

VALUE OF HYBRID PLUMS 



311 



Still it must be admitted that prune planting in the interior, 

 proceeding with such rapidity, has encountered some soils and 

 situations in which bearing has not been altogether satisfactory. 

 New planters should confer with older residents before making 

 investments in prune planting in interior valleys and foot-hills. 



All the foregoing observations are based upon the behavior 

 of plums of European origin; descendants of the prunus domestica. 

 One of the grandest contributions to the extension of the range 

 of the plum in California was the introduction of the Asiatic species, 

 prunus triflora and simoni. Varieties of these species directly intro- 

 duced or locally developed by Burbank and others, have proved 

 productive in places where the domestica varieties were abandoned 

 as shy or sterile. To estimate the value of these varieties one has 

 only to visit the home fruit gardens of southern California or in- 

 spect the fruit-stands of Los Angeles which are continuous exhibits 

 of fine specimens of these varieties in their seasons. Even in places 

 where the domestica varieties are largely grown the Asiatic vari- 

 eties are also prominent as is shown by the fact that the Wickson, a 

 Burbank triflora-simoni hybrid, is the leading shipping plum of 

 California, and shipping plums are chiefly grown in the central and 

 northern regions of the State. Other notable Burbank plums of 

 recent introduction will be included in the descriptions of varieties 

 at the close of this chapter. 



SOILS AND STOCKS FOR THE PLUM 



With the plum, as with the apricot, the subject of soils and 

 stocks are intimately related, but the whole matter has been won- 

 derfully simplified by the experience of the last few years. This 

 relief has come through the adoption of the myrobalan, or cherry 

 plum (Primus myrobalana) as a general all-around stock for plums 

 and prunes. Before this practice was taken up the effort to grow 

 the plum on its own roots generally resulted in getting an orchard 

 full of suckers, and to avoid this, plums were worked on peach 

 roots wherever this root would succeed in the soil to be planted. 

 But some varieties of plums do not take kindly to the peach, and 

 then "double working" (putting first on the peach a plum which 

 is known to take well and then on that plum wood the variety 

 desired) was followed. The use of the myrobalan does away with 

 the suckering nuisance and the need of double working. 



There was considerable discussion a few years ago as to what 

 is the true myrobalan, and it must be acknowledged that some of 

 the refined distinctions formerly claimed have been abandoned. 

 Seedlings grown from the seed of the myrobalan vary as do other 

 fruit seedlings, both in fruit and in foliage and habit of trees, and 

 perhaps this fact has given rise to the distinction between "true" 

 and "false" myrobalan, so called. Practice has proceeded without 



