap roots reduced, and all that are of suitable 

 size, planted at once in the nursery rows, 

 the smaller ones being thickly bedded until 

 after another season's growth. 



The stocks planted out in the nursery 

 will, ordinarily, be ready for working about 

 the ensuing midsummer, and, as the plum is 

 quite difficult to bud in this dry climate, if 

 the exact season is not chosen, the budder 

 must watch the condition of the trees, and 

 insert his buds as early as they are suffici- 

 ently firm, — say, in this neighbourhood, about 

 the 10th of July. Insert the buds, if possi- 

 ble, on the north side of the stock, that being 

 more protected from the sun, and tie the 

 bandage rather more tightly than for other 

 trees. 



The English propairate very largely by 

 layers, tiiree varieties of the common plum — 

 the Muscle, the Brussels and the Pear plum, 

 which are almost exclusively employed for 

 stocks with them. But we have not found 

 these stocks superior to the seedlings raised 

 from our common plums, — the Blue Gage, 

 Horse-plum, &c., — so abundant in all our 

 gardens. For dwarfing, the seedlings of the 

 Mirabelle are chiefly employed. 



Open standard culture is the universal 

 mode in America, as the plum is one of the 

 hardiest of fruit trees. It requires little or 

 no pruning, beyond that of thinning out a 

 crowded head, or taking away decayed or 

 broken branches, and this should be done 

 before midsummer, to prevent the flow of 

 gum. Old trees that have become barren, 

 may be renovated by heading them in pretty 

 severely, covering the wounds with our so- 

 lution of gum shellac, and giving them a 

 good top dressing at tlie roots. 



The plum will grow vigorously in almost 

 every part of this country, but it only bears 

 its finest and most abundant crops in heavy 



loams, or in soils in which there is a consi- 

 derable mixture of clay. In sandy .soils, the 

 tree blossoms and sets plentiful crops, but 

 they are rarely perfected, falling a prey to 

 the curculio, an insect that harbours in the 

 soil, and seems to find it difficult to pene- 

 trate or live in one of a heavy texture, while 

 a warm, light, sandy soil, is exceedingly fa- 

 vourable to its propagation. It is also, un- 

 doubtedly true, that a heavy soil is naturally 

 the most favourable one. The surprising 

 facility with which superior new varietie.s 

 are raised merely by ordinary reproduction 

 from seed, in certain parts of the valley of 

 the Hudson, as at Hudson, or near Albany, 

 where the soil is quite clayey, and also the 

 delicious flavor and great productiveness and 

 health of the plum tree there almost without 

 any care, while in adjacent districts of rich 

 sandy land it is a very uncertain bearer, are 

 very convincing proofs of the great import- 

 ance of clayey soil for this fruit. 



Where the whole soil of a place is light 

 and sandy, we would recommend the em- 

 ployment of pure yellow loam or yellow clay, 

 in the place of manure, when preparing the 

 border or spaces for planting the plum. Very 

 heavy clay, burned slowly by mixing it in 

 large heaps with brush or faggots, is at once 

 an admirable manure and alterative for such 

 soils. Swamp muck is also one of the best 

 substances, and especially that from salt wa- 

 ter marshes. 



Common salt we have found one of the 

 best fertilizers for the plum tree. It not 

 only greatly promotes its health and luxuri- 

 ance, but from the dislike which most insects 

 have to this substance, it drives away or de- 

 stroys most of those to which the plum is 

 liable. The most successful plum grower 

 in our neighbourhood applies, with the best 

 results, half a peck of coarse salt to the sur- 

 face of the ground under each bearing tree, 

 annually, about the first of K^xW.—Down- 

 insT's Fruit Trees. 



The Goose. 



In Willoughby's Ornithology we find the 

 following striking anecdote: "The following 

 account of a Canada goose is so extraordina- 

 ry, that I am aware it would with difficulty 

 gain credit, were not a whole parish able to 

 vouch for the truth of it. The Canada geese 

 are not fond of a poultry-yard, but are rather 

 of a rambling disposition. Oneof these birds, 

 however, was observed to attach itself in the 

 strongest and most affectionate manner to the 

 house-dog, and would never quit the kennel 

 except for the purpose of feeding, when it 

 would return again immediately. It always 

 sat by the dog, but never presumed to go 



