THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 113 



above writers hold, are best cross-pollinated by varieties from the same 

 srjecies if cross-pollination is essential. 



The subject cannot be closed without the expression of the opinion 

 that the lack of cross-pollination as a cause of the uncertainties in the 

 setting of fruit has been over estimated in the planting of plum orchards. 

 This expression of doubt is made because there are serious disadvantages 

 in the planting of mixed orchards of any fruit and the question as to whether 

 these do not outweigh the advantages must ever be considered. 



LOCATIONS AND SOILS FOR PLUMS. 



The plum is comparatively easy to suit in the matter of location of 

 orchards, as is shown by the exceedingly wide range of this fruit in New 

 York. Plums are grown with eminent success on the elevated and sloping 

 lands adjoining the Great Lakes, the Central Lakes of western New York 

 and on both banks of the Hudson. Unquestionably there are many other 

 localities than those named about the waterways of the State and also 

 upon the elevated lands in the western interior formed by morainic hills, 

 and upon the slopes of the mountains in eastern New York. Upon any 

 land in the State suited to general farm crops, where the severity of winter 

 is tempered by the lay of the land or proximity to water, and where late 

 spring frosts are infrequent, plums may be grown. The early blooming 

 plums, the Trifloras in particular, require more or less consideration as to 

 the slope of land, a northern exposure to retard blooming-time being best. 

 With other species the direction of the slope makes little difference, though 

 a slope for air and water drainage is always better than a dead level. 



The plum is now thriving in New York, and in the country at large, 

 in a great diversity of soils. The chief requisite for the genus in general 

 seems to be good drainage. Given this condition, some sort of plums 

 can be grown on almost any soil found in America not wholly prohibitive 

 of plant growth. Plums can be found which will stand rather more water 

 than any other of the tree-fruits, and since plums can be grafted on several 

 stocks, each having its own adaptation to soils, the adaptability of the 

 genus is still further increased. Yet the several species have somewhat 

 decided soil preferences. 



The Domesticas and Insititias, the plums now almost exclusively 

 grown in New York, grow most satisfactorily, all things considered, on 

 rich clay loams. The plum orchards in this State on such soils contain 

 the largest and most productive trees and produce the choicest fruit from 



