The trees of the varieties we have as yet are not very manageable in the orchard. They make a very slow growth and are hard to control, producing at maturity many leaning trunks which are often crooked, as are also the branches which, with the unkempt heads, give an impression of waywardness and wildness. Nearly all of the varieties over-bear and unless thinned the fruits are so small as to be hardly worth harvesting; not infrequently trees die from over-bearing. A few varieties are unfruitful but usually because of defective pollination. Nearly all sucker badly on their own roots, and except in cold regions should be grown on other stocks. In general there are fewer pests to combat with these than with the European plums but yet they are far from being exempt and require on the grounds of this Station quite as much spraying as do other plums. Waugh, who has given the subject much study, claims that the Americanas are not very strong sexually,[113] chiefly because of defective reproductive organs. He found in extensive examinations that 21.2 per ct. of the pistils were defective, ranging from nothing in some varieties to 100 per ct. in others. More seldom the anthers were defective and the flowers were sometimes proterandrous (the pollen maturing before the pistil is ready to receive it), and that they were rather frequently proterogynous (the pistils receptive before the pollen is mature). Waugh holds that in planting these plums, provision should be made for cross-pollination, and recommends as sorts most suitable for inter-planting for this purpose, other varieties of the same species. Plant-breeders have not found that this species hybridizes as readily as most of the other cultivated native plums. This is chiefly due to a seeming lack of affinity for other species. Nevertheless there are numerous Americana hybrids, and it is likely that as the high quality of the fruit and the hardiness of the trees become better known they will be used much more for hybridizing. The Americana plums are all hardy and some of the varieties can be grown as far north as general agriculture is practiced. These, with the Nigras, will probably always be the chief groups for dry, cold regions between the Great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains. They may also be relied upon in the colder parts of New York and New England. The flower-buds as well as the trees are hardy, having been known to withstand a temperature of forty degrees below zero. Goff[114] reports that in the winter of 1896-7 the flower-buds of Domestica varieties on the grounds of the Wisconsin Experiment Station were almost totally destroyed though the minimum temperature recorded was only twenty-three degrees below zero, but the flower-buds of Americana varieties were not at all injured. Since the blossoms open comparatively late there is less damage from spring frosts in this than in most other species even of the natives.