in the neighbourhood of Montreal. 103 



twenty years ago. I had a talk with the late Henry Corse, Esq., 

 about that time, on the failure of the Early Harvest apple, and he 

 was under the impression that it was then extinct about Montreal, 

 but I convinced him that it was not, for in each of the above 

 mentioned places, I had seen trees of the Early Harvest which 

 gave from three to four barrels of good apples, but these few 

 trees are, I have every reason to believe, now gone. There were 

 also the Ribston Pippin, (much on the decline these last ten 

 years,) the Keswick Codlin, Hawthornden, Grant's Major, John 

 Richardson ; but these and some others, I always looked upon as 

 being tender, from the softness of their wood, which is not nearly 

 8o hard as that of the Bourassa, Pomme Grise, and Faraeuse, and 

 therefore do not wonder at their destruction. These latter sorts 

 have, however, for the last ten years, been declining in the vigour 

 of their growth, and the size of their fruit. I was for some time 

 under the impression from what I could learn from some garden- 

 ers, and other cultivators of fruit, that the above named three 

 sorts of apples, would not bear fruit in any other locality than in 

 the Island of Montreal, but that impression was completely re- 

 moved, by visiting the Provincial Exhibition held at Brantford, 

 C. W., some years ago. I saw there as fine specimens of the 

 Bourassa, as Montreal could produce in its best days. At Ham- 

 ilton I also visited some of the gardens, and there to my surprise, 

 I found the Pomme Grise, Fameuse, and Ribston Pippin, growing 

 side by side, and loaded with fine fruit, with not the slightest 

 appearance of decay. These remarks, however, are by the way ; 

 the point of discussion, at present, is the cause of the decay 

 in the apple trees in the vicinity of Montreal. There will no 

 doubt be a great many opinions put forth on the subject, and 

 some light will I hope be thus thrown on both the cause and the 

 cure. Were the decay confined to one place, one kind of soil, or 

 one mode of pruning or culture, there would be less difficulty in 

 discovering both the cause and cure ; but when we find the decay, in 

 one fell swoop, taking off the whole of the young orchards that 

 have been planted within these fifteen or twenty years past, and 

 that even the old savage^ as the Canadians call it, that has stood 

 the severity of the winters for the last fifty years, is suffering the 

 same fate, the difficulty of giving an opinion is ail the greater. 

 When also it is observed that apple trees both in the most shel- 

 tered nooks and on the bleakest exposures, on the best alluvial 

 soil, and on the gravelly and limestone rock, all alike share the 



