THE CANADIAN HORTIUULTUKIST. 



173 



size. Mr. Scott, of Battlefoi-d. said he 

 weighed his fruit, currants, wliich 

 amounted to sixty pounds. I often 

 saw them when growing, together with 

 rhubarb and most all kinds of garden 

 vegetables, with a great variety of 

 flowers. He asked me what I thought 

 of his garden, or did I expect to see 

 such in the North- West. I told him I 

 was most agreeably surprised and wish- 

 ed some more of the Ontario people 

 could see it. 



Wishing the Horticv.lt arist every 

 success, as it richly deserves, 



I am, dear Sir, your well-wisher, 



Timothy Chambers. 

 Presque Isle, Julj', 1884. 



BLACK BIRDS. 



Aye, black-birds, Mr. Editor ! Don't 

 talk to me about sparrows, their depre- 

 dation.s are but as a drop in the bucket 

 compared with these villains. Their 

 conscience, if they have any, is as black 

 as their backs. I had half an acre of 

 these best of all peas. Bliss' American 

 Wonder; it would have done your eyes 

 good to see, and your teeth water to 

 tast(i them. They were all sold on the 

 ground, but I was sold too. " Many a 

 slip between the cup and the lip." In 

 about three days these vagabonds left 

 me nothing but the shells. They came 

 not by the scoi-e, like the puir wee 

 sparrows, but by the thousand. Ask 

 that worthy President of ours, who 

 knows the name of everything living, 

 what their proper name is ; but they 

 don't deserve a name unless its one 

 worse than I can invent. Ask our good 

 friend Goldie, if with all his liking to 

 the feathered tribe ; and it would do 

 you good to see his beautiful collection ; 

 I had that plea.sure, but I saw no black- 

 birds there ; long may lie be spared 

 from them : ask him if he has a word 

 to say in their favour. Why don't you 

 shoot them, perhaps you say. All the 



powdi^r and shot in our town.ship 

 would'nt do that. I bought me a bran 

 new gun and fired away at them till I 

 was tii'ed ; they only chirped at me in 

 disdain. Ask the President again, will 

 Paris Green, Hellebore, London purple, 

 or any of the life extinguishers he 

 knows of extei-minate them, and iiow 

 shall we apply them. I fanc}* his re- 

 ply — ^just what our nurses used to tell 

 us : put ice on their tails. Now some 

 of your readers will sa)^ I have given 

 you just such a bird story, as our friend 

 (I forget his name), did at our last 

 meeting, on pruning ; but I feel that 

 mine is not exaggerated. I think he 

 will admit his was a little. Just such 

 another chapter I could give you on 

 weeds. The weather for tlie last few 

 weeks has been far more favourable to 

 their growth than to our tempers. Be 

 at our President again, ask him if he 

 knows the name of one in a hundred 

 that yields to our hoe ; I'll be iiound 

 he does ; I don't. Of course berries of 

 all kinds share the same fate as our 

 peas. Verily the lines have not fallen 

 to us in pleasant places. 



John Ckoil. 

 Aultsville, .July, 1884. 



DUCHESS D'ANGOULEME. 



I am sure I feel exceedingly gratified 

 and honoured by such a full insertion 

 of my letter to you describing the state 

 of my orcliard, both new and old. 



Regarding the question you kinrlly 

 ask me concerning my Duchess d'An- 

 gouleme pear trees, I may say that my 

 impression is that the trees arc grow- 

 ing so fast that they cannot form blos- 

 som btids ; this I think is borne out by 

 the appearance of the trees at the com- 

 mencement of sjtring, when they seem- 

 ed as though they were thickly stuilded 

 with spines and thorns, which as s))ring 

 advanced developed into leaf Ituds. 

 The drought of June has .seriously 



