THE PLUM. 891 



The stocks planted out in the nursery will ordinarily be ready for 

 working about the ensuing midsummer, and, as the plum is quite diffi- 

 cult to bud in this dry climate, if the exact season is not chosen, the 

 budder must watch the condition of the trees, and insert his buds as 

 early as they are sufficiently firm, say, in this neighborhood, about the 

 10th of July. Insert the buds, if possible, on the north side of the 

 stock, that being more protected from the sun, and tie the bandage 

 rather more tightly than for other trees. 



The English propagate very largely, by layers, three varieties of the 

 common plum the Muscle, the Brussels, and the Pear Plum, which 

 are almost exclusively employed for stocks with them. But we have not 

 found these stocks superior to the seedlings raised from our common 

 plums (the Blue Gage, Horse Plum, &c.), so abundant in all our 

 gardens. For dwarfing, the seedlings of the Mirabelle are chiefly em- 

 ployed. 



Open standard culture is the universal mode in America, as the plum 

 is one of the hardiest of fruit-trees. It requires little or no pruning 

 beyond that of thinning out a crowded head, or taking away decayed or 

 broken branches, and this should be done before midsummer, to prevent 

 the flow of gum. Old trees that have become barren may be renovated 

 by heading them in pretty severely, covering the wounds with a 

 solution of gum shellac, and giving them a good top-dressing at the 

 roots. 



SOIL. The plum will grow vigorously in almost every part of this 

 country, but it only bears its finest and most abundant crops in heavy 

 loams, or in soils in which there is a considerable mixture of clay. In 

 sandy soils the tree blossoms and sets plentiful crops, but they are 

 rarely perfected, falling a prey to the curculio, an insect that harbors in 

 the soil, and seems to find it difficult to penetrate or live in one of a 

 heavy texture, while a warm, light, sandy soil is exceedingly favorable 

 to its propagation. It is also undoubtedly true that a heavy soil is na- 

 turally the most favorable one. The surprising facility with which su- 

 perior new varieties are raised merely by ordinary reproduction from 

 seed, in certain parts of the valley of the Hudson, as at Hudson or near 

 Albany, where the soil is quite clayey, and also the delicious flavor and 

 great productiveness and health of the plum-tree there, almost without 

 any care, while in adjacent districts of rich sandy land it is a very un- 

 certain bearer, are very convincing proofs of the great importance of 

 clayey soil for this fruit.* 



Where the whole soil of a place is light and sandy, we would recom- 

 mend the employment of pure yellow loam or yellow clay in the place 

 of manure, when preparing the border or spaces for planting the plum. 

 Very heavy clay, burned slowly by mixing it in large heaps with brush 

 or fagots, is at once an admirable manure and alterative for such soils. 

 Swamp muck is also one of the best substances, and especially that from 

 salt-water marshes. 



Common salt we have found one of the best fertilizers for the plum- 

 tree. It greatly promotes its health and luxuriance. 



INSECTS AND DISEASES. There are but two drawbacks to the culti- 



* When this was written it was generally supposed that the curculio would 

 not attack the fruit of plums growing on trees in clayey soils ; but practical ex- 

 perience has shown that such is not the fact. REVISOK. 



