COLD STORAGE TRANSPORTATION. 



can be landed tlieie in sound condition by 

 this system ; then, if successful, there will be 

 no difficulty in having store houses l)uilt at 

 Winona, and, I fancy, almost every station 

 along the line if necessary, but for purposes 

 of experiment it seems to me that the fresh 

 fruit could be loaded directly into the cars at 

 the stations. It seems to me the essential 

 point is to get proper dry, cold storage 

 between here and Montreal, and between 

 Montreal and the port of debarkation, and 

 again immediately it is landed there with as 

 quick change as possible from cars to boat, 

 and boat to storage house. (Growers would 

 not care to put money into anything of that 

 nature, when a test could be made without 

 this money being put in. I have every faith 

 that we can grow in this Province of Ontario 

 thousands of barrels of Bartlett pears, Anjou 

 pears, and, I believe, Clapp's Favorite and put 



them on the IJritisli market with cold storage, 

 and get handsome returns, but the system 

 must be perfect. There would be no trouble 

 in putting it on the cars in perfect condition. 

 As for grapes, all they recjuire is cool, venti- 

 lated chambers, perfectly dry, with a temper- 

 ature of about 40°, although I am satisfied 

 they will carry perfectly in a temperature of 

 50" to 60°, if there is a good circulation of 

 pure air, and I still have faith that, if per- 

 sisted in, our black Roger grapes especially 

 will find a good market in Britain, and these 

 varieties can be grown almost, if not quite, as 

 readily as any other sorts I see no reason 

 why, with proper cold storage, too, our 

 peaches could not he landed there, and com- 

 pete with California pea-^hes. 



I trust sometliing may come of this scheme. 



K. I). Smith, Winona. 



WINTER PRUNING. 



PRESERVING FENCE POSTS. 



^ILL pear, plum, apple, or cherry 

 be damaged by winter pruning 

 when the limbs are small ? 



Prof. Slayton : Yes, sir. Experiments 

 show that any pruning done between 

 November and the iFt of April, on any of 

 the seed-fruit trees, is an injury. Janu- 

 ary and December are the worst months. 

 You can see samples in the Farmers' 

 Club room at Grand Rapids, where the 

 bark is killed a quarter of an inch or 

 more in pruning done in January. In 

 March, not so far — about an eighth of 

 an inch; pruning done in April healed 

 slowly ; in May, very well, and in June 

 and October, best of all. It healed 

 pretty fairly in July, and some very well 

 in August, a little in September, and the 

 October healing was very good, but not 

 quite so good as the June pruning The 

 December limbs that were cut died ab- 

 solutely. The January pruning was the 

 next worst, in being killed around the 

 cut. 



Mr Rice : I i)runed large shade trees 

 in December and had bad results. Thty 

 were Carolina poplar, which is one of 

 the hardiest trees in the world. — Mich. 

 Hort. Soc. 



7 N building a fence around my orchard, 

 several years ago, I tried many plan 



] for preserving the posts. Having 

 occasion to remove the fence this winter, 

 I noted the condition of the posts as fol- 

 lows : Those set with no preparation 

 were decayed an inch or more in thick- 

 ness ; those coated with a thick white- 

 wash were better preserved, but were 

 quite seriously attacked by worms, the 

 posts coated with hot tar were perfectly 

 sound as when first put in to the ground; 

 those painted with petroleum and kero- 

 sene were equally sound and as good as 

 new. In the future I shall let all my 

 posts get thoroughly dry, and then with 

 a pan of cheap kerosene and a whitewash 

 brush, give the lower third of the post 

 (the part that goes into the ground) two 

 or three liberal applications of the oil, 

 letting it soak in well each time. Posts so 

 treated will not be troubled by worms or 

 insects of any kind, and will resist decay 

 to a remarkable degree. This is the 

 simplest, easiest, cheapest and best 

 method of preservation. 



W. J. Bennett. 

 Fiituam Couiify, N Y. 



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