CHAPTER VI. 



THE PLUM. 



RAISING THE YOUNG TREES. 



To obtain seedling stocks, which are always the 

 best, plum stones must be treated like those of 

 the peach. But as they are smaller, more care 

 is needed to prevent drying before they are put 

 into the ground. A part of them only vegetate the 

 first year. 



The plum is propagated both by budding and 

 grafting. If by the former, the stocks should be 

 in the most thrifty condition, and the work perform- 

 ed at the period of the most rapid growth. If by 

 the latter, it should be done early in spring, and 

 firm and well ripened wood chosen for the grafts. 



Plums are sometimes budded at the surface of 

 the ground into peach stocks. If the soil is after- 

 wards kept banked up round them ; and when they 

 are transplanted, if they are set some inches below 

 the place of union, they are found to grow and suc- 

 ceed finely. Large and productive trees are known, 

 thus propagated ; and the peach thus proves a good 

 substitute in the absence of plum stocks. 



