THE CANAT>IAN HoKTICULTUKIST. 



135 



A FEW THOUGHTS. 



D^AK Sir, — I take this opportunity 

 of sending a few thoughts to you. 1 

 am greatly pleased with your valuable 

 journal on fruit gi'owing. I commenced 

 fruit growing some thirty years ago. 

 1 commenced with one tree, which was 

 seedling or natural fruit. 1 bought 

 seven trees from Mr. Hubbard, Guel{ih, 

 1 eing gi-eatly opposed to agents going. 

 selling worthless trees from the States 

 and elsewheie I purcha.sed titty trees 

 from Mr. McNaughton, which proved 

 to be Culvers, very tine ones. The ne.\t 

 ])urchase, I presume, was from your 

 iatiiei. old Dr. Beadle, of St. Catharines, 

 being tifty-eight apple trees, one pear, 

 and one plum — hfty of which grew. 

 My neighbors bought a lot — all of 

 which died. The collection comyjrised 

 Snow Apple, King of Tompkins, Saxon, 

 Gloria Mundi, Talman Sweet, Kambo, 

 Gravenstein, Wabash Harvest, Golden 

 Pippin, Pound Pippin, Green Pippin, 

 and Greening. The Greening pi-oved 

 worthless, being destroyed with Codlin 

 Moth. We suceeded in catching him 

 by rapping an old rag round the body 

 of the tree. The Snow A|)ple is lit- 

 erally useless, with scabs and small; 

 also some blight came over the trees. 

 The plum was killed with black knot. 

 The pear got destroyed by accident. 



Mr. Editor, I am very fond of trying 

 experiments in grafting. I had a ()lue 

 plum tree entirely covered with black 

 knot, about three inches across. I took 

 my saw, saying to myself, I will cut 

 you off and gi'aft you, if you die it is 

 no matter. I put in two grafts of the 

 Lombard variety, they both grew 

 beautifully and bore bushels of plums 

 twenty years, and not a sign of black 

 knot. I grafted a number of apple trees 

 last year, none of which grew. I 

 attributed my failure to cold weather. 

 I also tried a rose bush, but it failed 

 to grow. I had a prairie change its 

 color from a dark-black to a beautiful 



pink, cind from single to double. J 

 attributed this to the action of the bees 

 carrying the inoculation fiom the one 

 to the other. 1 purchased a number of 

 tine pear trees to experiment on, Mr. 

 Editor being too late to let us know he 

 had such valuable ones for sale, I being 

 partial to his nur.seiy, the other trees 

 having done so well. You sent us a 

 fine picture of a goosebeiry found in a 

 hickory stump, but you did not give 

 the price of it, noi- where it could be 

 got. A kind friend sent me some 

 grapes to the express office the other 

 day, but did not give their names. I 

 also expected one from the Fruit 

 Growers' Association, but it did not 

 come. 



Now, in conclusion, Mr. Editor, we 

 wish you to be long spared to occupy 

 the editorial chair. We will not com- 

 plain like that old crabbed Scotchman, 

 telling you you were a paid functionary, 

 and putting fine pictures in your jour- 

 nal to attract atter^tion. I think they 

 look beautiful, and make quite an 

 attraction in this fast age. I was very 

 highly entertained by Mr. Charles 

 Arnold, of Paris, while passing there 

 on business one day. He showed me 

 his beautiful roses, grapes, and his ex- 

 periments on wheat by hybridizing. 

 I remain, &c., 



JoHx Laing. 

 Puslinch, Corwhin P. O., Unt. 



BEST DESSERT APPLES. 

 I have recently assisted to award the 

 prizes for fruit at two large autumn 

 shows, a circumstance which has given 

 me an opportunity of testing the quality 

 of various varieties. In each instance 

 a class was provided for a single dish of 

 ri[)e apples, and we wei-e supposed to 

 taste each dish. At one place there 

 were forty exhibits, at the other about 

 thirty, and though it might appear some- 

 what of a lottery to judge .so many by 

 taste, I nevertheless think we wei-e 



