THK CANADIAN H0BTI0ULTURI8T. 



185 



ally, because I have many acres of each 

 variety, and I sum up all together. I 

 keep an exact account of all fruits sold, 

 and the cost of same, and tiie result has 

 been to me, in the last twenty-five years, 

 ominent'v satisfac'^ory. If any one has 

 any doubts c n the score of profits, let him 

 coiue and sjj im, and I will show him 

 ligures tliat will satisfy him, or them, 

 that fruit-growing, as a profession, does 

 not always prove a failure." 



WINTER PEARS. 



A few facts will shew that the keep- 

 ing quality of pears depends greatly on 

 several circumstances, among which are 

 tlie influences of ^oil, cultivation and 

 8eason of ripening, and still more on 

 the apartment in which the fruit is 

 kept. Take the Anjou, for instance — 

 circumstances favoring early ripening 

 will give specimens which will be 

 mature and melting by the end of 

 September, but more commonly they 

 ripen in October and November. This 

 pear has the excellent quality of keep- 

 ing without decay some weeks after the 

 flesh has become melting and fitted for 

 eating, if properly managed. In a cool 

 ap;irtment, the ripsning may be retar- 

 ded from December into January. The 

 Winter Nelis is strictly a December 

 fruit ; but when ripened early and kept 

 in a warm place, it is in excellent eat- 

 ing condition in November and some- 

 times in October. In a cool fruit room, 

 after the season had been favorable for 

 the purpose, we have actually had them 

 in fair eating condition in early March. 

 The Easter Beurr6 is a spring pear, and 

 when well grown will keep, as is well 

 known, into April ; but it is so uncer- 

 tain and unreliable at the North that 

 few cultivators attempt to raise it. The 

 longest-keeping, fully reliable pear of 

 which we have made a full trial, is the 

 Josephine de Malines. The specimens 

 rarely soften in any year before Janu- 

 ary, and usually a part of them keep 

 into February. This year we kept them 

 2 



much longer than usual, and had speci- 

 mens in melting and fair eating condi- 

 tion on the 2nd of May. The fruit 

 room is not cooled by artificial means, 

 but is so arranged that it may be ven- 

 tilated completely at all times, and its 

 temperature is shewn by thermometers. 

 The sprinfj being unusually cold, favored 

 long-keeping. — Country Gentleman. 



FRUIT CULTURE IN COLD RUSSIA. 



Professor J. L. Budd's record of the 

 wonderful success attained by the Rus- 

 sians in fruit culture, is certainly very 

 encouraging to those living in the colder 

 parts of the United States. The whole 

 of the large province of Yladimir, 

 which is east of Moscow, is given to 

 the growing of cherries. Hundreds of 

 proprietors in this province have each 

 orchards of 10,000 ''bushes." These 

 fruit trees are not allowed to grow in 

 tree form ; the oldest branches are 

 pruned out, it having been found that 

 the best fruit is formed on young shoots, 

 several of which are left to grow from 

 one root. South of Vladimir, near the 

 fifty-sixth pai-allel, where the thermo- 

 meter sometimes falls to fifty degrees 

 below zero, immense quantities of plums 

 are raised, many of the varieties being 

 equal to the l)est German prunes. 

 Pears and apples are also a success. 

 The apple trees, too, are made to grow 

 low and bushy, but they bear abundant 

 crops of excellent, highly-colored fruit. 

 The method by whi(;h the Russian 

 orchardist is able to obUiin a variety of 

 fruits of good quality in a climate where 

 the winters are more severe than in the 

 coldest part of Minnesota, is certainly 

 worthy of being tested in some of the 

 less favored regions of our own country. 

 The main points ascertained in this 

 method seem to be ; selection of hardiest 

 varieties of seedlings ; close planting to 

 secure mutual protection ; low pruning; 

 the growing of more than one shoot from 



