74 



The Canadian Horticulturist. 



TOO MANY KINDS. 



Get a few selected trees of undoubt- 

 edly hardy varieties, mainly of such 

 kinds as you find thriving in your 

 neighborhood, and no more than you 

 make up your mind to attend to. 

 Prune early and regularly, and so 

 avoid the necessity of ever cuttmg 

 off large limbs. Don't avail }'Our- 

 self of the assistance of the cows in 

 the operation ; they will do it un- 

 mercifully. Fence them out, and 

 the hens out of your garden. Pre- 

 pare the ground, as for a good crop 

 of corn, set your trees thirty to forty 

 feet apart, and cultivate as long 

 as the trees will allow you. Let your 

 aim be in the orchard to raise 



APPLES AND NOTHING ELSE. 



Other crops among your trees will 

 be at their expense. The greatest 

 drawback to our orchards has been 

 the black spot. It has troubled 

 longer than many suppose. In a 

 report of the fruit growers of the 

 County of Lincoln, dated 1869, we 

 have the following : " The black 

 spot, as it is called, has been worse 

 than ever known before." And the 

 report goes on to name the varieties 

 most affected. So it appears the 

 disease has been going on and in- 

 creasing for some years previous to 

 1869, without either its cause or a 

 cure being discovered. Suddenly as 

 it came, in the season of 1887, it left 

 us, as we hope, for good. During 

 these years, such orchards as had a 

 large proportion of Fameuse and 

 other kinds most liable to the disease, 

 were almost worthless. Mine, about 

 six acres, mostly Fameuse, didn't 

 pay the expense of gathering — a 

 lesson not to have 



TOO MANY EGGS IN ONE BASKET, 



which, when I learned, induced me 

 to go into strawberries, of which I 

 have one-and-a-half acres to crop 

 next year. This year we hand-pulled 

 500 barrels of apples, and sold them 

 mostly at $2 per barrel — a fair price, 

 considering the immense crop. But 



new barrels — and it won't pay to ship 

 them in any other — cost me 32 cents, 

 and freight about 27 cents, reducing 

 the net price to about $1.40. Besides 

 these I had about 200 barrels fallen 

 apples, which netted me 75 cents per 

 barrel. That gives the returns from 

 six acres : 



500 barrels, at |i .40 $700 00 



200 " "75 cents 150 00 



^850 00 



When I see, as I often do, farmers 

 driving out from our back country, 

 depositing our carefully hand-picked 

 apples in bags, and transporting 

 them over roads the roughest, and 

 distances from twenty to thirty miles, 

 I fancy their load reaches their 

 homes in a condition fit only for the 

 cider press, without the trouble of 

 further grinding, certainly not for 

 the desert, and if I could reach their 

 ears to-day I would say, plant an 

 orchard. E. L. Wakeman, in a letter 

 to the Cincinnati Times, during a 

 trip through Nova Scotia, says : 

 " When traveling through the val- 

 leys (Annapolis and Gaspereau) an 

 interesting reflection came to me, 

 and I wondered whether it might be 

 so to others. That was, that where- 

 ever apples grow a kindly, sturdy 

 and progressive people are ever to 

 be found. Think it over, and the 

 idea grows upon one. Great houses, 

 greater barns, fine stock, ample com- 

 petence, large provision for all sea- 

 sons and needs, sturdy ways, sensible 

 thrift, genial neighborings, and all 

 that dear procession of country-side 

 life that has vigor and cheer, with 

 Autumn's noble housings and stores 

 and winter's large and generous 

 delights, marshall the thought in 

 memory's bravest trappings." Be- 

 fore closing, allow me to remind you 

 of the advantage you may turn these 

 long winter evenings to by storing 

 your minds from the book-shelf. 

 Many, even of the priceless cata- 

 logues of the day, afford useful in- 

 formation to the gardener. The 



