30 FACT NUMBER TWO. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE PLUM TREE. 



FACT NUMBER TWO. 



Section I. 



FORMATION OF THE BLACK BUNCH. 



The Plum is a beautiful and delicious fruit. Some kinds 

 are known to be of very high antiquity, and have long been 

 esteemed, in all civilized countries, as a choice table dish, as 

 a rich preserve, and as applicable to many other delicate pur- 

 poses of food. Many kinds of plum trees grow richly in 

 nearly almost all parts of our country, and great pains have 

 been taken to bring the fruit to some good degree of perfec- 

 tion, but for the most part the success has been very limited. 



For the last forty or fifty years, the tree, in the old settled 

 parts of the Union, especially, has encountered almost insu- 

 perable difficulties, and these have really discouraged thous- 

 ands even from attempting to cultivate the fruit. The most 

 formidable of these evils is a species of Black Rot which 

 invariably induces premature decay. From this cause the 

 fruit has not only been poor in point of quality, but the sup- 

 ply has been scanty and uncertain. 



One special design of this little work, is to trace out the 

 cause of this Black Rot, or Black Bunch, as it is called, — 

 the foundation of the Decay, and thus provide a remedy by 

 which the rot, and the evils resulting from it, may be avoid- 



