The Canadian Horticulturist. 3 



I'l.LMS 1-()K CAXXIXd. MAKKirr. i;i'c. 



i;iN(; very dittidcnt and mistrustful of being able to interest 

 the readers of the Horticulturist in this subject, so much 

 having been written heretofore respecting the Plum and its 

 varieties, I have hesitated before making the attempt to 

 write anything touching the matter. But having been 

 especially requested to name from my experience the most 

 profitable varieties thereof, for market and canning pur- 

 poses, etc., and those which will form a profitable succession for shipping, from 

 the earliest to the latest, and the kind of stock on which they should be budded 

 or grafted, 1 will with much pleasure name such varieties, and treat the above 

 matter as follows. 



The stocks on which 1 prefer to graft (I prefer grafting to budding), are those 

 raised from seedlings of the common blue plum, selected from trees of rapid 

 growth and large size. Having lost a number of trees purchased from nursery- 

 men, which had been grafted or budded on the wild variety known as the Can- 

 ada Plum ( Pruniis Americana), and commonly used by them for stocks, in con- 

 sequence of their roots breaking during wind and rain, under a heavy load of 

 fruit, I have substituted with advantage the common blue, as its roots prove 

 much stronger and better, and the trees when grafted attain a larger size. 



My experience in fruit canning has not been extensive, but such as I have 

 had has been acquired by selecting for home use from the varieties I cultivate, 

 of which, without hesitation, I would name Bavay's (ireen (iage, Monroe, and 

 Imperial Ciage, as the best three plums for canning: but as these, from their 

 very fine quality, and especially in years of scarcity, often command a higher 

 ])rice than canners can afford to pay, they purchase at a lower price, largely of 

 the blue damson, which they can sell as a much lower figure and make more 

 money therefrom, and it might be judicious to add the damson to the list, al- 

 though of much inferior quality. 



As to the varieties for market purposes, extending in their time of ripening 

 from the first to the last of the ])lum season, I would recommend of the varieties 

 commonly grown, the Niagara, Bradshaw, Washington, Lombard, General Hand, 

 Yellow Egg, Peach, Coe's Golden Drop, Bavay's Green Gage, Quackenbos 

 and Glass, which ripen generally in the order named, as the best and most 

 profitable. Of these I would select as the most remunerative, the Niagara 

 and Bradshaw for earliest, and the Quackenbos and Glass for latest ; and 

 among the most latest, the Peach plum, as I have found that more money can 

 be made, especially in years of plenty, from the very early and the very late, than 

 from the medium ripening varieties, which come in competition with a very large 

 number of others, which ripen at the same period : and that the dark colored 

 sell at higher jirices than the yellow. In the past ])lentiful season, the Niagara 



