June 2, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



219 



The plum is a fruit which has no regular standing- in the 

 market as pears and apples have, and depends more or less 

 for sale upon the general supply of other fruits. This means 

 that since the plum is of secondary importance in the market 

 commercial growers can easily plant too many trees. The 

 Plum thrives on a great variety of soils, but does best on 

 clayey loam, and usually upon land suited to Pears, or the 

 heavier soils upon which Apples will nourish. The greater 

 number of trees grown in New York are grown on Myrobalan 

 stock, a native of south-eastern Europe and south-western Asia. 

 There are some varieties, however, which overgrow the stock 

 so that it is likely to sprout from the ground and cause trouble. 

 Professor Bailey thinks that the Domestica Plum itself is the 

 ideal stock, although it is difficult to secure seed, and the stock 

 is variable and rather likely to be injured in the nurseries by leaf 

 fungi. It is for this reason that the Myrobalan has supplanted 

 it. The Peach is largely used as a stock in the southern states 

 and is gaining favor in New York. It is probably better on 

 sandy lands than the Myrobalan, although some varieties, like 

 the Lombard and French Damson, do not unite well with the 

 Peach. Many varieties of Plums are such slow and crooked 

 growers in the nursery that it is advisable to graft them on 

 some strong straight stock, and the Lombard is undoubtedly 

 the best for this purpose. Plum-trees are usually planted 

 when two years old from the bud, although some of the strong- 

 growing kinds may be planted at a year old. They should be 

 set as far apart as Peaches are — that is, from fifteen to eighteen 

 feet apart each way, or they may be planted eighteen or twenty 

 feet apart one way or from ten to twelve feet apart the other, 

 in which case cultivation in one direction is eventually stopped. 

 When planted the trees are pruned in the same way as Apple- 

 trees are, and it is advisable generally to start tops as low as 

 possible and yet allow the working of the curculio catcher 

 below them. After four or five main limbs have been allowed 

 to form the framework of the top, the central stem is often cut 

 out, but it may be allowed to remain. If the trees become too 

 tall and whip-like they may be headed in, but it ought to be 

 remembered that this upward growth commonly ceases and 

 the tree begins to spread when bearing time arrives. If they 

 seem to be making too vigorous growth it is better to withhold 

 fertilizers or cultivation than to stop it by heading them in, 

 since this only makes the growth stronger. 



The black-knot is best kept in check bysystematically cutting 

 it out wherever seen, and if the trees are thoroughly sprayed 

 every year with Bordeaux mixture for the leaf-blight the black- 

 knot will make comparatively few inroads into the orchard. 

 The blight which causes the leaves to fall in August or Sep- 

 tember is one of the most serious diseases of the Plum, but it 

 can be kept in check by spraying with Bordeaux mixture two 

 or three times during the summer. The fruit-rot is also the 

 work of a fungus ; the dead and dried fruit may often be seen 

 hanging on a tree all winter, and in such cases it is probable 

 that the fruit-spur will be killed. In handling this disease it 

 must be remembered that some varieties are more suscepti- 

 ble than others. The Lombard is one of the worst. Again, if 

 the fruit grows in dense clusters the disease is more apt to be 

 severe, and therefore the thinning of the fruit is an admirable 

 preventive of this as well as an efficient means of increasing 

 the size and quality of the fruit. The specific treatment for 

 the disease is to spray with the Bordeaux mixture. 



The Plum scale has created much alarm, and, although for- 

 midable, it may be held in check by thorough spraying with 

 strong kerosene emulsion in the winter-time. Curculio is the 

 most widely known enemy of the fruit. The mature beetle 

 lays eggs in the fruits when they are small ; these hatch, 

 and the little maggot bores into them. Attacked fruits ordinarily 

 fall, but if they are not stung until they are half-grown they 

 may adhere to the tree, when they will be wormy and gummy 

 at picking time. Taking advantage of the fact that the mature 

 beetles are sluggish in the morning they may be jarred into 

 sheets or canvas hoppers, which can be moved from tree to 

 tree upon a wheelbarrow-like frame. There is a slit in one 

 side of the hopper which allows the tree to stand in the middle 

 of the canvas, and then two or three sharp jars with a padded 

 pole or mallet will bring the insects down, and they roll into a 

 tin receptacle at the apex of the hopper. An active man 

 can attend to three hundred or four hundred full-bearing trees 

 in six hours. 



The most popular variety of Plum, and one of the poorest, is 

 the Lombard. Its merits are its great productiveness, vigor 

 and hardiness. The fruit is only fair in quality, and it ripens 

 when the market is full. It is very susceptible to the leaf- 

 blight and fruit-rot, and yet many orchards planted with this 

 variety exclusively have. been successful commercially. Per- 

 haps varieties which are specially early or late and those 



which have pronounced colors, especially dark red or purple, 

 will prove the best market fruits. Some dark yellow varieties 

 are also salable, but those of an ill-defined reddish color, 

 brown or light yellow are usually not profitable. And yet the 

 Reine Claude is a yellowish green plum. It is saved, however, 

 by its established reputation as a culinary variety. So far as 

 known, Plums of the Domestica and Japanese type are self- 

 fertile, but it is always the safest course to plant varieties in 

 alternate rows. 



These notes of Professor Bailey's are supplemented by a 

 descriptive list of varieties by Mr. S. D. Willard, who is an 

 excellent observer, and who has had such a long experience 

 in plum-growing that he is a recognized authority in the 

 matter. At various times the Cornell station has published 

 bulletins on particular phases of plum-growing, and these are 

 all referred to in their proper place, so that this little treatise 

 will be found very complete and useful. 



Recent Publications. 



The Fertility of the Land. By Isaac Phillips Roberts, 

 Director of the College of Agriculture and Professor of 

 Agriculture in Cornell University. The MacMillan Com- 

 pany. 1897. 



This is the latest publication of the admirable Rural 

 Science Series, which is edited by Professor Bailey, and its 

 purpose is well set forth in the subtitle as a Summary 

 Sketch of the Relationship of Farm Practice to Maintaining 

 and Increasing the Productiveness of the Soil. We do not 

 mean that because the work is specifically devoted to 

 certain phases of farm practice it ignores agricultural 

 science. On the contrary, the treasures of science are 

 continually drawn upon to explain the fundamental 

 reasons for the ordinary operations of the farm. The very 

 first chapter, entitled "An Inventory of Land," ought to 

 prove of fascinating interest to a young farmer who has 

 never made any estimate of the amount of plant food that 

 is found generally in soils, or of what sort of food and how 

 much of it is required by his crops, or how stores of poten- 

 tial fertility in soil and subsoil can be made available, or 

 how one can learn what elements ought to be added to 

 maintain the supply and increase its usefulness. All this 

 is science, but it is applied science, and science so skill- 

 fully adapted to everyday use that it becomes the very 

 philosophy of farm practice. The next chapter on the 

 evolution of the plow and its use in tillage shows how the 

 moving of the soil in the right time and in the right way 

 helps his land in a hundred subtle ways of which the 

 thoughtless farmer has never dreamed. In short, the book 

 will be found helpful to the farmer in that it will enable 

 him to go through the routine of his everyday work with 

 intelligence, and therefore with skill and the assurance of 

 wider success. In an editor's preface, Professor Bailey 

 speaks of the book as the ripened judgment of the wisest 

 farmer he has known. We are told that Professor Roberts 

 has been a successful farmer at the same time that he has 

 been a successful teacher of agriculture and a distinguished 

 experimenter. He has also had the advantage of travel, 

 and therefore his opinions on farm methods ought to be of 

 value. He has the philosophic temper, too, which has 

 moved him to inquire into reasons and results. His book, 

 then, is a record of his own experience and the experience 

 of others in maintaining the productivity of the land ; and 

 since this is the fundamental problem in practical farming, 

 its discussion throws light on so many details of farm 

 practice that we agree with Professor Bailey when he 

 says that the book comes as near being a treatise on agri- 

 culture as any single volume can be. 



Occasionally one comes upon a bit of moralizing that 

 seems a little out of place, or a generalization which the 

 data hardly justify, or a crude statement now and then 

 such as one trained in early life to scientific thinking would 

 not make, but, taken as a whole, it is a singularly useful 

 volume which covers a wide range of subjects, all of 

 which are treated succinctly and yet clearly and with a due 

 regard to their relative importance. 



