August , 1858 . 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
241 
The Green Lanes of England. 
We recently saw in a copy of the London Il¬ 
lustrated News a print like that on the opposite 
page, and believing it would interest our readers 
we laid it aside until a convenient opportunity 
should offer to have it engraved and inserted in 
the Agriculturist. We have nothing on hand more 
appropriate to this torrid month than the refresh¬ 
ing shade presented in the engraving. The pic¬ 
ture speaks for itself, and needs no description. 
The beautiful words and plaintive air accompany¬ 
ing, we thought too good to be omitted.We 
hatre in store many pleasant sketches, which we 
shall engrave and present to our readers from 
time to time, when not over-stocked with original 
designs. We see no reason why the Agriculturist, 
while mainly devoted to practical labors, should 
not also give some of the more pleasant things 
which will interest and elevate the feelings of 
those who are engaged in rural occupations. We 
hope to combine in this journal the largest amount 
of useful information, together with much that 
shall tend to refine and elevate the taste of its 
readers. 
-»-— ne »——<-»- 
Don’t Neg'ect the Grape Vines. 
If our readers have given heed to our monthly 
hints on this subject, they have already begun the 
Summer pruning of their grapes. They have rub¬ 
bed off the superfluous shoots which often spring 
from a single joint, leaving only one to grow, and 
that the strongest. And as numerous rampant 
suckers have sprung up around the stump of the 
vine, they have pulled them off, unless it so hap¬ 
pened that they wanted a new shoot or two to 
supply the place of some defective branches. At 
present, then, their vines are not a mass of wild, 
ungoverned foliage, but the canes are just nume¬ 
rous enough, and so laid in as to well cover the 
trellis, and yet afford light and air to the leaves 
and fruit. 
As the berries attain to the size of large shot, 
remember to pinch off the shoots two or three 
joints beywd the fruit. This will check the flow 
of sap and the formation of unnecessary wood, 
and will throw the forces of the vine into the 
clusters. After a little while, the buds below will 
push again. Let them grow an inch or two, and 
then give them a second pinching, and even a 
third, if necessary. By the time this last appli¬ 
cation has been made, growth will cease, and the 
grapes will begin to ripen. 
If it is your object to get the greatest possible 
number of grapes, let the clusters all grow, large 
and small. But if you wish to grow only the 
best possible fruit, then take off the smaller clus¬ 
ters, here and there, all over the vine, and the 
clusters remaining will get all the food they need 
to develop themselves handsomely. It may cost 
you a slight struggle to throw away so many 
bunches , but if you mean to surprise your friends 
next September and October, with some splendid 
fru't, or if it is your ambition to carry off the 
prizes at the approaching Fairs, then don’t hesi¬ 
tate between quantity and quality. And further, 
after you have fixed upon a lot of superior clus¬ 
ters in different parts of the vines, go over them 
carefully with the sharp-pointed scissors made for 
the purpose, and nip out all the small or diseased 
berries, so that those remaining can swell to 
larger and more uniform size. If you are a 
bungler, you will prick some of the fairest and 
best berries, and do more harm than good. After 
the grapes have begun to color, do not handle 
them, as you will thereby rub off the bloom from 
**>« fir.jj '■•hjch is one of their chief attractions. 
The Orchard—VII- 
THE PLUM. 
Where it can be grown in perfection, this is one 
of our best Summer and early Autumn fruits, the 
several varieties yielding us luxurious treats for 
four or five weeks in succession. Its beauty of form 
and color, as well as its high flavor in taste, makes 
it exceedingly ornamental as a table fruit, while 
its various uses in the culinary department, both 
fresh and dried, make it a valuable article in the 
household economy. Good plums exist in numer¬ 
ous varieties ; and many, and perhaps the best of 
them are of American origin, well suited to the 
soils and climates from which they sprung. This 
fruit, however, as a class, is capricious in its 
selections of soil and position, and, as a rule, 
flourishes in few places as compared with the ap¬ 
ple, and other general fruits. 
The plum is a native of all our climates, from 
the St. Lawrence to the Savannah rivets—in dif¬ 
ferent varieties—but the Middle States are its 
most acceptable locality. Wild varieties, how¬ 
ever, grow spontaneously in every one of the 
United States; but as they are of limited use, 
and varying excellence, we cannot well number 
them among those usually propagated in nurse¬ 
ries and gardens, and to be recommended for cul¬ 
tivation. Therefore we do not notice the wild fruits 
further than in the passing remark, that they may 
be cultivated wherever they will thrive, and the 
better varieties refuse to yield their fruits. 
SOIL AND POSITION. 
The very best soil for the cultivated plum is a 
heavy clay loam, on a dry bottom. Lighter soils 
will give them good growth, but a shorter-lived 
tree, and less certain bearing. We have seen 
them in all varieties of soil, but we know no plum 
orchards which are reliable in continuous yields, 
high flavor of fruit and full health of tree, except 
on the clays. There seems to be an affinity 
of the wood and foliage of the plum to heavy 
soils, which is absent when connected with more 
open soils—the heavier soil giving a healthier ex¬ 
istence, a more vigorous growth, and a greater 
longevity, as well as more constant bearing. Cer¬ 
tain localities are remarkable for their affinities 
to the plum. For example : The valleys of the 
Hudson and its tributaries above Foughkeepsie, 
in New-York State, are remarkable for the fine 
growth and constant bearing of their plum trees. 
There, disease seldom attacks them, the finest 
varieties have originated thereabouts, and while 
in many other widely extended districts they ut¬ 
terly fail, or but seldom produce, they there con¬ 
tinue to flourish in unabated vigor and fruitfulness. 
The curculio and black knot, their worst enemies, 
seldom affect them, while, in other places, their 
ravages either cut off the annual crops, or de¬ 
stroy the tree altogether. 
The quality of the soil need not be excessively 
rich to grow them. Any well-conditioned gar¬ 
den ground is rich enough ; but, like other fruit 
trees, they require open culture, and freedom from 
grass and weeds. Thus treated, with moder¬ 
ate pruning, if they thrive at all, they will fulfill all 
their duty to the cultivator. Indeed, we have 
seen them, where they had a favorable locality, 
do wonders in annual crops—even under neglect 
and abuse, such as many other varieties of fruit 
would refuse altogether, so hardv and constant 
is their general nature. 
PLANTING AND CULTIVATION. 
Sixteen to twenty feet apart is the proper dis¬ 
tance for a plum orchard. The planting should 
be the same as with other fruit trees, and the af¬ 
ter-cultivation similar. When inclined to bear in 
full luxuriance, the chief difficulty to be sur¬ 
mounted is overbearing. No other fruit tree bears 
so excessively, at times, as the plum ; and when 
so inclined, the fruit should be early thinned te 
sav-e the branches, which, being a brittle wood, 
incline to break, unless supported by stakes or 
crutches. In short, the plum tree wants watch 
ing and attention for a successful result in its 
fruit. 
VARIETIES. 
These are many, and as we before observed, 
the most successful, and the best in flavor are ot 
domestic origin—with the exception of the true 
Green Gage, which is of French origin, and ex¬ 
ceedingly difficult to produce here in perfection. 
That variety has been long among us, and given 
birth to many sub-varieties, none of which equal 
the parent in exquisite flavor, but they are still 
among the best we cultivate. The choicest, in¬ 
deed, hold strong relation to the true Green Gage, 
although, both in color, size, and flavor, they some¬ 
times partake more of the characteristics of other 
original varieties which have contributed, in a de¬ 
gree, to their parentage. Many of these sub- 
varieties, more or less require the soils and locali¬ 
ties from which they originally sprung—some of 
them being refractory and almost worthless when 
removed to other distant localities, while others 
are placable and kind in their production. As with 
most other fruits, however, the choicest kinds 
are the least reliable, both in growth and crop, 
like the Jefferson, for example, which is a direct 
seedling from the Green Gage, and is rarely cul¬ 
tivated with success at all out of the vicinity of 
Albany, the place of its origin. 
Among the select varieties, we consider the 
Smith's Orleans the best of the blue plums, being 
large in fruit, delicious in flavor, a hardy tree, 
and full and constant in bearing. Among the 
yellow varieties, are the Bleecker’s, Prince’s and 
Imperial Gage, and, best of all, the Washington 
Among the reds and purples are the Red and Pur¬ 
ple Gages, and the Lombard. Added to these 
are many others of local or wide-spread celebrity, 
which are, more or less, known among the plum- 
growers, or found in the books, from which a 
choice can be made, as the taste or fancy of ama- 
teu r s or orchardists may select. 
As a market fruit, however, the most profit¬ 
able, as well as reliable, the several sub-varieties 
of the common blue, or horse plum, take pre¬ 
cedence. Among these is the Frost, a kind much 
cultivated along the Hudson River; small, and 
late, and fine for preserves and drying. All these, 
usually seedlings, or suckers from the roots 
of olher trees, are easily propagated, hardy in 
growth, and abundant bearers. Choice plums, as 
a market fruit, are so perishable, and chiefly 
wanted for immediate use or drying, that, in any 
quantity, they will bring Jitlle more in price than 
the coarser ones, and, unless under very favor¬ 
able circumstances, can scarcely be recommended 
for that purpose. 
DRYING PLUMS FOR MARKET. 
Where they flourish with certainty, the com¬ 
mon plum can be made a profitable crop by gather¬ 
ing them just before fully ripe, and drying them 
in kilns or ovens made for that purposo. They 
thus become a domestic “ prune,” equal in quality 
to the foreign article so well known among the 
shopkeepers, and freely consumed in our larger 
towns and cities. A tightly built room of a few 
feet square, with a stove in it, and racks resting 
on cleats upon the walls, put up in the simplest 
manner, receives the fruit. They are dried in a 
day or two, and can be bagged and hung up for 
family use, or m >rket, at pleasure. Many farmers 
drive a profitable item of business in that line 
