81 



growth should be left longer and encouraged to brancli. Thewe varieties as a rule 

 should not be summer pruned. 



The prune, to grow successfully, should be irrigated in this climate. The 

 trees do not prove profitable if moisture fails, they drop tlioir fruit badly, and 

 it is small and undersized. 



Wickson and Kdsey. — These are upright growers and the trees must )je forced 

 open by throwing the leaders into an outside lateral , and by utilising the outside 

 laterals to obtain a fork or an additional leader. In this way tlie tree can, in a 

 few years, be made fairly open and shapely. In these, as in other trees, an open 

 centre must be kept. Figure 98 shows two rows of Wicksons, and Figure 99 

 shows the same trees pruned. All tlie lateral spurs must Vje shortened 



"l^«i|##/,-;i 





Fig. 92. 

 The same trees the following winter. 



and thinned because all the Japanese plums are inclined to over-bear. 

 Figure 100 shows one of these trees in flower, showing the even distribution 

 of fruiting wood. The Wickson is a first-class export plum. It can be 

 picked three weeks before it is ripe as it both ripens and colours well off 

 the tree. Figiue 101 shows a young Shiro Japanese plum carrjdng frvut. 

 This is a nice, open sturdy tree carrj'ing its fruit well round the base. Figure 

 102 shows this tree pruned the following winter. The tree is a wide-spreading 

 grower like the Burbanl-c and Satsuma and otliers. These trees should be care- 

 fully pruned and shaped in their early stages and every care taken to prevent 

 them growing wild and straggljr. It is best to prune them fairly hard during the 

 first few years to get a shapely tree, throwing the tree well up by pruning to 

 inside buds, or utilising upward laterals if the limbs are growing wide and low. 

 Every effort should be made to throw the tree well up and prevent limbs from, 

 growing across each other. The spurs must be well thinned and shortened, 

 especially as the tree ages. 



