NOTES ON PLUM CULTURE. 
15 
tendency is toward too close planting and sometimes this 
is carried to extremes. I have seen several plum orchards 
planted loxio feet that even now when only five years old 
have much the appearance of thickets. Cultivation is im- 
possible, the fruit is small and difficult to get at, insects find 
a safe harbor, and the whole arrangement is unsatisfactory 
and unprofitable. The condition grows worse with each 
year. In most cases the suggested remedy, removing al- 
ternate trees will not be followed until too late, if at all, and 
within a very few years the whole must of necessity be de- 
stroyed and the labor of planting lost. 
The most common practice is to plant 15x15 feet, but 
this is too close for fully developed trees of spreading habit. 
A better plan is to plant 15x20 feet, or to adopt the accepted 
California practice and allow 20x20 feet. There seems to 
be a d cided preference for low-headed trees on the ground 
that they are less liable to injury from winds, and that less 
trunk is exposed to the action of the sun. With low-headed 
trees the disadvantages of close planting are more quickly 
apparent. The best formed trees in the station orchard are 
those headed at from 30 to 36 inches from the ground, and 
this is the distance we prefer. 
Young trees are frequently injured by what are known 
as “frost cracks,” a longitudinal splitting of bark and wood 
on the south side of the trunk, occurring in late winter or 
-early spring and attributable to the extreme daily range of 
temperature which often occurs at this season. To guard 
against this injury the trunks should be protected in some 
way. Various devices have been used, but we have found 
wrapping with burlap the most effective and least expensive. 
Burlap that had been used for baling was purchased at dry 
goods stores for two cents per pound and cut into four inch 
strips, three and four feet long; one pound giving as an 
average 9 strips, d'hese are wound spirally on the trunks, 
being held at the top by a lap, and by tying with cord at the 
bottom. One man can cover from 50 to 60 trees per hour 
with the material prepared and ready at hand. The cover- 
ing is applied in November and removed in April or May. 
The same bands will serve for two or three seasons. The 
whole cost is less than one cent per tree and well repays the 
trouble. 
ARRANGEMENT OF VARIETIES. 
The Wild Goose plum has long been regarded as infer- 
tile when isolated and the same complaint has occasionally 
