174 THE SMALL COUNTRY PLACE 



As the trees grow older, thinning out of the old wood 

 will be needed to encourage young and vigorous shoots, 

 which are necessary for the production of large and fine 

 fruit. 



In quality the fruit of the best varieties of this group 

 is much superior to that of the Japanese or American 

 varieties, and when well grown sells readily at good 

 prices. Many insects and fungous diseases attack the 

 European plums, and constant attention needs to be 

 given them to save the fruit and the tree from serious 

 injury. 



Insects. 



The tree is attacked by the peach borer, which was 

 described under the Peach (page 167), and the plum cur- 

 culio often causes all of the fruit to fall before it is ripe. 

 This pest attacks the fruit, making a crescent-shaped 

 cut in the skin, laying an egg in each cut. The larva 

 works its way into the fruit and feeds until it is about 

 three-eighths of an inch in length, causing the fruit to 

 fall, when it enters the ground and makes a cocoon of 

 soil, from which it emerges the 'next season. Two 

 methods are employed to destroy this pest: first, by 

 spreading a sheet under the branches and giving the 

 branches a sudden jarring by striking with a padded 

 mallet or hammer, when the insects will loose their hold 

 and fall to the sheet. In the cool of the morning they are 

 so dormant that they will remain on the sheet until 

 brushed or shaken into a pail or put into the stove, 

 but in the middle of the day they will often fly into the 

 air after a few moments of feigning death. Where a 

 large number of trees are grown the sheet is mounted 

 upon a frame like an inverted umbrella on wheels, 

 which can be quickly moved from tree to tree and the 

 insects brushed into a basin in the centre of the frame. 



