204 POPULAR FRUIT GROWING. 



than the ordinary plum, which dries readily.) Some of the best 

 plum growers practice thinning the fruit. The time when the 

 different varieties come into bearing depends much on the pecul- 

 iarities of each sort. The different classes of plums usually 

 bear fruit in three years. 



Packing and Marketing. Plums are sold either in berry 

 boxes, in ten-pound baskets, or in special boxes or baskets. The 

 usual method of marketing Americana plums is in quart boxes 

 or in half-bushel or bushel baskets. Only the fancy fruit should 

 be put in boxes. The ten-pound grape basket is a common pack- 

 age in the East for the European varieties. Western plums and 

 prunes are usually shipped in small baskets or flat boxes, the 

 individual fruits often being wrapped in paper. 



Insects. The insects most injurious to the plum are the 

 Curculio, Peach Borer, Tent Caterpillar and Leaf Lice, which see 

 in chapter on Insects. 



The diseases especially injurious to the plum are Brown 

 Rot, Plum Pocket and Leaf Curl. Plum Knot and Shot Hole fun- 

 gus are discussed under the head of diseases. 



The varieties of the plum are many and various. In the 

 great plum growing sections of the Pacific Coast the principal 

 kinds grown are Burbank, Climax, Clyman, Satsuma, Wickson, 

 Yellow Egg, Grand Duke, Washington, Blue Damson. 



In the Northeastern states the principal varieties grown 

 are Lombard, Abundance, Wildgoose, Burbank. 



The varieties best adapted to Minnesota and the surround- 

 ing states are Wyant, De Soto, Wolf, Stoddard, Surprise, Cheney 

 and Forest Garden. 



Cherry. 



The cultivated kinds of cherries probably came from the 

 two species known botanically as Prunus avium and Prunus 

 cerasus,, both of which are natives of Europe and Asia, but in 

 the centuries in which they have been under cultivation they 

 have been crossed and recrossed until it is impossible to sep- 

 arate the varieties into their species. 



The Different Classes. The cultivated sorts are divided for 

 convenience into two classes: 



