82 



THE CANADIAN HOR TTCULTURTST. 



STRAWBEURIKS. 

 I have never cultivated but for family 

 use. I thought of setting out an acre 

 3 feet apart and 18 inches in the row, 

 keep the runners cut off, and two years 

 afterwards planting between the rows 

 and digging out the first planted, and 

 so save the inconvenience of changing 

 the ground. Do you think my selec- 

 tion good with Early Canada, Wilson's 

 Albany and New Dominion. If I 

 should try a few of the new kinds by 

 the way of experiment, which two kinds 

 would you recommend for our cold 

 north 1 



Yours truly, 



John Croil. 



The new varieties of strawberry have 

 not yet been tested in your climate. 

 Suppose you plant Crescent Seedling, 

 Manchester and Bidwell, and tell the 

 Canadian HottlcuUurist how they 

 succeed. — (Ed. Ca7i. Hurt.) 



BARRIE AND STRATFORD. 



BY AN OCCASIONAL CONTRIBUTOR. 



In the January number of the Horti- 

 culturist for 1880, at page 7, may be 

 found a very interesting article from 

 the pen of Mr. A. Hood, of Barrie, in 

 the latter part of which he compares 

 the mean temperature of Barrie, Strat- 

 ford and Toronto for the months of 

 July, August and September, shewing 

 that it is lowest at Stratford. Mr. 

 Hood might have extended his com- 

 parisons to all the other months of the 

 year, and having brought them down 

 to the date of his writing, they would 

 still have shown the same result ; and 

 the reason in all probability is that sug- 

 gested by Mr. Hood, namely, that 

 while Stratford is 1,182 feet above the 

 sea level, Barrie is only 779. It is 

 true Barrie is a degree forth er north ; 

 but the difference in the level above 

 the sea quite counterbalances this It 



is net likely that the beautiful Kempen- 

 feldt Bay, lovely in itself, and rendering 

 the pretty little town on its shores 

 more attractive, exercises any appieci- 

 aV)le influence on the climate ; j)erhaps 

 it may save the fruit blossoms from 

 injury by the May and June frosts. 

 Certain it is that any person who may 

 have the good fortune to visit Barrie 

 in July or August, as the writer did 

 last summer, must be convinced that 

 its soil, climate, and situation, is very 

 favorable for fruit growing. Never- 

 theless the man who said that Stratford 

 may or will become a great fruit grow- 

 ing centre was quite correct. The 

 samples of apples, pears, gi-apes and 

 seedling peaches shewn yearly at our 

 horticultural exhibitions, compnre fav- 

 ourably with those produced in any 

 part of Ontario ; and all that is needed 

 to make fruitgrowing a remunerative 

 business in this neighbourhood is a 

 wise selection of hardy and suitable 

 vaiieties, and care and skill in their 

 cultivation. 



The situation is peculiar — almost on 

 the height of land at the centre of tlie 

 peninsula between the great lakes, out- 

 side the salt and oil bearing strata — an 

 hundred feet at least (perhaps much 

 more) to the rock below — soil generally 

 somewhat heavy. Fruit and other trees 

 which flourish here should, so far as 

 climate is concerned, flourish also in 

 almost any part of Ontario ; and on 

 that account it is to be regretted that 

 we have not in this neighbourhood an 

 experimental plantation of fruit and 

 forest trees similar to the one at the 

 Model Farm, near Guelph. 



The winter of 1880-1 was, as every 

 one interested in fruit culture knows, 

 a very disastrous one to fruit trees. It 

 is argued by some that the damage is 

 to be attributed to the warm autumn 

 followed by the severe winter ; by 

 others, that the long continued and 



