RE BIRDS. 



Sir, — In your issue of July you quote 

 from the Toronto Globe a short article 

 about birds. The newspapers and school 

 teachers have had their say long enough 

 on the bird question, and a word from 

 people who suffer from depredations of 

 the birds, particularly the protected ones, 

 would, perhaps, not be out of season. 

 Why should it be lawful to have eggs of 

 crows, ravens, eagles, etc., and unlawful 

 to have in possession the other kinds ? 

 One hawk is of more value to a fruit 

 grower or nurseryman than any number 

 of robins, and the hawk never picks a 

 cherry, or in any other way injures any 

 man's crops. Very rarely he may pick 

 up a chicken, but it is only at long inter- 

 vals he enjoys such a treat. One gen- 

 tleman, a very large grower of fruit, told 

 the writer a few days since that he had 



suffered this year the loss of the entire 

 crop of a whole row of English cherry 

 trees from robins, assisted by orioles. 

 And the writer has every year for the last 

 five or six, lost from one-half to three- 

 quarters of his own cherries from the 

 same pests. It is an indisputable fact 

 that a couple of men with a spray pump 

 can destroy more insects in a day than 

 all the birds in a whole township do in 

 a whole season. Instead of the law 

 protecting robins, orioles, cherry birds, 

 etc., they should be destroyed in the 

 same manner that other recognized pests 

 are, and our trust put in spray pumps 

 for the destruction of the insects. 



Yours, etc., 



W. C. Orr. 



Stoney Creek. 



EVAPORATED APPLE TRADE. 



n LETTER was received at the 

 /M Department of Agriculture yester- 

 ilji day from a large importing firm 

 at Hamburg, Germany, who are anxious 

 to get into communication with reliable 

 packers, and who ask for the names and 

 addresses of such firms. They were 

 induced to look to Canada for trade 

 through the advice of Mr. Harrison 

 Watson, Canadian Curator at the Im- 

 perial Institute, London. In their 

 letter they say : — " Of late years evapor- 

 ated apples, pears, etc., have become 

 largely consumed in this country, and 

 of these the former take first place. 

 We are thoroughly convinced that your 

 country might get a large share of this 



trade if properly taken in hand. . . 

 Another point we cannot impress upon 

 you too strongly is that apples be dried 

 only on wooden trays and not zinc ones. 

 All apples, according to our laws, must 

 be analyzed here on arrival by sworn 

 chemists, and should a trace of zinc be 

 found, which could only be the case 

 were they dried on zinc trays, the buyers 

 are free to cancel their contracts, for 

 the fruit is not allowed to be consumed 

 here. Evaporated apples imported here 

 are packed in boxes of 50 pounds and 

 barrels of about 200 pounds, and 90 per 

 cent, of these are of the ' prime ' grade 

 shipments. Shipments are also made of 

 ' choice ' and 'fancy.'— Toronto Globe. 



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