THK CANADIAN HORTICCLTURIST. 



33 



This year has been a decidedly lean 

 one for fruit in the Lake Ontario coun- 

 ties. The principal cause of failure 

 elsewhere — the cold wet weather of the 

 blossoming season — operated fatally 

 here also. Prince Edward has been the 

 most fortunate county of the group, 

 yielding a surplus of apples, pears and 

 plums; and some localities near the 

 lake in other counties have done fairly 

 well. In South Ontario plums, pears 

 and small fruits have been moderately 

 plentiful. Plums, indeed, have shown 

 a surplus in neai-ly all the counties of 

 the group ; though black knot has been 

 highly destructive of trees in Peel, 

 Halton and Wentworth. But apples 

 are very scarce everywhere, and ai-e j 

 blighted and wormy. Grapes are a poor 

 crop ; they failed to ripen, owing to 

 frost and mildew. Lincoln is the only 

 county that produced a surplus of 

 peaches. The wet season, while so in- 

 jurious to fruit, was conducive to a 

 strong, healthy growth of young wood. 



The St. Lawrence and Ottawa coun- 

 ties tell the same story of failure, from 

 the same general cause — the cold, wet 

 spring, and the shortness of the ripening 

 season. Plums are the only fruit in 

 surplus, and these chiefly in the western 

 counties of the group. The apple crop 

 is very light ; in some norther-n locali- 

 ties the fruit was attacked widely with 

 black scab. Seedling apples are said to 

 have succeeded better than grafts. A 

 severe early fi-ost .destroyed many 

 grapes, and most of what remained 

 failed to ripen owing to the shortness 

 and coldness of the season. 



Fruit trees in the East Midland coun- 

 ties are healthy and are growing well, 

 but the fruit is precarious. Plums and 

 crab apples ai-e the only kinds produced 

 in surplus. Black scab is very injurious 

 to apples. 



Few and feeble are the attempts 

 made at fruit ffrowins: in the Northern 



districts ; the trees cannot, as a rule, 

 stand the severe winters. Crab apples 

 yield plentifully, but there is little of 

 anything else. 



THE MARIANNA PLUM. 



As attention is being directed to the 

 best varieties of the native plums, 

 because of the cri eater hardiness of the 



Makianka Plum. 



trees and their consequent ability to 

 withstand the extreme cold of northern 

 latitudes, we copy from the Farm and 

 Garden the following description of 

 another new sort: — 



This new fruit is an accidental seedling. 

 Tree, a rapid and uniform grower ; straight 

 stem ; lower branches nearly horizontal, 

 and becoming more upright towards the 

 top, forming a compact and symmetrical 

 head. It never suckers and is entirely 

 free from insects. Fruit round, a little 



