THE PLUM. 



219 



wall and the shoots trained thereon carrying an excellent crop of 

 fruit, but one could scarcely call this " wall fruit." The reason 

 of this state of things is, first, the naturally strong growth of 

 the plum ; and, secondly, the method of training. This is usually 

 the " fan " system, in which the shoots are trained at a natural 

 angle to the stem of the tree, and which, consequently, permits 

 the sap to follow its natural course of rushing up into the leading 

 shoots ; this can easily be obviated by adopting the " horizontal " 

 method of training, which by laying the shoots at right angles 

 to the stem of the tree checks the flow of the sap and causes 

 them to make fruit spurs ; this system has also the great advan- 

 tages of covering the wall from base to summit, instead of wast- 

 ing the lower portion, and of disposing the branches at equal 

 distances from each other over their whole length instead of 

 being overcrowded at their base, as in the case of fan-trained 

 trees. Being the first propagator to recommend and distribute 

 horizontally-trained plum trees, I would say that they are in 

 every way as well adapted for this form of culture as the pear or 

 apple, and just as it is now quite the exception to find these 

 latter trained for walls or espaliers in any other way than hori- 

 zontally, so I believe in the near future will it be quite the 

 exception to find a fan-trained plum. It will occur to everyone 

 that these remarks upon training apply with special force to 

 those walls which are of a medium height, say 7 to 10 feet, 

 but they also apply to higher walls, inasmuch as a large propor- 

 tion of the space is wasted when it has nothing upon it but 

 naked stems ; it will also be apparent that the so-called hori- 

 zontally-trained trees which are grown in France, and which 

 some cultivators have adopted in this country, which have their 

 branches trained at an angle of some 45° from the stem, do not 

 check the flow of sap, and thus cause fertility, in the way that 

 training at right angles to the stem does, and that beyond the 

 fact of their branches being equidistant at all parts, they have no 

 advantages over fan-trained trees. I may say in passing that 

 the pruning of the side shoots upon trained trees is better done 

 with the finger and thumb, in the way of pinching young 

 growths, than by the subsequent use of the knife. 



It is not possible in a paper like the present to go fully into 

 the details of pruning, training, and management of the plum, 

 but I have selected a few points which I conceived to be of 



f 2 



