206 



THE CANADIAN HOK riODLTUBIS T. 



ate the stem through. I picked the 

 fruit up, but as my eyesight is Dot as it 

 used to be, I could not tell, and my 

 daughter had my microscope at school 

 with her, so in the dark I concluded the 

 insect ate the stem through, and as I 

 could not find the insect I longed for a 

 sparrow and a stone to throw at it, or a 

 gun to shoot it. We grow in this sec- 

 tion abundance of wild plums, and 1 

 find that the crop is a fair one this 

 season. 



I must not forget to mention that 

 amongst other things I got from Purdy 

 was a Russian apricot, and I am de- 

 lighted to be able to say for the encour- 

 agement of others that it is doing splen- 

 didly, but I am a little afraid it is growing 

 too fast for the coming winter. Will 

 you please tell me if I am wrong. I 

 think of cutting 8 or 9 inches off the 

 longest shoots, and this is a thing I 

 had rather not do if it would do with- 

 out it. 



All the above varieties of fruit trees 

 and grape vines (the Worden, Moore's 

 Early, Champion, Brighton and others), 

 were planted in sod and are doing well. 

 When I say planted in sod, perhaps I 

 had better explain that after ploughing 

 I dug out the sod, broke it up, and in 

 the hole I put a shovelful of sand. On 

 this I spread out the roots of the vine 

 or tree ; I then covered the roots well 

 with sand. On top ot this I placed the 

 broken-up sods ; the soil is clay loam. 

 My theory was if you take a man from a 

 rich diet to a poor one he does not suf- 

 fer from indigestion, but if you take him 

 from a low diet to a rich one there will 

 be sickness sure, and we certainly kill a 

 great many of our trees with the food we 

 give ; it makrs them grow too fast, and 

 they are then too tender to stand our 

 winters. 



My trees did not grow much last 

 year, but they now are doing fine and 

 are looking extremely healthy. I am 

 only afraid of my apricot; it is doing too 



well to stand the winter. All my 

 acquaintances tried to persuade me to 

 summer-fallow, not to attempt to put my 

 valuable trees into turned-up sod ; 

 passers bye would look over the fence 

 and laugh. I could not prevent this ; 

 they have had their laugh and I have 

 gained a year with my trees The 

 ground, too, was uneven, and when I 

 came to a hollow place where water 

 would stand, I still planted a tree but 

 did not dig a hole; I stood the tree up 

 and built earth over the roots. I 

 wheeled sand round it and rotten manure 

 near the top, and then earth. By this 

 means I had no blanks in the rows. If 

 I had not taken my own plan of it I 

 would have had to borrow a piece of 

 ground to put the valuable trees into 

 for a year that I picked up in the man 

 ner mentioned above. I did not lose a 

 single tree. I have often made the boast 

 that I never planted a deciduous tree 

 that did not grow, but last year when I 

 looked at the ground (sod and full of 

 scutch) I thought, well, the boast will be 

 taken out of me this time. The trees I 

 got from Purdy had been a long time on 

 the road, and some of them had grown 

 and were blanched when I took them out 

 of the boxes. A fellow traveller in 

 amateur horticulture was present and 

 said he would not give me 10 cents for 

 the whole thing, and what would be the 

 use of planting them. 



I have written the above facts, Mr. 

 Editor, for those of your readers who 

 are very orthodox and think two or three 

 years must be spent in preparing the 

 ground before fruit trees can be planted 

 in it. I have read a great deal about 

 the ground being well manured the year 

 previous, &c. 



I beg now to state that I read the 

 yearly report of the Association with a 

 great deal of pleasure, and I consider I 

 derive a great deal of profit from said 

 reading, but when I tell your readers 

 that this spring, besides planting 150 



