SEVEN] OUT IN THE ORCHARD 
improved native sorts, and by crossbreds, that it 
taxes me to reduce the list of really fine varieties to 
a size suitable for a modest country home. Of the 
older plums Green Gage still stands foremost for 
quality. Among all our fruits I do not know an- 
other one that so concentrates richness in a case- 
ment of beauty as this old Green Gage plum. It 
should be grown on high, open sunny spots, and 
never in wet and shady places. It is a long-lived 
tree, giving annual loads of fruit. With it plant 
that magnificent plum, the Magnum Bonum, pro- 
vided you have near it some of the very early- 
blooming varieties, like Abundance, to pollenize 
its flowers. Unfortunately, if grown alone it is 
liable to bear only scattered fruit. Well-pollen- 
ized by a neighbor, it will be loaded so as to need 
thinning and supporting. I sold from a single tree 
in a single year plums to the value of eighteen dol- 
lars. Coe’s Golden Drop is another indispensable: 
and Shropshire Damson is a very valuable variety 
for cooking and canning. 
Of newer sorts, Victoria is one of the surest and 
noblest, bearing great, red plums of good quality, 
and in profusion. Pond is another large and hand- 
some plum that bears enormous crops; quality 
[131] 
