Hoch 
PLUMS, APRICOTS, AND NECTARINES. 
‘ For these a light rich soil 1s preferable, and the same care 
Is necessary as has been recommended for fruit trees gene- 
rally, in keeping the ground cultivated around them when 
young ; for although it is a common observation, that Plum 
trees succeed best in a hard trodden soil, and though such a 
situation may cause the trees to retain their fruit, still it must 
be decidedly unfavourable to their growth. Plums, Apricots, 
and Nectarines, are smooth skinned fruit, and are in some 
parts of the United States subject to be injured by a small 
bug called the Curculio, which stings the fruit, and causes 
it to drop before it has attained its proper size. ‘Their de- 
predations may be effectually prevented by paving round the 
trees as far as the branches extend, as it has been incon- 
testibly proved by frequent experiments made by the pro- 
prictor of this garden, and others, that the Curewlio will not 
infest those trees where they cannot find means of imme- 
diately concealing themselves in the ground on dropping 
from the branches. Plum trees are also subject to injury 
from another insect, which stings the branches, and causes 
large protuberances to form on them, which, if not cut off, 
produce a canker that in time destroys the tree. There are 
some kinds, however, which are not subject to the attacks of 
this insect, viz. the Chicasaw, Early Coral, Golden Drop, 
and other native Plums, the Cherry Plum, Bolmer’s-Wash- ' 
ington, Flushing Gage, and Yellow Egg Plums.—And here 
I will remark, that Duhammel, the highest authority on the 
cultivation of fruits, recommends Peach stocks as preferable 
to all others for the free growing kinds of Plums—such as 
the Green Gage, &c. &c.—as the additional quantity of sap 
furnished by the Peach stock very much accelerates the 
growth of the Plum. Still it is necessary, in order to guard 
against the worm, that. they should be grafted beneath the 
surface of the ground, which, however, is the practice 
‘usually pursued. 
FIGS. 
In the middle and northern states, where the Fig trees are 
killed nearly to the ground by the severity of the winters, two 
crops of fruit may be obtained each season by planting the 
early kinds in a warm or sheltered situation, if pains are 
taken in autumn to bend the trees down, and cover them 
with earth, sloping the ecie, bate so as to cast off the rain ; 
