CHAPTER XVI. 



The Plum. 



UNTIL the introduction of the Japan varieties, the 

 South, especially the lower portion, bordering on the 

 Gulf of Mexico, has been altogether dependent upon 

 the native or Chickasaw varieties for her plums. I began 

 years ago to test the most prominent sorts, that are so de- 

 servedly popular in the Middle and Northern States. While 

 all are reasonably good growers here, they fail entirely in pro- 

 ductiveness. Occasionally a few fine specimens will reward 

 one's labor, but nothing more. Of the common sorts, the 

 Wild Goose, if pollenized with some other kind near by, will 

 produce good crops, and the Robinson, Indian Chief and 

 Golden Beauty, a small late plum, are all good bearers also, 

 though they fall far short of filling the bill as first-class mar- 

 ket plums. The skin of all is very thin and tender, and they 

 fall an easy prey to the vigorous attacks of the curculio, un- 

 less well sprayed with Paris green and lime water, or the lat- 

 ter alone, scented with a pint to the barrel of gas tar. But 

 with the introduction of the Japan varieties, a new era has 

 dawned upon plum culture in the Gulf States. Not only are 

 the members of this class proving early bearers, and exceed- 

 ingly productive as a rule, but their skin is thicker and, we 

 hope, less liable to damage by the curculio. We may, there- 

 fore, rest assured that at last we shall have, with moderate 

 spraying, fine, large, handsome market plums, perfectly 

 adapted to the South. But the all-important and as yet un- 

 settled problem is, Which are the most valuable varieties ? 

 The pictures and descriptions of all fruits contained therein 

 are so bewildering in their magnificence, and this class of 

 plums particularly, that one instinctively wants them all. 

 The first to flash across the sky of horticulture were the 

 Abundance and Botan, between which, if there is any real 



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