THE PLUMS OF NEW YORK. 123 



picked is best handled at this stage of maturity and the brown-rot fungus 

 is likely to destroy much of the crop if left until fully matured. Some 

 of the Triflora sorts, Abundance, Burbank and October, for example, 

 are picked from a week to ten days before ripe and yet develop very good 

 color and flavor. The Domesticas need not be, and are not, picked quite 

 so green. In picking, great diversity exists as to ladders, receptacles, and 

 manner of conveyance from orchard to packing house. These need not 

 be discussed here, nor need the methods of picking be spoken of further 

 than to say that while good growers consider it vital not to bruise the 

 fruit nor destroy the delicate bloom, if such injuries can be avoided, 

 pickers in general are not nearly as observant of these important details 

 as they should be. 



The plum crop is sent to market, for most part in New York, in six, 

 eight and ten-pound grape baskets with the preference at present for the 

 smallest of these baskets. Occasionally some fruit is packed in four pound 

 baskets. Rarely, and always to the disadvantage of both producer and 

 consumer, plums go to market in the packages in which the fruit is picked. 

 Indeed, it is seldom advantageous to pack the fruit in the field, it being 

 far better to convey it to the packing house where the preparations for 

 shipping may be more carefully made, as the package and the manner of 

 packing advertise the product. Plums coming to this State from the far 

 West are often wrapped individually in tissue paper as a help in safe ship- 

 ping and to add to their attractiveness but the fruit grown in the State 

 is seldom, if ever, so treated, though it is possible that choice specimens 

 could be profitably wrapped. Of the sorting, grading, facing and marking 

 the packages, little need be said except that they are too rarely well done 

 in present methods, though there is a steady improvement in attending 

 to these important matters. 



Few plums are stored longer than a week at most in common 

 storage and three weeks or a month is quite the limit for most varieties 

 in cold storage. Late plums and in particular some of the prunes might 

 well be stored longer than is now the custom if proper precautions are 

 taken, as is shown by the experience at this Station where a considerable 

 number of the Domestica and Insititia varieties are annually kept in com- 

 mon storage for a month or longer without unusual precautions. Some 

 of the new varieties offered to growers, as Apple and Occident, are recom- 

 mended as keeping for several weeks after picking. There is a most marked 

 difference in the keeping qualities of this fruit and it is certain that varie- 



