Improvement of the Amative Plum. 1 39 



the lots or on the avenues, and all iron fences, are prohibited. Many 

 of the structures here are of the most expensive character ; one belonging 

 to the Dexter family costing seventy-five thousand dollars. This is in 

 the Gothic style, with chapel above, and columbaria below. Near by 

 are the pillars erected in memory of our old associates, Nicholas Long- 

 worth and A. H. Ernst. The grounds of Spring-grove Cemetery are 

 laid down to a closely-kept verdant lawn, over which the eye may roam 

 unobstructed, save where it rests on elegant monuments and ornamental 

 trees, — no cumbrous stone division-lines, no fantastic fences. How ap- 

 propriate these resting-places for the loved and lost ones of earth ! How 

 touching these monuments to departed friends ! How beautiful these grace- 

 ful trees, weeping responsively over them ! How soft the Kentucky blue- 

 grass, under which so calmly reposes the weary, way-worn traveller of life ! 



Marshall P. Wilder. 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE NATIVE PLUM. 



It has long been evident to intelligent horticulturists that the cultivated 

 plum of our gardens {Prunus domesfica), which is a native of Southern 

 Russia, the Himalayas, Caucasus, and many parts of Europe and Asia, has 

 ceased to be of much if any value in most parts of the United States ; not 

 so much on account of the unsuitableness of the climate as that its insect 

 enemies have become so numerous that most of the fruit is destroyed be- 

 fore it matures, and the trees are either killed, or so badly injured that they 

 produce worthless fruit. 



While the borer {yEgeria exitosa) bores into its trunk or roots, sapping 

 the life or health of the tree, and the slug i^Blennocampa cerasi) feeds 

 upon its leaves, the more destructive curculio {RhynchcEnus conotrachelus 

 nenuphar) attacks the young fruit, and causes it to fall prematurely to the 

 ground. So thoroughly does the little Turk accomplish his work, that, in 

 large districts of country, a perfect, mature plum is rarely seen. 



Many remedies have been proposed for this insect evil, and many devices 

 contrived to circumvent the insidious foe. I do not now propose dis- 



