THE CANADIAN H0RTICULTUK18T. 



57 



ripe, and although the building would 

 be swarming with bees, and the berries 

 that had burst (as they frequently do) 

 would be emptied of their juices, I have 

 not seen a sound grape punctured or 

 otherwise injured by them. With out- 

 door grajKJS my experience has been 

 the same. I have had as good an op- 

 portunity of judging on this question 

 as most men, and my testimony is that 

 bees never injui^e perfect fruit of any 

 kind. R. Mc Knight, 



President Ontario Beekeepers' Association. 

 Owen Sound, Jan. 19, 1883. 



REPORT ON FRUITS. 



Tlie apple crop in this part of the 

 country has been the j>oorest I have 

 seen for some time ; the show of blos- 

 som was as fine as I ever saw. We had 

 cold, bad weather at the time, which I 

 think injured the blossom. The Snow 

 Apple, Early Joe, Harvest and Nor- 

 ton's Melon set an abundant crop, but 

 the fruit was so spotted and knotty 

 that it was of little worth. Baldwin, 

 Red Astrachan, King of Tompkins, 

 Maiden's Blush, R. I. Greening, Canada 

 Reinett and Ribstone Pippin had a 

 light crop of good fair apples. Alex- 

 ander, Duchess of Oldenburg, English, 

 Roxbury, A. G. Russet, Hubbardston's 

 Nonsuch, Hawthornden, N. Spy and 

 Dutch Mignonne were heavily laden 

 with fruit, some of them as tine as I 

 ever saw. The Fall Pippin, Esopus 

 Spitzenburgh,Gravenstein, Hawley and 

 Indiana Rose Rii)e failed badly. Some 

 did not set any fruit. The Dutch Mig- 

 nonne ai)ple was the heaviest loaded 

 and finest, in size and appearance, they 

 have ever been since bearing. I find 

 ready sale for them on the Brantford 

 market at $1.40 per bushel. They do 

 not appear to be much known. I have 

 not seen any at the market or shows 

 besides my own. They are not on any 

 fruit catalogue that I have. A. J. 



Downing speaks highly of it in his 

 Fruits and Fruit IVees of America. 



The Burnet gi"ai>e has done well 

 with me. It fruited the fii-st time the 

 past season. The Seiiasqua grape failed 

 to grow. The Moore's early gmpe vine, 

 sent last spring, has lived and made 

 fair growth. 



I remain yours truly, 



James Cowherd, 

 Newport P. 0., Ont. 



PEARS CRACKING AND SPOTTING. 



To THK Editoh of the Canadian Hokticultubist : 



Will you, or some of your i-eaders, 

 tell me through your magazine what 

 the cause is of my peai*s cracking and 

 blotting "^ The kind most affected is 

 the Flemish Beauty. I almost lost my 

 whole crop last year. They seemed to 

 be all right until they were about two- 

 thirds gi-own, and then they were first 

 taken with black blotches— just as 

 though they had been splattered over 

 with black ink. This caused the skin 

 of the young fruit to harden, and shortly 

 after the fruit started to crack open. 

 In a great many cases the cracks ran 

 horizontally and reached nearly around 

 the fruit, and in very bad cases it 

 nearly penetrated into the core, and in 

 other cases the cracking will run in all 

 directions without any limit or rule — 

 only to destroy the entire fruit. This 

 trouble made its firet appearance two 

 yeai-s ago, but it was not fatal until 

 last year. I have some trees highly 

 cultivated with top-dressings of wood- 

 ashes — a clean surface — no other crop 

 grown amongst these trees. I also have 

 trees growing in sod without any culti- 

 vation, and their fate is exactly the 

 same as before sttited. All my early 

 pears up to the Bartletts have not shown 

 any signs of the aforesaid disease. My 

 soil has a clay bottom, with a black, 

 rich mould on top, with a good descent 

 in the direction of a running stream of 

 water. I have well on to a hundred 



