254 ECONOMIC PLANTS 



North America, and although the fruit is not of the 

 best quality, hybrids of this species with others have 

 produced some very promising varieties. 



Other species are the Chickasaw plum and the Wild 

 Goose plum, of which the Miner plum is a popular 

 variety. 



Plum trees will bear fruit the second or third year 

 after planting. The plum as well as the cherry and 

 peach is propagated by budding or by grafting. 



Suckers grow from the roots of the plum tree, and 

 when these are from trees that are not grafted they may 

 be removed with a part of the root and replanted. This 

 is probably the best method of propagating plum trees 

 on a small scale. 



The Cherry. --There are two chief varieties of this 

 fruit, the sweet, or English, cherry and the red, or sour, 

 cherry. The former is a good dessert cherry, but is 

 not hardy enough to have a wide range. The latter 

 is the common pie cherry of the Mississippi Valley and 

 northern United States. Both species are propagated 

 by budding, grafting the cherry being rarely successful. 

 Heavy, wet soils are very disastrous to this tree. A 

 grass crop is not injurious if cut often and used as a 

 mulch. 



The Citrous Fruits. No family orchard in Califor- 

 nia can be considered complete without at least one or two 

 of the citrous fruits, such as oranges and lemons. These 

 are known as semitropical fruits. In America they 

 can be grown with profit only in California, Florida, 

 and the delta region of the Mississippi River. This 

 limited range makes a good market for the product 

 when raised on a commercial basis. In addition to 

 the fruit to be harvested from them, the trees them- 



