336 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



July, 1914 



A very early plum of fair flavor, excellent for cooking, 

 is the Wild Goose. It succeeds wherever apples can be 

 grown 



ripens in New York about the middle of 

 July, about the first of July in Maryland, 

 and early in June in North Carolina. 

 Nearly all the varieties named in the lists 

 are large. The biggest cherries are an 

 inch and a quarter in diameter, and the 

 biggest plums two inches. Two or three 

 of the varieties produce smaller fruit, but 

 amply make up for this deficiency by their 

 extra high quality. The European and 

 Japanese plums are larger than the Ameri- 

 can sorts, and the sweet cherries are larger 

 than the sour kinds. Soft fleshed sorts are 

 best for use raw. Firm fleshed varieties 

 look best when canned. 



The trees differ in size and shape. Sweet 

 cherry trees are as large, or larger, 

 than apple trees, and grow erect and 

 straight in branch and trunk. They have 

 handsome reddish brown bark that peels 

 in strips around the trunk and limbs. Sour 

 cherry trees are much smaller, and generally 

 are low and spreading, irregular and some- 

 what crooked. Some plum trees are as 

 straight as a soldier on parade, and others 

 sprawl about like a baby in the sun. 



If it is desirable to have these dwarfed 

 in your garden, you can make them so by 

 proper pruning. There are such things 

 as dwarf cherry and plum trees, but these 

 are not as effective or as successful as 

 dwarf apple and pear trees. If you must 

 have the very smallest trees take up the 

 matter with a reliable nursery and get 

 plum trees on dwarf cherry roots, and 

 cherry trees either on the sand cherry, or 

 on Prunus Besseyi stock. Very little 

 data is available on the varieties that suc- 

 ceed best when dwarfed. 



Under no circumstances plant seedling 

 plum and cherry trees for half of them will 

 be worthless. Only budded or grafted 

 trees should be used, and if you can get 



them it is best to use only trees budded or 

 grafted from bearing parents. For the 

 South plum trees may be budded on peach 

 roots. Such trees are valuable in light 

 soil. For Central and Northern States, 

 however, these peach-rooted plum trees 

 are worthless, and your trees should be on 

 plum roots. Cherry trees on native wild 

 or Mazzard roots are hardier than others, 

 and for the North are about the only kind 

 to plant. For the South cherry trees on 

 Mahalab roots are good. These make 

 smaller trees than Mazzard roots, and 

 thrive a little the better in heavy soil. 

 Where extreme hardiness is required of the 

 cherries use Mazzard or Morello roots, 

 crown grafted with six-inch cions. Plant 

 these trees so that only the top bud of the 

 cion of each is above ground. 



Plum trees ought to be set 8 to 12 or 1 8 

 feet apart, and cherry trees 15 to 25 feet 

 apart. The distance depends on the type 

 of trees you require. To make clearer 

 the characteristics of the various types, I 

 will explain, taking cherries first. 



The sour cherries named in the table 

 herewith will thrive as far South as in 

 Northern Texas and Florida, and as far 

 North as in New Brunswick and Manitoba. 

 Some sorts do best South, others North, as 

 indicated in the table. In general I 

 recommend sour cherries for planting 

 wherever apples do well. Sweet cherries, 

 however, usually freeze north of the Straits 

 of Mackanaw (Mich.), middle New York 

 and southern Vermont, and they fail to 

 bear or split their bark south as far as 

 Virginia and North Carolina, unless the 

 locality is very high above sea-level. In 

 general, sweet cherries are most at home 

 in mountain and rolling sections, and sour 

 cherries on low or flat land. Sweet cherries 

 are prone to grow too fast, and will stand 

 little nitrogen. All cherries do well on 

 most any land that is not too wet, but 

 prefer fairly light loam. If there is any 

 difference, sweet sorts do better than 

 sours in ground lacking enough moisture. 

 Sour varieties bloom later than sweet 

 sorts, and are caught less by late spring 

 frosts. 



The high quality varieties of cherries 

 are about as hardy as any sorts, but not 

 so with plums. With plums the richest 

 and finest fruit is produced by the European 

 varieties, and these sorts thrive only in a 

 limited section, as the table tells. The 

 Japanese plums may be classed as second 

 best quality. They succeed where Euro- 

 pean varieties will not do well. Japanese 

 sorts are big growers and heavy yielders, 

 especially in light land, but as a general 

 rule they should not be planted in a home 

 garden in a location where European 

 varieties succeed, except for variety. The 

 range of the European sorts is about the 

 same as that of sweet cherries. 



The plums that stand Northern winters 

 and Southern summers well, are the native 

 American varieties, and the hybrids of 

 these and other species. Some of the best 

 and most popular varieties are hybrids. 

 All the hybrids in our list are of very high 



quality and are thrifty. The native vari- 

 eties are third best in quality, but often 

 are preferred for cooking into certain kinds 

 of preserves and jellies, etc., on account of 

 their tart flavor. The hybrids all have 

 different and new flavors. In passing, it 

 may be said that each species group of 

 plums has its own type flavor. A good 

 many of the very best plum varieties were 

 developed during the last fifteen or twenty 

 years, or even later. In the list certain 

 groups of related varieties, all high quality, 

 are represented by one, which is considered 

 to be the best of the lot. In this way, for 

 instance, of that fine and delicious group 

 comprising Golden Gage, Peter's Gage, 

 Imperial Gage, Bavay's, Green Gage, 

 Lawrence and Reine Claude, I include onlv 

 the last named. A prune, to use the com- 

 mercial definition, is any plum that is 

 dried. Among growers, however, it is 

 considered to mean a plum of violet or 

 blue color, large size with a hollow about 

 the seed. 



Both cherries and plums thrive and yield 

 with far less culture and feeding than 

 peaches require, and than apples should 

 have. If you see that you are not pre- 

 pared to give your garden the best of care, 

 you will be wise in planting fewer peaches 

 and more plums and cherries. 



In any garden, even the smallest, provide 

 for cross pollination by planting at least 

 two varieties, and three or four are better. 

 This insures not only the setting of the 

 fruit, but the maturing of finer, larger fruit. 





The black sweet cherry, Bing, is good both East and West. 

 It is an early variety of fine, sweet flavor 



