352 THE PLUM. 



the plums are taken out, and the oven is again shut with a cup 

 of water in it, for about two hours. When the water is so warm 

 as just to be able to bear the finger in it, the prunes are again 

 placed in the oven, and left there for twenty-four hours, when 

 the operation is finished, and they are put loosely into small, 

 long, and rather deep boxes, for sale. The common sorts are 

 gathered by shaking the trees ; but the finer kinds, for making 

 French plums, must be gathered in the morning, before the 

 rising of the sun, by taking hold of the stalk, between the thumb 

 and finger, without touching the fruit, and laid gently on a bed 

 of vine-leaves in a basket. When the baskets are filled, without 

 the plums touching each other, they are removed to the fruit 

 room, where they are left for two or three days exposed to the 

 sun and air ; after which the same process is employed for the 

 others ; and in this way the delicate bloom is retained on the 

 fruit, even when quite dry. 



Propagation and culture. The plum is usually propagated 

 in this country by sowing the seeds of any common free grow- 

 ing variety, (avoiding the damsons which are not readily work- 

 ed,) and budding them when two years old, with the finer sorts. 

 The stones should be planted as soon as gathered, in broad 

 drills, (as in planting peas,) but about an inch and a half deep. 

 In good soil the seedings will reach eighteen inches or two feet 

 in height, the next season, and in the autumn or the ensuing 

 spring, they may be taken from the seed beds, their tap roots 

 reduced, and all that are of suitable size, planted at once in the 

 nursery rows, the smaller ones being thickly bedded until after 

 another season's growth. 



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

 for working about the ensuing midsummer, and, as the plum is 

 quite difficult 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 suflSciently firm, — say, 

 in this neighbourhood, about the 10th of July. Insert the buds, 

 if possible, on the north side of the stock, that being more pro- 

 tected 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 superiour to the 

 seedlings raised from our common plums, (the Blue Gage, Horse- 

 plum, &C.,) so abundant in all our gardens. For dwarfing, the 

 seL'fllings of the Mirabelle are chiefly employed. 



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 bo 



