158 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ning through nearly thirty years, varied occasionally by something 
of reality; sometimes by choice ripe Bartletts or Seckels, but more 
frequently by blackened branches, covered with dead and dying 
foliage, and seeming more like nightmare than a pleasant dream. 
Well, the little I have gained is worth something, and I will dream 
on, hoping to make better progress than heretofore. Thirty dwarf 
trees I planted last spring, and my intention is to plant a few every 
spring. I reason in this way: They cost but little, occupy but 
little ground, and the care is not great; consequently, if all fail the 
loss is not severe. A few mild seasons may bring them forward to 
fruiting size, and then a single crop will richly pay for all trouble. 
The roots of dwarf trees must be protected by mulching. The 
top can be kept very low and compact, and may easily be protected 
by corn stalks placed around them and securely tied. 
A cone shaped tree, say three feet at the base and five feet high, 
carrying 50 to 150 Bartletts, averaging twelve to fourteen ounces 
each, will compensate for some vexatious disappointments. 
Five dollars w^orth of plums per tree I have often harvested, con¬ 
sequently I feel sure of doing it again. With this hope, I last 
spring planted fifty trees — ten De Soto, five Weaver, ten Winne¬ 
bago, and twenty-five Lombard. Why did I plant half native vari¬ 
eties? Because I am dreaming that among these there is some¬ 
thing valuable; their endurance, productiveness, and perfect hard¬ 
iness, should and must be made useful to us, and we have no right 
to rest or flag in our efforts until we have an orchard of native 
plums that shall command in marl<^t two to four dollars per bushel, 
and yield crops as abundant and frequent as the wild ones in our 
thickets now do. About the possibility of this there is very little 
doubt, and yet how little we are doing to accomplish it. 
Ways and means to destroy the curculio must enter into all our 
plans for plum culture. Jarring' and hand-picking are effectual, 
but expensive, yet the expense is but a fraction of the value of a 
good plum crop, therefore the neglect and consequent loss strongly 
resembles a sort of shiftlessness, that does not deserve success. 
My neighbor has grown two excellent crops of Lombards, by syring¬ 
ing his trees just as they were fairly out of bloom, and again ten 
days later, with a strong solution of whale oil soap. This is cheap 
and easily applied; let us try it thoroughly and report results. 
My trees are planted in a block by themselves, with the intention 
