32 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



opinion. It is impossible that any 

 difference of climate can ever make it a 

 grape deserving of cultivation. When 

 Mr. Bucke shows me to the contrary I 

 will then believe I may have been 

 mistaken, but until then I shall con- 

 sider it worthless. Can you tell me 

 whether Mr. Bucke is interested in the 

 propagation of this grape. It looks 

 very like it. 



I may, perhaps, trouble you some- 

 times with a few remarks, if you do 

 not consider my strictures too severe, 

 magna est Veritas et prevalebit. I shall 

 not mince matters. I should not have 

 troubled you, had not Mr. Bucke in- 

 vited criticism. 



Very truly yours, 



James Taylor. 

 St. Catharines. 



[Mr. P. E. Bucke is in no way inter- 

 ested in the sale or propagation of the 

 Burnet grape vines. He is merely 

 giving his impressions of the quality and 

 character of the grape as grown in his 

 own garden in Ottawa. Be charitable 

 towards fellow-laborers in the field of 

 fruit culture. These records of differ- 

 ent experiences are exceedingly valua- 

 ble. We do not get as many of them 

 as we should. They are all needed to 

 enable us to ascertain the true value of 

 varieties not yet widely tested. We 

 must not be too ready to impute selfish 

 motives to those whose opinions and 

 experiences differ from ours. They may 

 be as honest as our own. — Ed. Cana^- 

 DiAN Horticulturist.] 



TO PROTECT TREES FROM MICE. 



Sir, — Seeing in the Horticulturist a 

 correspondent enquiring for the best 

 means to prevent mice from girdling 

 fruit trees, as a fruit grower of over a 

 1,000 trees I give him my experience. 

 One year I lost over 50 trees with 

 mice, with the prospect of ultimately 

 loosing the whole of them. I had seen 



an account recommending old stove 

 pipes, as well as other unwieldly sub- 

 stances. Only think of a 1,000 old 

 stove pipes. So as a substitute for the 

 stove pipes I bought roofing felt, and 

 spread it on the lawn for a few days to 

 partly dry it. I then cut it into strips 

 the required size to lap round, and high 

 enough to come to the top of the snow, 

 tying it with two- strings. This I re- 

 placed for two or three years, the same 

 pieces having been taken care ot. The 

 consequence was I lost no more trees. 

 Two I found where the felt did not 

 quite meet at the bottom were barked 

 at the opening, but nowhere else. The 

 felt should l>e inserted a couple of inches 

 in the ground. 



J. McL. 

 Owen Sound, Dec. 4th, 1882. 



ENGLISH GOOSEBERRIES WITHOUT 

 MILDEW. 



, On page 124, Canadian Horticul- 

 turist for 1882, the standard sorts of 

 English gooseberries are condemned as 

 worthless on account of mildew, <fec. ; 

 but on page 198, one kind is mentioned 

 as being free from this defect. 



Now of English standaixls I have 

 only five bushes left, and for the last 

 ten or twelve years every berry on 

 every bush invariably mildewed, and 

 what were gathered wei^ picked unripe 

 and very small, and not worth the 

 trouble. Thanks however to your ably 

 conduct«Kl Magazine, early last spring 

 I saw a hint from one of your corres- 

 pondents, proving that he had found 

 the use of sulphur beneficial. I adopted 

 the suggestion, and the consequence was 

 that there was not one solitary berry 

 upon which the slightest trace of mildew 

 was to be found. The yield was exactly 

 fifty quarts off the five bushes. The 

 berries were remarkably large and clean, 

 equally so with any I have ever seen in 

 England, and attracted the notice of 



