NOIES AND COMMENTS. 



will be ruined. Possibly it will be 

 necessary to pass a law compelling the 

 destruction of infested trees, and that 

 with little or no compensation, for of 

 what value is a tree infested with San 

 Jose Scale ? The labor and expense of 

 treatment would be as much as a tree is 

 worth. 



Mr. Alex. McNeill, of Windsor, 

 writes his grape crop never looked bet- 

 ter. He has just put in 8000 tile, and 

 built 25 miles of trellis, besides prepar- 

 ing to build a barn to replace the one 

 destroyed by the cyclone last year. He 

 is off now to Bay View, Michigan, for 

 two weeks' holidays. 



Not all Profit. — Mr. McNeill is 

 inclined to criticise Mr. E. D. Smith's 

 article on " Fruit Growing." He writes : 

 " I am a little surprised that no one has 

 written any comment on the papers by 

 our friend Mr. E. D Smith. It appears 

 to me that there is another side to the 

 question that should be presented. My 

 first impulse when I had finished read- 

 ing the papers was to sit down and show 

 where he was likely to lead your readers 

 very much astray. But twelve or four- 

 teen hours a day of manual labor on my 

 part has saved Mr. Smith's reputation as 

 far as I am concerned, and it is just pos- 

 sible that a few hundred more deluded 

 victims will buy nursery stock at a good 

 lound figure in the fond hope that they 

 will at once ' rake in the shekels,' with- 

 out any of the precautions or conditions 

 necessary in other professions. I am in 

 hopes of Imving a word to say on this 

 subject yet." 



'1 HI! Fruit Prospects have changed 

 very decidedly since wc last reported. 

 The api>les have fallai so badly that the 

 crop will be very small indeed, except- 

 ing a few varieties. The Northern Spy 

 )»ro»ii5e« a bettur crop than «ny other. 



being well loaded with fine clear fruit. 

 Unfortunately the scab has appeared 

 this season on many varieties ; we have 

 noticed it particularly on Early Harvest, 

 Red Astrachan, Cranberry .Pippin, and 

 Greening. The Bartlett pear is clean 

 but the Flemish Beauty and Louise are 

 very badly affected. 



White Holland. — This is the finest 

 white currant we have seen. The bush 

 was sent us for testing but we have lost 

 the record of the originator. The ber- 

 ries are about equal to those of the 

 Cherry in size, and more productive. 

 The bunches are very long, many of 

 them measuring five inches in length. 

 The flavor is mild subacid, and the sea- 

 son from July 12 to 25th or about the 

 same as the Cherry. 



Farming, our excellent contemporary, 

 which deals with the interests of the 

 farming community in the same lines 

 that we do those of the fruit growers, is 

 to be commended for the excellent 

 article which has appeard in the July 

 number on the San Jose' Scale. This 

 deserves perusal by all fruit growers. 

 We quote a sentence or two. " We 

 wish particularly to impress upon the 

 minds of fruit growers that as soon as 

 this insect is found to occur in an 

 orchard the most strenuous measures 

 must be taken to stamp it out. No half 

 way steps will suffice. Fruit growers 

 must be mutually helpful in an emerg- 

 ency like this." We regret that they 

 are not as mutually helpful as we could 

 wish. We know of a fruit grower who 

 refused $250 cash, from the Ontario 

 Inspector of San Jose Scale, for the 

 [xivilege of destroying about 100 infest- 

 ed trees in his orchard. If this is the 

 way our growers act, we must have 

 legislation empowering the inspector to 

 destroy the trees without conTpensation 

 to the owner. 



3iS 



