Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1902-03-19
AN ADDRESS ON PLUMS.
Read Before the Horticultural Society
Meeting by |. Johnson.

In coming to this meeting 1 thought /
would say few words about plums. Some l
have raised from my own experience aud
some from reading the different reports which
great plum men give us. For the first would
draw your attention to the great blessing we
have in our native plums in this state. We
have great mine of wealth in our native
plums, probably more than we account for.
am speaking of the native plum because as
you all know we have in this country differ
ent plums. Now let me say few words
about the different types of plums, all Of
which have greater or less value in some
parts of the state, perhaps not here, but some
where else. Ifs man is going to plant few
or greater number of plum trees, 1t is well
worth his while to get acquainted with these
groups and then know that certain variety
belongs to that type, then we shall have
better idea of the value of these varieties.
We have group called the European" and
many seedlings of same, the Lombard, Tatge,
Communal and many others belong to the
type of European pums. They usually sue
coed in some parts of this country but as a
general rule they are unsafe to plant in North
ern Iowa. The Lombard and communice
will under favorable conditions bear a fair
crop ONCE III zen UT tWelVe years. we nave di-
SO the Japan plum. This is a group Of plums
which came to us about thirty years ago by
the way Of California, and spread In very
short time over the continent. The fruit is
handsome. fair quality, bears early and will
succeed In some places but not with us. In
short will right here say that all those i'm
ported plums have proven a fat failure.
They are not at home here. OF course we may
occasionally find things that will succeed
here, for instance, Russian and Canadian
thistles. Those great nuisances the English
sparrows, the Norway rats, all do pretty well
in our climate, but as general rule the thing
which has originated near a certain locality
at that place does best. And that same
proves with our native plums and that is the
only fruit we can grow successfully In North
ern Iowa year after year almost without
failure. In early days there were numbers OF
varieties and groves of white plums. and
among them could be found varieties about
as good as those we now grow which are
mostly selections from the wild sorts. The
early settlers, instead of going to the nursery
man went to the woods or planted seeds from
the best plums they could find, and large
number of those seedlings proved to be ex-
cellent plums. We have the DeSoto, Hawk
eye, Stoddard, Andersens, Wyant, Wolf and
| long list of good plums, early ones and lale
ones, to select from. or course our native
plums have other weak points. In many
cases the blossoms are defective. Sometimes
the pollen refuses to grow, and in that case
there is no fertilization and consequently the
| fruit will not set, and again some varieties
will not set fruit when fertilized with their
own pollen. This trouble may be- easily
remedied; we must plant different varieties
together that will bloom at the same time.
have noticed on my different trees that there
was as much as twenty days between the
times when certain variety blossomec, and
il would be no use to plant these varieties TO-
gether. The earliest l have are the Aiken
and the Burbank, which blossom at the same
time. So 1t will do well to plant these to
gether and the next early group are the New
man and the Wild Goose, making a good
match to plant together.
Now in closing up would say few words
regarding planting. II was to plant large
amount of plum trees | would get them or
their own roots, II I possibly could get them
The reason / would have them on their owr
roots is if they are grated on to small plum
varieties 1t has a large influence on the plum
for instance II you graft a DeSoto to
poor variety OF stock you would perhaps
sea rcely recognize the fruit as DeSoto. Tn,
fruit will be different In size and color a
general rule and on the roots you can US
the sprouts.
ISAAC JOHNSON