NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
155 
NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
THE PEUNE OR PLUM. 
The cultivated Plum has for its origin the Common Wild Plum {Primus 
spinosa), which is a native of nearly all the central parts of Europe. In 
Greece, in Asia Minor, and in the neighbourhood of Damascus, we meet 
with the best varieties of Plums. The kind cultivated in the department 
of Lot-et-Garonne is called the Prune d'Agen (Agen is the principal town 
in the Lot-et-Garonne, and there are grown the finest kinds, Prune d'Ente, 
Eobe de bergent, Prune de Roi, Prune de Ste. Catherine), to which variety- 
belong those Plums so renowned in La Tourraine, and the common Prune 
of Si. iVntoine. The Prune d'Ente and Prune d'Agen are grafted on to the 
Plum called Quebsche in Alsace and in the Vosges. The fruit of the Prune 
d'Agen is a beautiful violet in colour, and is sweet mingled with a pleasant 
acidity. It grows in great quantities on the long regular lines of trees which 
stretch across the plain. The trees are little pruned and grow to a fine size, 
with a light yellowish green leafage, and many of them are so covered 
with grey and yellow lichens that on looking over the plain in the winter 
months a grey atmosphere, soft in colour, seems to cling and hover over 
the branches. In the spring it is a lovely sight to ascend the great rocky 
hillside and see the trees in flower. Then the peasants make a pilgrimage 
to an old fortified village called La Parade, where one can see across all the 
plain of the Lot. In the month of August and part of September the 
fruit is picked up from the ground, for as it ripens it drops ; and as it is 
picked it is placed in baskets or wire trays and put inside a heated brick 
oven and there left several hours. This process it goes through four 
times, by which time it is well dried. It is then packed tightly in small 
wooden boxes and on the topmost layer are placed a few cool Laurel- 
leaves, and then the lids are securely nailed down, and the Plums of 
different kinds, sizes, and prices are shipped to England and America 
and other parts. It is a great business, the picking, sorting, and packings 
and requires many hands. — M. C. Hampson. 
HYBRID GRAFTS. 
Mr. George Lee writes : — " Reading in the Report of the Hybrid 
Conference the notes on Hybrid Grafts reminded me of what my father 
did when I was a boy, seventy years ago. He grafted the Lilac (Syringa) 
on the Common Ash. It made a splendid growth ; the first year 18 
inches or more. He grafted several of them, all of them about 5 ft. from 
the ground. But in the second year they every one died. A friend of 
my father's grafted an Apple on a Pear — the Pear was the old Orange 
Bergamot. The grafts grew finely the first year or two, but eventually 
they also died. The Pear stock was a large tree headed back and grafted 
on the crowns." 
