232 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



October, 1910 



about 25 pounds. ['"ach of the boxes 

 weighs slightly under nine pounds. Cirls 

 are employed to do the packing. They 

 pack from 60 to 100 boxes in a day in 

 this manner. 



Each box contains from 20 to 25 

 peaches, the number contained being 

 stainped on the outside of the box. The 

 ends have an ;ittractive label pasted on, 

 entitled "Canadian Grown Peaches." 

 The paper in which the peaches are wrap- 

 ped is also stamped "St. Catharines Cold 

 Storage Co., Ontario, Canada." 



LOADING THE OAES 



Great care is taken in preparing and 

 loading the cars. The bottom and sides 

 of each car are slatted, and the crated 

 boxes are placed in tiers seven high and 

 six wide, and a space of about three 

 inches left between each tier, and over 

 every tier narrow strips are run across 

 the car to keep them from moving. All 

 these precautions are taken to ensure 

 good ventilation between the packages. 

 A car will hold almost 1,200 of these 

 boxes, or 400 crates ; but the shipment I 

 am describing only contained 700. 



The car is iced 12 hours before the 

 fruit is placed in it, and the fruit itself 

 is also pre-cooled. On the previous ship- 

 ment to Montreal the temperature of the 

 car never rose above 45°. A thermo- 

 graph is also used on board ship, and 

 the temperature is kept well down till 

 within a day or two of landing, when it 

 is allowed to gradually rise to the tem- 

 perature of the outer air to avoid the 

 condensation of moisture upon the fruit. 



In shipping fruit long distances by car 

 from California and elsewhere, pre-cool- 

 ing of the fruit and the pre-icing of cars 

 have been found to be of vital importance 

 The St. Catharines Company is wisely 

 adopting similar methods. 



This package would seem to me to be 

 a very good one for the western trade. 

 The St. Catharines Cold Storage Co. 

 are, however, using a larger box for 

 their trade, holding about 60 peaches, 

 and weighing about 26 pounds. These 

 boxes are in my opinion far superior to 

 the Georgia carrier crate. 



Mr. Dobson, the St. Catharines Cold 

 Storage Company, and the Government 

 officials already mentioned, are to be 

 highly commended for the thorough and 

 efficient way in which they are handling 

 these shipments of fruit. The peaches 

 are very carefully picked and handled 

 previous to being packed in the boxes, 

 the baskets in which they are picked 

 being lined with excelsior. They are of 

 the Elberta variety and are shipped as 

 soon as they are slightly colort^. 



If fruit trees are kept well pruned they 

 make stronger growth, distribute the 

 fruit more evenly over the trees, the trees 

 are more shapely, and less fruit is likely 

 to be knocked off by the wind and the 

 fruit is more easily picked. ^ 



Familiar Autumn Flowers* 



Major H. J. Snelgrove, M.A., Ph. D., Toronto 



THE Golden Rod family, with its 

 thirty-odd members, "all well de- 

 fined," gild field and glen, on hill- 

 side and unfrequented wayside. By an 

 expression of the choice of the people of 

 the United States not many years ago, 

 the (iolden Rod was selected by an over- 

 whelming majority as the representative 

 American wild flower. 



The botanical name of the cultivated 

 aster, is from two Cireek words, meaning 

 beautiful crown. This popular flower 

 comes to us from China and Japan. The 

 Victoria is an old favorite, whose flow- 

 ers in a great variety of colors, are soft- 

 rayed and have a reflex curve. Truffaut's 

 aster is incurved, and has a large range 

 of colors. There is a quilled aster of Ger- 

 man fame which has distinct needles. 

 The Triumph is a variety with brilliant 

 red flowers. One of the most beauti- 

 ful newer varieties is the Comet. This 

 is a flower with reflex curling rays of a 

 singularly translucent quality of color. 

 The white ones are particularly delicate 

 and altogether lovely. There are many 

 new varieties advertised in the florists' 

 catalogues, but it will be found that they 

 do not diverge greatly from the types 

 above mentioned. 



The garden Petunia gets its name from 

 "petun," the aboriginal name for tobac- 

 co. It belongs to the night shade fami- 

 ly, and is a near relative of common to- 

 bacco. The finest of all the petunias are 

 called Giants of California. They are 

 hybrids raised by a lady whose health de- 

 manded outdoor exercise in a warm, 

 sunny climate. These flowers measure 

 four or five inches across and possess ex- 

 ceedingly brilliant hues. 



The Larkspur (Delphinium) comes var- 

 iously from Europe, Siberia and China. 

 It has a lovely spear of deep blue or 

 purple or light ultramarine color, which 

 gracefully waves to and fro in every 

 passing zephyr. 



The old fashioned hollyhock still holds 

 its place in the modern garden, but the 

 old single variety is being displaced by 

 a double one which is as full as a Paul 

 Neyron rose and quite as beautiful. 



The Gladiolus has been much improved 

 by hybridization so that the old red and 

 pink varieties have been supplanted by 

 an infinite number of brilliant-hued flow- 

 ers, the finest of which have been pro- 

 duced by Mr. H. H. Groff, the eminent 

 Canadian horticulturist of Simcoe, Ont. 

 Everyone who has seen them can testify 

 to their matchless beauty. 



Phlox is the Greek name for fire, and, 

 although all the phloxes are not fiery 

 hued, there are many of them red enough 

 to deserve the name. They are North 

 American plants. The annual variety, 

 'OoDtinued from last issue. 



Phlox Drummondi, comes from Texas 

 originally. The range of color in the 

 prummond phlox is extraordinary. 

 There are cream, white, pale yellow, 

 pale salmon pink, deep pink, crim.son 

 pink, magenta, purple, lilac, pure red 

 and crimson . They begin to flower in 

 June and about the last of October Jack 

 Frost snatches the last lingering blos- 

 som. Phlox decussata, the perennial 

 variety, is not quite as brilliant in color- 

 ing, but it is refined and delicate and 

 has the advantage of permanency. The 

 best hues are crimson, magenta and 

 pink, with variations. The nurseries are 

 offering long lists of named varieties, 

 but the nomenclature will be found un- 

 reliable. The root of the perennial var- 

 iety should be divided every second or 

 third year. 



The beautiful fringed gentian must 

 ever remain associated with the poet 

 Bryant, who has written such charming 

 lines about it. To him it was the flower 

 of hope which comes 



" When shortening days portend 

 The aged year is near his end" 

 and with calm eye 1 ook through its 

 fringes heavenward ; and he thought it 

 was as blue as the sky. But the blue 

 of the flower is not as true as its ex- 

 pression of hopeful dependence. There 

 is, indeed, a heavenly peace expressed 

 by every one of its lines. The flower 

 cups are opened and closed according 

 to the brightness or dullness of the day. 

 If a burst of sunshine occurs on a dull 

 day the flower expands in a few minutes. 

 It always closes at night, and it will not 

 open the next day if the sun does not 

 shine. 



Nicotiana affinis is a sweet-scented, 

 white-flowered tobacco which blooms in 

 late summer. The peculiarity of this 

 charming flower is that it opens about 

 sunset, emits a faint perfume, and then, 

 when broad daylight returns, looks limp. 



A LATE BLOOMER 



Cosmos is a beautiful white (or pale 

 pink) annual which closely resembles 

 coreopsis or the single dahlia in form 

 and blooms in autumn. This dainty 

 flower comes to us from Mexico and 

 grows wild there as well as in Texas. 

 The variety called Pearl is extensively 

 cultivated by professional florists and 

 is seen in great luxuriant clusters in their 

 shop windows in the large cities. The 

 Texan ladies who come north wonder 

 why we value a flower which is a com- 

 mon weed in their native state. For us 

 it is the last flower of autumn, excepting 

 the chrysanthemum. 



CHRTSANTHEMUMS 



The chrysanthemum is an Oriental 

 flower for which we are indebted to China 

 and Japan. Indirectly some of the 



