PLUM 
The miner-like varieties are hardly to be distin- 
ished from the Americanas in any way. They have 
practically the same geographical range, and may be 
given the same treatment in the orchard. 
The Wayland group includes several varieties of 
great value, especially for the South. Of these way- 
land, Golden Beauty, Moreman, Benson, and Kanawha 
may be mentioned. They are not to be recommended 
generally for localities north of Massachusetts and Ne- 
braska, their northern limit being determined less by 
their non-hardiness than by the very late ripening. This 
habit of late ripening, combined with very late bloom- 
ing, makes them desirable for late marketing, particu- 
larly in southern markets. They are very prolific and 
constant bearers. The trees are free-growing, usually 
of rather spreading habit, and will bear heading-back 
better than the Americanas. The pruning knife, if used 
in season and with good judgment, will assist in mak- 
ing comparatively open-headed and amiable trees of 
these varieties. 
The Wild Goose group includes varieties like Wild 
Goose, Milton, Wooton, and whitaker, specially adapted 
to the latitude of Maryland, Kentucky and Kansas. The 
same varieties succeed only less well southward; but 
are not generally valuable to the north of this line. For 
the section named, the varieties of this class have un- 
questionably been the most profitable Plums grown up 
to the present time. They are propagated chietly on 
peach, Marianna and Myrobalan. These stocks are all 
fairly satisfactory, though not equally good for all va- 
rieties; but when peach stocks are used the union 
should be made by whip-grafting on the peach root. 
Otherwise the peach stock comes above the ground and 
is a prey to the peach borer. The trees are mostly 
rapid, willowy, rather zigzag growers; and are amena- 
ble to the pruning knife in about the same degree as 
the wayland-like varieties already mentioned. Whit- 
aker makes an open-headed tree without much trouble. 
So does Sophie. Wild Goose is more inclined to be thick 
and thorny in the top, but may be thinned carefully to 
make an accessible head. Milton is much like Wild 
Goose. Wooton makes a fine vase-form top, which, with 
a. little timely pruning, is almost ideal. Wilder, James 
Vick, and some others, are prone to make thick, bushy, 
thorny tops, and are hard to manage. These varieties 
are all considerably subject to shot-hole fungus, which 
often strips them of their foliage in midsummer. They 
are mostly thin-skinned and liable to crack at ripening 
time, especially if the Weather is wet. They should be 
picked rather green for shipment, the point to be ob- 
served being that they have attained their full size, 
rather than that they are dead ripe. 
The Chicasaw varieties are very effective pollinizers 
for all the Wild Goose and Japanese varieties blooming 
at the same time; but very few of them have sufficient 
value in themselves to make them profitable orchard 
trees. A few varieties, like munson and McCartney, 
are still planted for their own fruit; but in general 
they have been displaced by other types of Plums. The 
trees are mostly bushy, thorny and thick-topped, some- 
times so thick and thorny that the blackbirds can 
hardly get in to steal the fruit. It is difficult to prune 
them enough to make really satisfactory trees. The 
Chicasaw Plums are specially adapted to the southern 
states, though Pottawattamie, an exceptionally hardy 
variety, succeeds as far north as southern Iowa and 
central Vermont. They propagate readily on any kind 
of stocks. 
Other types of native Plums, such as the Sand Plum, 
the Beach Plum, the Pacific Plum, etc., are not suffi- 
ciently numerous in cultivation for their treatment to 
have been determined. 
Hybrid Plums of various strains are now beginning 
to come to the fore. Most of these hybrid varieties 
resemble rather strongly one or the other of their par- 
ent species; and the best that can be said regarding 
their culture at this early day is that they may be safely 
treated like the varieties which they most closely re- 
semble. wickson, President and perhaps Climax, with 
some others, resemble the Simon Plum, and ought to 
have much the same treatment, that is, practically the 
same treatment as the Japanese varieties. Gonzales, 
Excelsior, Golden and Juicy, on the other hand, resem- 
87 
1375 
ble the Wild Goose type, and may have the same general 
treatment as Wild Goose. 
All the native Plums, with very unimportant excep- 
tions, require cross-pollination. For the most part, 
however, they are fully inter-fertile, so that a given va- 
riety will pollinate any other variety, providing the two 
bloom at the same time. Simultaneous blooming is of 
chief importance in adjusting varieties to one another 
for cross-pollination. To determine which varieties 
bloom together, careful observations should be made in 
the orchard and recorded, or recourse must be had to 
the published tables. Pollination is effected chiefly, 
if not exclusively, by the bees, so that their presence 
should be encouraged. 
Most of the native Plums make comparatively small 
trees, so that they may be set somewhat close together 
in orchard-planting, say 12 to 20 feet apart, usually 
about 15 feet. Some varieties, particularly in the 
South, need 20-30 ft. space. Putting a Plum orchard 
down to grass is not admissible under any circum- 
stances; but cultivation should cease with the first of 
July, or certainly by the middle of July; for the native 
Plums are especially liable to make too much late sum- 
mer growth. High manuring of the soil is not usually 
necessary, or even desirable: yet something consider- 
ably short of starvation will be found the best treat- 
ment for native Plums. F. A. waugh. 
THE PLUM IN CALIFORNIA. - The cultivation of the 
Plum in California differs widely from that in the 
other plum-producing sections of the U. S. Here 
the dreaded curculio is unknown, and while the equally 
dangerous black-knot has been found infesting a 
native wild cherry ( P. demissa ) it has never been 
observed in cultivated orchards. The former has been 
kept out by rigid inspection and quarantine regula- 
tions, and the latter is undoubtedly held in check by 
the existing climatic conditions-excessive dryness be- 
ing unfavorable to its development. Here, "then, the 
most delicate varieties of the Old world find a very 
congenial home, and therefore, unlike the prevailing 
custom of much of the eastern Plum-growing, form the 
basis of practically all orchard planting. In early min- 
ing days the California native Plum (prunus subcor- 
data) was frequently cultivated, and before the introduc- 
tion of European standard varieties attempts were made 
to improve the fruit by the usual methods of selection. 
Some very promising results were obtained; but since 
the demonstration of the great success of the more 
delicate and higher-flavored varieties, there has been 
little incentive to the use of the native species. There 
are two varieties, the type being a low shrub, rarely 
over 3 ft. high, branching from the ground; the fruit 
oblong, about 3/4 in. long, "almost the shape and color 
of a Damson when ripe," but the pulp is described as 
"inferior." The other variety (kelloggii) forms a larger 
shrub, from 10 to 15 ft. high, with larger fruit, round, 
yellowish in color and much more acceptable, both for 
eating and preserving. The two varieties are usually 
found associated, "growing in patches at the heads of 
ravines, on rocky hillsides and in open woods." The 
larger variety is not so widely distributed, and seems 
to have reached its highest state of perfection in the 
Sierras, where (in Sierra county) it is still preferred in 
the local markets, and where, it is said, the imported 
varieties "do not pay for the picking." 
with the Plum fruits might also be mentioned the 
"oso berry," or so-called "California false Plum" " (nut- 
tallia cerasiformis), a shrub sometimes 15 ft. high, and 
found "in moist places and the north sides of hills 
from San Luis Obispo northward." The bark is 
smooth, much resembling that of the Plum or cherry; 
the fruit is plum-like, pulpy, when ripe covered with a 
deep blue bloom, handsome in appearance, and has 
been used in the kitchen for making pies, preserves, 
and the like, though it is rather bitter to the taste. So 
far as known, no attempts have been made to improve 
it by cultivation. 
It seems hardly fair to make a distinction between 
"Plums" and "prunes" in discussing this subject from 
the California standpoint. With the exception of the 
differences in the preparation for market, what may 
be said of the Plum applies as well to the prune; for 
a prune is simply a Plum which dries sweet without 
