32 



THE CANADIAN HORTICJCLTURTST. 



Directors decided to offer a yearling tree 

 of this variety to such of the subscribers 

 to the Canadian Horticulturist as 

 would like to give it a trial. Those 

 who reside in the portions of our country 

 where only very hardy fruit trees can be 

 successfully grown, may find it a profit- 

 able sort. 



The accompanying cut will give our 

 readers a good idea of the size and 

 form of the Canada Baldwin. 



FRUIT IN 1883. 

 The following account of the fruit 

 crop, for 1883, is taken from the Agin- 

 cultural Return, published by the 

 Ontario Bureau of Industries for 

 November of that year. 



The importance of the effort now 

 being made to introduce the hardy fruits 

 of North Eastern Russia in order to 

 supply the northern districts of the 

 Province with trees that will endure 

 the severe winters of that region, is 

 made very apparent in the closing 

 paragraph of the report given us by the 

 Bureau of Industries. 



The Bureau returns state that fruit 

 of every kind in the Lake Erie counties 

 has, this year, given a very poor account 

 of itself. At first the long cold spring 

 retarded growth j then came a succession 

 of heavy rains with chilly east winds, 

 which almost entirely stripped the trees 

 of their blossoms. The result was a 

 fine growth of healthy wood, and a 

 veiy meagre crop of very poor fruit. 

 Most counties did not raise even enough 

 apples for home consumption ; and most 

 of the little they had were scrubby, 

 spotted and wormy. Peaches, though 

 not such a dismal failure, were by no 

 means satisfactojy ; there were a few 



good bearings, however, near the lake 

 shore in Norfolk and Elgin. The old 

 demon of the plum tree, black-knot, 

 has this year played havoc with cherry 

 trees also ; and the plum crop has 

 suffered almost complete destruction 

 from the other enemy, the curculio. 

 Frost, cold and mildew have greatly 

 reduced the grape yield. It is worth, 

 noting that fruit trees sheltered from 

 the east winds generally bore well. 



The Lake Huron counties had a sur- 

 plus of apples for export, some of which 

 were shipped at Seaforth to Manitoba. 

 Plums suffered severely from the curcu- 

 lio in Lambton, from black-knot in 

 Huron, and from September frost in 

 Bruce ; still there were good surpluses 

 in many localities. From Bruce comes 

 a complaint of a blight that attacked 

 the trees in July, causing the leaves to 

 drop off. 



A similar blight was very injurious 

 to plums and pears in the county of 

 Grey. Frost also did considerable 

 damage in the southern townships. 

 The curculio was active in Simcoe, yet 

 in the two counties there was a fair 

 sux'plus of plums. Apple tress, though, 

 healthy, blossomed late, and the crop 

 was generally light. Grey, however, 

 showed a good surplus — between Mea- 

 ford and Owen Sound some 6,000 

 barx'els having been expox'ted. 



Throughout the West Midland dis- 

 trict fruit trees gexxerally are healthy, 

 and have xnade considex'able new wood 

 duxixig the seasoxi. CheiTy tx-ees in the 

 western couxxties have almost completely 

 succumbed to the assaults of black-kxxot. 

 In Perth and Wellingtoxx fruit of all 

 descx-iptions is vexy scax-ce. Portions 

 of Middlesex axxd Oxford have gi-own a 

 small surplus of apples. Brant has a 

 sufficiexxcy of all fx-uits, except cherries. 

 Dufferin has a surplus of plums, but 

 late fx'uit in this county was somewhat 

 ixijixred by fx-ost. 



