Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota, 1916. Various

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ I believe one plant of everbearers can produce a quart the season of setting. I know of the five bushels to the square rod, and the other fellow had four and a half bushel of Wilson.

Surprise Plum a Success.

       Table of Contents

C. A. PFEIFFER, WINONA.

       Table of Contents

      I realize at the outset that I am treading on delicate ground in undertaking to defend the Surprise plum, on account of it having been discarded by our fruit list committee, but after seeing our young trees producing this year their third consecutive heavy crop I feel justified in taking exception to the action of the committee. My first experience with the Surprise plum dates back to 1897, when Mr. O. M. Lord, of Minnesota City, probably the best authority on the plum in the state in his time, presented me with one tree, which at that time were being sold at $1.00 each, and I was cautioned against giving it too much care or I would kill the tree, and that is just what happened to it.

       C. A. Pfeiffer, Winona.

      The following year, 1898, I bought twenty-five trees from Mr. Lord and planted them late in March, on very sandy land on a southerly slope, pruning the trees back almost to a stump. These trees were very slow in getting started but made a satisfactory growth before the season was over. They commenced to bear the third year after planting, and are still producing good crops, but it is my more recent experience with this variety that finally induced me to prepare this article. In the spring of 1909, we set out 160 plum trees, on rich, black, loamy soil on low land, nineteen of them being Surprise, the other varieties being, according to numbers, Terry, Ocheeda, Stoddard, Hawkeye, Bursota, Wolf, Omaha also a few Jewell, DeSoto, Forest Garden, American and Stella. The Surprise trees bore a crop in 1913, again in 1914, and 1915, making it to the present time not only the most productive but the most profitable variety on our place. While we did not keep an accurate record of the exact yield in 1913 and 1914, some of the trees produced fully five 16 quart cases in 1913. A fair average would perhaps be about four cases per tree. In 1914 the crop was somewhat lighter, yielding an average of three cases per tree. This year we picked and sold eighty-five cases, which brought us a gross revenue of $79.60. We lost part of the crop on account of continual rain in the picking season, or we would have had fully 100 cases. Nine of the trees being in a more sheltered location than the other ten held their fruit better during the growing season, and produced a relatively heavier crop than the ten that were exposed to our fierce winds all summer.

      We have never been able to supply the demand for them, at good prices, while other varieties went begging at any kind of a price. Among their good qualities with us are productiveness, good size, extra fine quality and attractive color. They are delicious to eat out of hand just as they are ripe enough to drop from the tree. They are fine for canning, preserving or jelly. They are practically curculio proof, and have never been affected with brown rot as have some other varieties. Aphis never bothers them, while Terry and some other varieties nearly had the whole crop ruined by this pest in 1914. The branches form good, strong shoulders at the trunk and do not split or break down in heavy storms or under their heavy loads of fruit, as the Terry and Forest Garden do. The flower buds and fruit form as freely on the new growth as on the old spurs. The crop is therefore about evenly distributed all over the tree, and while we picked almost eight cases from one tree this year it did not appear to be overloaded, as some varieties frequently are, the Surprise tree always being capable of maturing all the fruit that sets.

      We have shipped them 300 miles by freight with perfect success, but we pick them from the tree before fully ripe. If allowed to ripen on the tree they drop badly, which bruises and damages them. The trees are thrifty, vigorous growers with beautiful glossy foliage that can be distinguished from all other varieties.

      You would note on examination of the buds that we have promise of another crop next year, but this will depend somewhat on the weather during the blooming season. We attribute one of the reasons for our success with the Surprise plum to the fact that they are planted among and alongside of varieties that have the same season of blooming, and which undoubtedly are good pollenizers, namely the Bursota, Wolf, Ocheeda and Omaha. The bloom of Surprise being almost sterile, they will not be a success planted alone.

       A Surprise plum tree growing on the place of Prof. A. G. Ruggles. It bore in 1914 four bushels, having been well sprayed with arsenate of lead and bordeaux mixture.

      You will perhaps ask if there are no faults or diseases they are subject to, and we will state, for one thing, the fruit drops too easily when ripe, and you will either have to pick them before fully matured or find a good many of them on the ground. They are also occasionally subject to blossom blight, which was rather a benefit, as it thinned the crop out to about the proper proportion. We also had considerable plum pocket and fungous growth one season about ten years ago. Such has been our experience with the Surprise plum—and will again repeat that until the society finds a plum equally as good or better, instead of discarding it on account of unproductiveness and recommending such poor quality varieties as Wolf, DeSoto and some others, our learned horticulturists should make a special study of this variety and ascertain the cause of its unproductiveness, and also to what localities in the state it may be adapted.

      Mr. Pfeiffer: Right here I will say to those gentlemen who are looking for a cure for brown rot or curculio, they had better plant Surprise plums. (Applause.)

      Pres. Cashman: I am glad the Surprise plum has at least one good friend in this audience. I think it has several.

      Mr. Ludlow: What has been your experience with the Ocheeda? I see you mention it.

      Mr. Pfeiffer: The Ocheeda at the present time, I am sorry to say, I am disappointed with. I planted some fifteen years ago, and they were nice large plums, as you have described, and they were on sandy soil. I have twenty Ocheeda trees now, and they are quite badly subject to brown rot. Their quality is very nice to eat from the tree out of hand, nice and sweet.

      Mr. Street: I want to second everything Mr. Pfeiffer has said. I joined this society about twelve years ago, and it was through studying the reports of this society that I got interested in the native plum. The Surprise plum does very well with us in Illinois. Professor Hansen is one of those that are responsible for my starting in with the Surprise. It was years ago at our state meeting that he mentioned that as one of the good plums for Northern Illinois. Well, I put it alongside of the Wyant and the native plums that are of the same sort. I may state the conditions under which we grow them. We always cultivate before bloom, cultivate thoroughly. Before the growth starts we give them a very thorough spraying with lime-sulphur spray; then just before the bloom, just before the blossoms open, as late as we can wait, we use about 1 to 40 or 50 of the lime-sulphur solution, also put in three pounds of arsenate of lead. Then after the blossoms fall we use the same spray again, perhaps two weeks after that again, and we keep that up for about four times. We have had abundant crops, and they have been very profitable.

      Pres. Cashman: I am very glad to know that the Surprise plum has friends in Illinois, and we are also pleased to know that Mr. Street is with us and we hope to hear from him later. The president of the Wisconsin Horticultural Society, Mr. Rasmussen.

      Mr. Rasmussen: I will say the Surprise plum has given just about the same results with us—it СКАЧАТЬ