The Richmond climax. (Richmond, Ky.) 1897-1914, 1911-01-04

H. ~
must look for your first crop if you have
not already had few plums the sum-
mer before. 1t is not difficult matter 10
carry out the above directions and pro-
duce few plum trees of your very owr.
Try it. 1t will afford you the greatest
amount of pleasure of anything you can
do and will create an interest in some
thing that may open up new life TO
you. Let doctors, merchants, clerks,
bankers, teachers, mothers and in fact
everybody who has a few moments of
leisure and foot or two Of ground, try
it. When we follow just one line, we
soon become narrow. When we lose
our enthusiasm and our interest in the
growing things about US we are about
ready to die, if we are not already dead.
IL your trees are not large enough to bud
in June you can bud them in August or
September. In such case the buds will
remain dormant until the next spring
when they will start to grow. Leave
the Seeding standing until spring.
About the first April take off your
wrappings and examine the buds
Wherever they look to be healthy, cut
off the Seeding just above the bud and
this will force the growth into it. If
some of the buds are dead leave the
seedlings until June and bud again just
below on the opposite side. In this way
you need not lose single Seeding.
After your trees begin to bear fruit,
they will need some protection from in
sects and fungi. Black knot is fun
gus disease of the plum and cherry.
This fungus gets on the limbs and
causes dark colored knot or growth to
form. This, if permitted TO grow will
kill the trees in very few years. 1t
can be checked by cutting off the limb
Just about one inch above the knot and
burning it. In this way you destroy
both the spores and the fungus itself.
The Japanese varieties are usually not
affected by this disease and some of our
best plums come in this variety. The
next enemy we may look fer is the cur
culio. This is a small beetle with a
long snout. 1t climbs around over the
trees and lays its eggs just underneath
the skin of the plum. 1t then takes its
l,a1
around the egg at some distance from it.
The area within this cut usually stops
growth and begins decay. The larva
when Matched viii eat the meat of the
plum and cause it to fall rrematurely.
You can destroy them or at least check
the damage by spraying carefully with
bordeaux mixture containing arsinate of
lead. Perhaps the most effective
method is to prepare a large sheet Of
muslin split to the centre and fastened
by the four corners. This will give a
chance to bring the tree in the centre OF
the sheet but by fastening it along the
slit you can have a complete canvass un-
der the tree. Then take fence rail or
some object that you can handle easily
and after padding the end carefully so
as to not injure the tree, jar the tree
heavily three or four times. Be quick
or the beetles may fly after they fall.
You can then pick up those that have
fallen on the sheet and crush them.
Another method of getting rid of them
is to hang a half dozen pint, large
mouth bottles around over the tree
into which has been put an inch or two
of sweetened water. Tie these close to
some of the limbs and large number
of beetles will be attracted and killed.
II you can keep out the black knot
and keep off the curculio you viii have
abundant crops. II you graft on TO
peach bases or seedlings, it will De neces
sary for you to look after the borers
which may attack your trees just below
the ground.
If you find any, cut them out and fill
in around the tree with coal ashes. If
you have made these trees yourself you
will be very likely t, protect them from
enemies but if you have bought the
trees you may neglect them. In either
case you should give them the proper
attention. Do not let the grass or weeds
grow around your trees. Dig around
them in the spring and stir The ground
little after each rain during the sum
mer and if the ground is not very rich
put some well rotted manure around
each tree and it will pay you big
/ wish to call attention to some of the
more desirable varieties for YOU to try.
OF the European varieties tho following
should be planted in every farmers
orchard. Blocker, rapid grower,
young bearer medium size, purple color
with yellow flesh and very fine.
Bradshaw, very early, rapid grower,
dark violet red color and very good.
Goes Golden Drop. light yellow. quite
large very prolific and ripens the last of
September. Grand Duke, late plum,
very fine. dark blue. thrifty and one Of
our best market plums. Green Gage,
excellent quality, green color, medium
size, very prolific, long lived and should
be in every orchard. Monar,ih ripens
in October. very large dark blue. new
plum, fine quality, and abundant bearer
and is fast becoming valuable tree in
this country. Red MagnuH Bonum,
ripens in August. highest quality, weak
in pollin and should be plated with
other trees. 1t is strong glover and
very productive. Peters Yellpw Gage,
the best yellow plum. rich juicy flesh,