52 
beautiful and delicious jellies. Such are the principal uses of the fruit. 
The trees will thrive on any soil that will support common trees, but do 
best on a deep, rich, moist soil ; they thrive finely in the bottoms of deep, 
steep, narrow ravines and along drains, on lands too rough for cultivation, 
if reasonably rich. The trees are natural to crowded situations, crowded 
by each other, and by other trees ; their roots do best rambling through 
moist soil, shaded from the sun, and the trees do very much the best in 
a location sheltered from the strong winds of spring (which blow away 
the pollen). The trees are easily propagated ; they throw up young 
trees (suckers) freely from their roots ; therefore when planting these 
plums on the thicket plan in waste places it is best to have them on 
their own roots. Or, if we do not wish them to produce suckers, they 
may be budded on the Chickasaw variety known as Mariana, which 
variety grows freely from cuttings, is quite hardy, and seldom, if ever, 
throws up suckers from its roots. In the South these plums do finely 
when budded or grafted on peach (which do not sucker), but care must 
be taken to prevent injury from the Peach Borer (j. HJ geria exitiosa Say). 
North they do nicely if u root-grafted” on peach. Generally, as the reader 
will have learned from this paper, the Native Plums have no very nox- 
ious insect enemies or diseases here or over the country at large, an 1 it 
is safe to say that they in some of their varieties or tribes can be grown 
profitably in every part of the country. There is a vast amount to be 
learned about them as yet, and some very important facts to determine. 
The most valuable one is this : I have some proof that certain varieties 
of these plums will breed the Plum Curculio freely; if so, such varieties 
should be searched out and destroyed, and we should be sure not to 
plant these varieties for fruit, be that ever so fine. 
THE SERRELL AUTOMATIC SILK REEL. 
By Philip Walker. 
In previous reports the new Serrell automatic silk reel has been fre- 
quently mentioned, but owing to the incomplete condition of the pat- 
ents upon it, it has been considered unwise to publish even such a gen- 
eral description as that which follows. Now, however, that these ma- 
chines are in operation in Washington, it is possible to gratify the 
laudable curiosity of persons interested in this machinery, of which so 
much has been said but so little known in this country. 
An understanding of the mechanical principles of ordinary non auto- 
matic reels and of the Serrell serigraph are so necessary to a thorough 
comprehension of the automatic reel that, although they have already 
been described by Professor Riley in Bulletin No. 9 of the Division.* 
it is deemed wise to insert an account of them here. The quotations 
* The Mulberry Silk-Worm, by C. V. Riley, M. A., Ph. D., Washington, 1886. 
