260 



THE CANADIAN HOETICULTUBI8T. 



Russian apples. I never saw one that 

 spotted or cracked. 



Prolific Sweeting is the only large 

 fall sweet, at once productive, hand- 

 some, good and iron-clad, that I have 

 yet got hold of. It is a vigorous, up- 

 right tj-ee, about with St. Peter in 

 coming to bearing, but very productive 

 after say ten years' planting. The fruit 

 is large, fair, smooth, I'oundish oblate 

 (flattened), straw-yellow in color when 

 ripe, not so good as some of your best 

 dessert fall sweets of Southern Maine, 

 (the old Franklin Sweet, for instance) 

 but full medium in quality, or " very 

 good," and a quick selling apple bear- 

 ing transportation well. Season, all of 

 Sept. and into Oct. It is a fine baking 

 apple. Top grafted on Tetofsky, it 

 bears quite young. 



The last apple I shall speak of this 

 time is one that I have been very slow 

 in making up my mind about. It has 

 bfcc;n the longest coming to full bearing 

 of any of my Russians imported in 

 1870, and has changed and improved a 

 good deal since it first showed fruit, 

 four or five yeai-s ago. This is the 

 Golden White. The tree is a most 

 vigorous grower, even in poor soil, with 

 large, thick, dark green leaves, white 

 beneath as a silver poplar's — a very 

 peculiar tree. Its growth is spreading, 

 even before it begins to bear, like the 

 Ribstone Pippin. In fact it is a mag- 

 nificent grower of the most robust 

 character of any of the Russians, by 

 far, that I have seen, and yet a true 

 Russian. The fruit is as large as the 

 Baldwin, round, but uneven, like a ball 

 of putty, and with very little basin or 

 cavity. Heretofore with me it has not 

 colored much, but this year there is a 

 full crop that is coloring up well, a dull 

 red, specked with gray, on a dull gray- 

 green ground, odd ratber tlian attra(;- 

 tive, or rather atti'active by oddness. 

 It is a late fall apple, keeping well 

 through November. In quality it is 



mild, pleasant sub-acid, soft-fleshed but 

 not " squashy," and quite fine grained, 

 not high flavored, but a good eating 

 apple. It is so good a token that it 

 might be called early winter even hei'e 

 in lat. 45°, and in Northern Ai'oostook 

 would probably keep longer. It is al- 

 ready becoming popular in Montreal, 

 where, somehow, they got it quite soon 

 after its importation. Mr. R. Brodie 

 of that city exhibited it last year at the 

 Montreal Fair, and spoke strongly in 

 its praise. 



AMONG THE SMALL FRUITS. 

 In such dry seasons as this the bene- 

 fits of growing strawberries by the hill 

 system are very great and plainly to be 

 seen. My plants, kept free from run- 

 ners, kept on bearing long aftei' the 

 '* matted Vjeds" of other growers had 

 begun to wilt in the foliage and fail in 

 fruit. And yet my land is light and 

 poor, and the variety, the Bidwell, 

 which is supposed to be the readiest to 

 fail in maturing its fruit. 



WHAT A NOBLE VARIETY THE BIDWELL IS ! 



That is, where it succeeds. The berry 

 so large and fine, the quality so good, 

 and the yield so abundant. If it would 

 only ship a little better, and if the 

 " greentip" were not so common, it 

 would be about as near perfection in 

 the sti'awberry as we can well expect in 

 this world of imperfections. The only 

 patch at all fairly treated, yielded at the 

 rate of 240 bushels to the acre this 

 year, exceeding both Wilson and 

 Crescent close by. Beat it, who can, in 

 such a season and on rather poor soil. 



" THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM AT THE TOP." 



In the height of the sti'awberry season, 

 I am informed, well-grown Sharpless 

 brought 25c per quart and upwards in 

 Toronto. I found prime Wilson and 

 Manchester retailing on King street at 

 15c per box, while a few blocks away 

 on the same thoroughfare, inferior 



