THE CANADIAN HORTIOULTDEIST. 



CaLTIVATlON OF THE SUGAR BEET. 



The quantity of seed required to the 

 acre for the Sugar Beet would seem to 

 be an insuperable objection to its culti- 

 vation as a financial enterprise, if the 

 statement on page 238 of the Canadian 

 Horticulturist is correct, for it says 

 *' about 10 tons of seed were used to 

 the acre " at Coaticook, P. Q. 



T. B. 



Lindsay, Nov., 1882. 



Thanks are due to our coi*respondent 

 for calling attention to the above error. 

 It should doubtless have read "10 lbs. 

 of seed," tliough we have not now the 

 article at hand from which the paragraph 

 was taken to verify the correction. 



EASTER BKURRE PEAR. 



This pear does well here. The tree 

 is a ffood srrower and bearer. I have it 

 planted for but live years, and it has 

 borne tliree crops of pears. This year 

 it bore a bushel and a half I think 

 that a most excellent crop for so young 

 a tree. The quality is very good for 

 the season when pears are scarce, but it 

 is not as good as some of the fall pears, 

 though a great deal better than some 

 of them. 



Heba Rawlings. 



Ravenswood, Out. 



SOME GRAPES THAT HAVE NOT 

 SUCCEEDED. 



The Rural New Yorker has an ex- 

 perimental station of its own, some- 

 where in New Jersey we believe, where 

 the new and old fruits and other things 

 are tried. We learn as much from 

 failure as from success, and it is but 

 right that the public should be informed 

 of the failures, that they may judge 

 whether it is wise for them to continue 

 the experiment. We clip the following 

 from the Rural Neio Yorker of Nov. 

 2 .th :— 



After what seems a sufficient trial, we 

 have this Fall dug up and thrown away 



the following grape vines : Quassaic (Ric- 

 ketts), too tender ; El Dorado (Ricketts), 

 mildews and rots ; Highland (Ricketts), 

 too late in five seasons out of six, and aour 

 when it does ripen ; Newburgh (Ricketts), 

 too tender ; Rogers' No. 1, Goethe, too 

 late — mildews badly, both leaves and 

 fruit ; Eumelan, grapes fall off. 



PREVENTABLE LOSSES. 

 I see harvested on one farm a mode- 

 rate crop of corn and potatoes ; just 

 across the t'l^uce the yield is only about 

 half as much, an I just beyond it is a 

 total failure. Tlio land has every 

 appearance of being equally fertile 

 naturally. All have suffered from the 

 drought, but not all alike. Here are 

 certainly losses due to thoughtlessness 

 and want of knowledge. It is suppos- 

 able that each of these parties did nearly 

 as well as their knowledge, training 

 and energy permitted, yet the results 

 are widely different, caused by the 

 different degree of these elements pos- 

 sessed by eacli. If this be so, then to 

 avoid the losses of the less successful 

 farmer, his knowledge and land must 

 ai)proximate towards those of the more 

 successful one. I have cited what I 

 consider preventable losses of only two 

 men, but there are thousands of just 

 such men, and tens of thousands of just 

 such cases, in every state. Who is to 

 energize and instruct them ? Who is 

 to train and educate the 12,000,000 

 youth that now reside on the farm, so 

 that such losses may not occur in the 

 future 1 Who is to keep honored 

 fathers abreast of the times — who were 

 born in the beginning of the centuiy, 

 with limited opportunities for acquiring 

 knowledge, and are hardly able to keep 

 pace in their growth unassisted — with 

 th(! improvements wrought by machin- 

 ery, steam and chemistry? Twenty 

 millions of men, women and children 

 on the farm, all to a greater or less 



