THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



I cannot give a better idea of some of Mr. 

 Young's work than by quoting a few of his 

 answers to questions 1 put to him last sum- 

 mer. In answer to the question as to what 

 kinds of fruits he is growing he says: " I 

 am trying to grow a Httle of ahiiost every- 

 thing in the way of fruit except peaches, 

 without making a speciaUy of any one thing. 

 The work so far has been purely experi- 

 mental. If the question had been what 

 made the most money I would have an- 

 swered without any hesitation strawberries, 

 and after that fall apples. I have in round 

 numbers 35 of apples, 9 of pears, 12 of 

 cherries, 1 1 of plums, 8 of strawberries, 10 

 of gooseberries, 7 of currants, 5 of raspber- 

 ries, 8 of black raspberries, and 8 of grapes." 



In answer to the question, " What varie- 

 ties of apples would you recommend for 

 planting in your section," he said : " I will 

 make the list very short. Fall— Astrachan, 

 Duchess, Charlemoff, Yellow Transparent, 

 Gideon. Early winter — Longfield and 

 Wealthy. Scott's Winter is the best late 

 winter, but it by no means fills the bill. A 

 late keeping apple of good size and quality 

 and as hardy as some of our fall apples we 

 have not got so far. I thought we had it in 

 the Ontario, but last winter was too much 

 for it, although I thinJ< if the trees had been 

 a few years older it would have come out 

 all right. As it is now, I am disappointed 

 in this apple." 



Replying to a question as to how trees 

 wintered in his section he said : _ " They 

 apparently came through the winter fairly 

 well, but the spring or early summer killed 

 20 per cent, of them. The summer and 

 fall of 1903 were extremely wet here, which 

 induced a long sappy growth which was not 

 fully matured when winter set in. We had 

 no fall to speak of between summer and 



winter, then followed the excessive cold of 

 winter, 48 degrees below zero on the main 

 land and 46 below at this station, and for 

 days in succession 30 below zero. This, no 

 doubt, weakened the vitality of the trees, 

 but with the exception of the tips of last 

 season's growth I could see nothing the mat- 

 ter when they got their annual pruning be- 

 tween April 12 and 20. 



"The first week in May was excessively 

 hot in the day with hard frost, at night, 

 which is the principal cause of failure in 

 fruit growing in the north. The trees 

 leafed out all right with the exception of a 

 few cherries, but just as soon as the sap in 

 the top of the tree was exhausted the tree 

 began to die. There was no root killing, 

 although the snow at no time was very deep. 

 Most of the trees were killed to the snow 

 line and are making new growth a foot 

 above the ground. They may in a few years 

 make better trees than they were originally. 

 Six feet of clear trunk is not the thing for 

 trees in this section, three feet is quite high 

 enough. If I had taken my usual precau- 

 tion and protected the trunks of the trees 

 from the sun I have no doubt most of them 

 would have come out all right, but this I 

 omitted in the fall." 



" As to what varieties have suffered most : 

 This has puzzled me, for varieties that had 

 been considered hardy, for instance, Tal- 

 man, Golden Russet and Ben Davis, are 

 nearly all killed. I have lost no trees planted 

 six years ago except two Wagners. Among 

 pears, Keiflfers, which bore some fruit last 

 year, were killed to within a foot of the 

 ground. Anjou, which I had not con- 

 sidered extra hardy, was uninjured and 

 came out better than even Flemish Beauty. 

 A few sweet cherries I had are dead, others 

 are gradually dying." 



Although in my 81st year, I am spending a 

 good deal of my time tramping in the snow and 

 cold soliciting renewals and new subscriptions 

 for The Canadian Horticulturist. — (Jos. Barker, 

 Secretary Kincardine Horticultural Society. 



I find something to help me in every issue of 

 The Horticulturist, though the reason I began 

 taking it was for the information it gave about 

 growing flowers. The magazine is getting bet- 

 ter all the time. — (Mrs. Geo. Mutton, Penrym. 



