l82 



TJic Canadian Horticultiifist. 



tain and lake have suffered very little indeed, 

 but in some sections the opinion is freely ex- 

 pressed that even the apples, cherries, and 

 plums are entirely destroyed. One cannot help 

 hoping that when the flash of disajipointment 

 has passed away, the prospects will look 

 brighter. In this immediate locality, straw- 

 berries will be a good crop and of fine quality. 

 Other small fruits promise well ; pears will be 

 a fair crop as well as jjeaches and jjlums ; 

 grapes, where not injured by frost, will be a 

 tine crop ; apples will not turn out nearly so 

 well as last year, although the quality may in 

 a measure make up the general average. The 

 codling moth, I think, lias not done as much 

 damage as in other years, perhaps on account 

 of the cool and wet weather. The Greening is 

 promising again to be more productive than ■ 

 other varieties. I am glad to see that variety, 

 so much desjiised a few years ago on account 

 of its color, maintaining' its old reputation for 

 quality and productiveness, being superior to 

 many of the red varieties, — fine feathers they 

 say make fine birds, but that will not apply in 

 all cases to fruits. On the whole I think we 

 may fairly sum ujj the prospects by saj'ing 

 there need be no cause for alarm, there will be 

 on the whole a fair average crop, and perhaps 

 the large commission houses may wisely dispense 

 with their dumping grounds for this season, as no 

 great over-supply need be apprehended. — A. 

 H. Pettit, Grirashy. 



also took each observation with duplicate 

 thermometers, so I am sure they were accurate. 

 —George Bcnburt, Suffolk Lodge, Oakville. 



Halton County 



Sir,— The frost of the 26th ult. did a good 

 deal of harm h^re, but the frost of the 29th 

 played havoc. The strawberry crop is about 

 half destroyed. Apples and grapes almost 

 entirely. The latter were ruined at once, but 

 the apples showed no ]>alpable injury until 

 last week, when almost the whole of the 

 blossoms fell off — Ribstons and Blenheim 

 Orange seemed to have suffered the most, and 

 they gave a splendid promise this spring. As 

 far as I can see Greenings and Russets seems 

 to have fared best, but the blossom of the 

 latter was light. Raspberries, black caps and 

 blackberries are all now opening their blos- 

 soms, and all show some injury, although not 

 severe. Gooseberries and cherries suffered a 

 little, especially cherries. The Downing goose- 

 berry seems all right, but Crown Bob, White- 

 smith, and Industry, have all shed a lot of 

 their fruit since the frost. Of strawberries, 

 Wilsons are very badly hurt. All through this 

 section. Crescents and Maiiche.steis have 

 escaped fairly well, whilst James Vick is 

 hardly touched. I find also Uauiel Boons, 

 Lacon, Seneca Queen and Atlantic have got 

 off pretty well, and Bid well also keeps ahead 

 of Wilson witli regard to damage received — 

 Monmouth and Jessie with me are totally 

 destroyed, not one berry where there would 

 have been a hundred. On the 29th I kept fires 

 burning all night round my strawberrj^ ground, 

 but do what I would I could not keep frost off 

 entirely. I managed, however, to prevent the 

 thermometer going below thiity degrees, Fahr., 

 whilst on other parts of my farm the thermom- 

 eter went as low as twenty-four and a-half 

 degrees, Fahr. That was at 3.4.5 in the morn- 

 ing. Of course these temperatures were taken 

 with the thermometers laid on the ground. I 



Simeoe County. 



Sir, — The late frosts have done a great deal of 

 damage to fruit here. In the early j)art of May 

 the prospect for a large crop of fruit was never 

 better. But a great change has been made by 

 the exceedingly cold weather in the latter part 

 of the month. Grapes are ruined for this year, 

 and strawberries are badly damaged. Most all 

 of the early blossoms turned black, and in some 

 places gooseberries were frozen and dropped off 

 the bushes. Snow fell here on the 28th, accom- 

 panied with cold wind, resembling a day in 

 March rather than May. And at night the 

 wind feJ] a»d we had a severe white frost, 

 which, in some places, formed ice more than 

 one-eighth of an inch thick. The previous 

 warm weather had forced vegetation at a ra))id 

 rate, so that everything was very tender. But 

 the wet weather' that followed no doubt did 

 much to rejiair the damage done by the frost. 

 Apples and plums escaped pretty well, being 

 too far advanced to be injured very much ; but 

 tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, corn, beans, earlj' 

 potatoes, etc., were almost entirely destroyed. 

 However, many of those things can be replant- 

 ed, and the strawberries continue to produce 

 fresh bloom, .so that, with favorable weather, 

 we may yet have a fair crop. Bvit grapes are a 

 hopeless case for this year, and they had never 

 showed in my experience such an abundance of 

 blossom as they did this spring. I am sorry I 

 did not try the experiment of lighting fires 

 among the grapevines to keep off the frost, 

 as I saw it stated in the Horticulturist some 

 time ago that that is the plan adopted in 

 France. The idea is that by keeping up a 

 constant smoke all night by means cf small 

 fires here and thei-e through the vinej-ard. 

 the smoke will keep off the frost. I believe 

 the Concord vines, with a very little protection, 

 would have come through all right. I would 

 like to hear if anyone tried the smoke remedj', 

 and whether or not they succeeded in saving 

 the crop by it. — G. C. Caston, Craighurst. 



Victoria County. 



vSiR, — I enclose ^-ou the following 

 report on fruit prospects for summer 

 of 1889 : 



Apydes. — All trees blossoming early and that 

 had not borne too heavily in 1887 will, this 

 year, yield a very large crop. The frost of the 

 29th May injured, to some extent, varieties 

 not having their fruit set at that time. 



Blackberries. — Canes look remarkably well, 

 and show plenty of bloom ; a large j'ield may 

 therefore be expected. Unfortunatelj' the 

 cultivation of blackberries is on a very limited 

 scale here. 



Currants. — White and red will yield a large 

 crop, black but moderately. 



Gooseberries. — As usual there will be a large 

 crop of all varieties. The English varieties. 

 Whitesmith, Crown Bob and Industry, are 

 mildewed, but not so badly as in former seasons. 

 The Industry suffers most. The new variety, 



