Plums keep tolerably well, and some sorts, like that excellent variety, Coe’s Golden Drop, keep an astonishingly long period under certain favourable conditions. The best-preserved samples we ever saw of this variety were suspended to footstalks on lines stretched across a dry room; and if we remember rightly, they have been kept in that condition for 2 months. Some wrap the fruit in dry paper, and, if we are not mistaken, Reeves has somewhere stated that he has eaten them in good condition 12 months after they were gathered when preserved in that way. Considering what an excellent dessert variety Coe’s Golden Drop is, it is a wonder it has not long ago became the subject of special culture, under glass if necessary, just like the peach and nectarine--it is well worth a house to itself. Another excellent keeping plum of the same breed as Coe’s Golden Drop is the Ickworth Impératrice, which hangs on the tree till it shrivels, and keeps for a long while in the fruit room. Knight, who raised it, states in the Transactions of the Horticultural Society that he has kept fruit of it, wrapped in blotting-paper and kept in a dry room, till the end of March. Blue Impératrice is also said to be a good keeper; and the old damson, so useful for tarts and preserving, is not one of the worst, as it will keep for several weeks if the fruit is spread out thinly on the shelves as soon as gathered. None of the plums keep well after they have been basketed and stored, even for a short time. They get bruised, and, no matter how carefully they are kept afterwards, they soon rot. Everything depends on gathering them before they get dead ripe, and storing properly at once.