24 A Pica for the Pliwi - Trees. 



hen-yard to plant our trees in, with infinite chickens to devour innumera- 

 ble curculios, our first point was to have our trees of a manageable size. 

 This we accomplished by planting dwarfs budded on the MirabeUe stock, 

 which accomplishes the same for the plum that the Paradise does for the 

 apple, or the Mahaleb for the cherry. 



Our first essay was a dozen trees two years from the bud ; for beauty of 

 form was an object, and we preferred to do the shaping ourselves. Prun- 

 ing the trees well in, we planted them ; and, by judicious pinching during 

 the first summer, we had, by the second spring, twelve small but shapely 

 trees. About the first of April, we treated each tree to a quart of salt, 

 such as the scrapings of beef-barrels, and threw a little of the brine over 

 the branches. The spores of black-wart were in the air, and we were un- 

 willing to allow them to find a suitable place for development on our pet 

 trees. 



As an additional precaution, we went all over the hedge-rows of the 

 estate, and cut down and burned all the wild plum and scrub-cherry trees, 

 many of which were masses of black-wart, that the spores might not fill 

 the air and find unwelcome lodgement. 



A second year's growth increased the beauty of the trees, which were 

 now of considerable size ; and autumn showed us a few fruit-spurs on 

 some of the larger trees. We had one case of black-wart on a tree which 

 was on richer soil than the others : it appeared on a small branch, and was 

 about as large as a pea. The treatment was, cutting it out with a sharp 

 knife, and an extra quart of salt at the roots of that tree. 



The next spring gave us a few blossoms. And now for enemy number 

 two, — the cheerful Turk, the curculio ! No sooner had the blossom faded 

 than we syringed the trees thoroughly, and dusted them with air-slacked 

 lime, so that they were perfectly white. This treatment was continued for 

 a month ; the lime being renewed after a rain, or if blown off by the wind. 

 We also jarred the trees morning and night, and waged a crusading war 

 of extermination. 



The result was, most of the plums escaped : some few, however, were 

 bitten ; and, unwilling to lose even these, with a fine penknife we removed 

 the egg. The wound healed, and the plum ripened. 



The result was, we had plums enough to show us that a few years would 



