20 
THE CHASE NURSERIES. GENEVA, NEW YORK 
Plums are an extremely profitable fruit if the orchard is properly cared for. Note how clean this one 
PLUMS 
Plums are a fruit adapted to cultivation over a wide territory, and are generously productive 
in nearly all locations. Possibly no other fruit is produced more freely, unless it be the cherry, 
and, like the latter, Plum trees will yield crop after crop despite neglect, yet they will produce a 
much better grade of fruit when given care, and cultivated as modern orchards should be. 
The trees are hardy, and will grow in almost any part of the United States, but as a rule they 
do best in a heavy loam, or in soils containing a considerable portion of clay or with a clay sub- 
soil. In sandy soils it is well to turn under coarse manure or litter; wood-ashes are also a splendid 
fertilizer. Mulching is a great benefit when the trees are grown in sandy soil, preventing the 
evaporation of moisture needed by the trees. The orchard should be kept thoroughly cultivated 
until mid-summer, when a cover-crop may be sowed to be plowed under the following spring. 
The trees require but little pruning other than thinning out the head or removing injured 
branches. At planting time the pruning is essentially the same as for the apple — start the tops 
low, with the limbs from 3 to 4 feet above the ground. Definite details for pruning Plum trees 
will be found in the instructions given for apple culture. 
The greatest enemies of the Plum tree are the black-knot and the curculio. The former is 
best kept in check by cutting it out, going over the orchard carefully in summer, and again when 
the leaves drop in the fall. Thorough spraying with Bordeaux for the leaf-blight fungus will also 
keep black-knot in check. 
Curculio attacks the fruit; a small weevil lays its egg in the fruit soon after the blossoms fall; 
the grub quickly hatches and the plum becomes wormy. In the early morning the weevil is more 
or less dormant, and will drop when the tree is jarred. A large sheet may be spread under the 
tree, the trunk given two or three sharp raps, causing the curculio to fall, when it is destroyed. 
This seems to be the only method of successfully destroying this insect. An apparatus for carry- 
ing the canvas can easily be made and wheeled from tree to tree. The first examination for cur- 
culio should be made within a week after the blossoms fall. 
Thinning the fruit is important if the best quality fruit is to be raised. Many varieties are 
such free bearers that, unless thinned, the fruit will not develop properly, the quality will not be 
up to the standard and the tree be weakened. Thinning the fruit is one of the best preventives 
of spread of the disease commonly called fruit-rot. Plums should be picked a few days before 
they are fully ripened. 
