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HARVESTING, STORING, AND MARKETING 



IV. THE PLUM 



1, Picking. The fruit should be picked before it is fully 

 ripe. jMany varieties when ripe are soft, bruise easily, and 

 go down quickly. Brown rot infection is liable to occur in 

 humid sections and may wipe out most of the crop if the 

 fruit is left on the trees too long. 



On the other hand, there has been a tendency to pick the 

 fruit before it has much flavor, and these partly grown plums 

 have seriously injured the demand for a really fine fruit. For 

 jam and jelly the fruit should not be fully ripe, but for dessert 

 purposes and for canning more mature fruit is much to be 

 preferred. The sugar content, color, and quality are much 

 better. The custom is to pick the Japanese or Salicina 

 varieties, as Burbank and Abundance, well in advance of 

 maturity. Such thick-fleshed varieties as Italian prune may 

 be left much longer; in fact, they are still unripe for some time 

 after they have colored well. 



Picking equipment and methods are much the same as for 

 other fruits. Care should be exercised not to tear the flesh of 

 the fruit or to destroy the natural bloom. If the fruit is 

 jerked in a direct pull from the spur, the stem will be torn 

 out and the flesh ruptured. The picker should give a slight 

 upward turn so that the stem separates from the spur and 

 remains attached to the fruit. Tin pails or small baskets 

 are suitable picking receptacles. 



It is necessary to make from two to five pickings, de- 

 pending on the variety and season, to secure the fruit in the 

 most favorable condition for market. Some varieties, in- 

 cluding Italian prune, take on considerable color after pick- 

 ing. In the West, prunes for drying are shaken from the tree 

 by jarring the branches with padded poles and the fruit is 

 picked up from the ground. Some American plums are shaken 

 from the tree, dropping on canvas or cloth covers spread on 

 the ground. 



