June 1, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
489 
carefulness ; for even Quinces must be handled like eggs to avoid the 
discoloration of bruises.” 
The extracts show conclusively the pains taken by the American 
grower to produce the finest and most fruit consistent with the regular 
bearing of the trees ; also the care bestowed in packing and presenting 
it in such guise as to tempt customers as well as meet the requirements 
of all classes of buyers, and, of course, to the mutual interests of grower 
and consumer. 
“ Plum-growing, however, is perhaps the most absorbing interest of 
the Maxwells at the present time. The orchards are two, one of 
75 acres and another of 5. In the larger orchard every effort has been 
exerted to make a model commercial plantation, and the results have 
limbs. These, tastefully packed in little boxes, find a ready sale, 
especially in Boston, where the smaller the fruit the better it sells. 
In general, however, the French is considered to be the best of the 
Damsons, with a close second in the King. All the Plum orchards, 
80 acres in extent, are sprayed three or four times each season for leaf 
blight, and the curculios are caught on sheets carried on wheelbarrow¬ 
like frames. During the past season most remarkable results in com¬ 
batting leaf blight were obtained by spraying with modified eau celeste, 
to which soap was added to cause it to spread easily and to adhere to the 
foliage. These Plum orchards are regularly and systematically pruned,, 
and this allows them to be set 15 by 15 feet apart without crowding. 
The Plum industry has many enemies—curculio, black knot, leaf blight. 
Fig. 79.—ALOCASIA SANDERIANA VAR. NOBILIS. QSee page 444.) 
been most gratifying.” Bavay or Reine Claude beads the list. “ The 
tree is a poor grower, and it requires good care and cultivation, and 
perhaps for this reason it commands a high price. The greater number 
of people grow the cheap things, and leave the better markets free to 
their more enterprising neighbours.” How true is it of English growers 
—they g<ow obsolete varieties, glut the market, and the foreign produce 
is held back until a favourable opportunity. “ There is much call for 
Prunes, and the Fellemberg answers for all purposes, from the French 
and Italian to German Prune. It is one of the most reliable fruits of its 
class, and is distinguished in the orchard by its broad growth.” This is 
the Italian Prune, and might succeed in good situations in this country, 
especially in the south, as it certainly does in the north of England 
against a wall, is a good bearer, and the fruit excellent for dessert or 
culinary purposes. 
“ To the curious observer who is fortunate enough to drive through 
this great orchard in August nothing will be so interesting as the long 
rows of Damsons, with neat little fruits hanging in ropes on the bending 
and a host which has not yet been reduced to the limits of the alphabet; 
yet the crop is a profitable one if the grower know how to produce it.” 
“ Six acres of Peaches—large Hill Chili, Salwey, and Early Rivers— 
have been an unusually successful venture. A good crop is obtained two 
years out of three, and the Chili, and sometimes the others, are syste¬ 
matically thinned in early summer. The trees are round-headed 
standards, and are severely shortened-in every spring. Peach culture is 
an important industry in Western New York, finding its home upon the 
elevations which skirt the interior lakes, and upon the bolder ridges 
along Erie and Ontario. 
” Seven acres of Cherries—Montmorency and English Morello, an 
orchard of Seckel [Seckle] Pears, Apricots, 70 acres of Oranges in 
Florida comprise the remainder of the Maxwell’s fruit plantations, all 
of which are renowned for the most intelligent care and management.” 
Other matters relating to the nurseries of the Messrs. Maxwell are ably 
treated by Mr. L. H. Bailey in “ American Gardening,” but the above 
lengthy extracts are most likely to interest Journal readers.—G. Abbey. 
