12 
NOTES ON PLUM CULTURE. 
preparation must be kept in a corked bottle or other closed 
vessel to prevent the evaporation of the alcohol. 
After waxing, the grafted stocks should be returned to 
the cellar and kept at as low a temperature as possible with¬ 
out freezing until the time arrives for setting in nursery. 
The roots may be placed in damp sand, but the scions should 
be subjected to such a degree of moisture only, as will pre¬ 
vent drying out. The practice as here outlined is success¬ 
fully followed in our station work. In all grafting of plums 
the scion should be set low on the crown so that when 
planted in the nursery the union may be placed well below 
the surface. 
The plum is seldom worked above the ground, and there 
seems to be nothing in the practice to commend it for prac¬ 
tical purposes. If it is attempted it should only be with va¬ 
rieties of close affinity, and trees of equal vigor. Scions from 
a slov.'growing tree can not keep pace with the branches of 
a strong-grower, and if the strong scion is worked on the 
slower stock it soon out-grows it and the wind breaks it off. 
A scion of Indiana Red worked on a wild Americana stock 
three feet above the ground produced a straight whip five 
feet and four inches long; three feet above the union the 
new growth had the same diameter as the stock at the 
ground. It yielded to a moderate wind. 
Sometimes when new varieties are procured for trial, a 
few scions are worked on old trees of some Americana var¬ 
iety with a view to obtaining fruit quickly. Thus trees of 
Ogon planted in 1804, have not yet fruited because the tops 
have killed back every year, but scions from the same trees, 
taken at the time of planting and worked on Prunus Ameri¬ 
cana have given us fruit for four seasons. Several other 
varieties treated in the same manner at the same time, have 
fruited, but all, or nearly all are now dead. 
PRUNING. 
Plums are pruned for the purpose of forming and maintain¬ 
ing a symmetrical, well-balanced top. Five or six branches, 
equally distributed about the stem, and having some verti¬ 
cal separation are selected to serve as a framework of the 
top. All others are removed and the leader is shortened. 
The branches retained should be cut back to some extent, 
but this, as well as the shortening of the leader must be de¬ 
termined for each tree, being dependent upon the root 
system and the apparent vigor. In shortening the branches 
