EDITORIAL NOTES. 



63 



be expected, but it will pay the patient 

 planter. 



ADAPTATION AN IMPORTANT STUDY. 



^ Bowstead, of the Bureau of Soils, Wash- 

 ington, pointed out three elements of success 

 or failure in fruit growing: (i) Suitable 

 climatic conditions; (2) suitable soil; and 

 (3) suitable market conditions. In the 

 study of the second, which belonged to his 

 department, he found that the great peach 

 sections were of sandy soil, and the great 

 apple sections were of clay soils, as for ex- 

 ample the peach sections of Michigan and 

 the apple section of Wayne County, New 

 York State. This agreed with the universal 

 experience of growers, and advice to young 

 planters could therefore be based upon it. 

 The great point is to define clearly just what 

 is a clay soil and what a sandy soil, so that 

 such advice would be really intelligible. 



BALDWIN AND BEN DAVIS. 



Bickworth championed these two varie- 

 ties as being the best commercial apples in 

 the world at the present time. He would 

 not be governed by sentiment, and even if 

 Ben Davis were denounced for inferior 

 quality, he would grow it. " We want to 

 grow," he said, " whatever apple brings us 

 most money, and no apple made better re- 

 turns than Ben Davis. 



Van Deman stoutly condemned Ben 

 Davis. " I hate," said he, " to hear Ben 

 Davis spoken of as a desirable kind to plant. 

 Gano belongs to the same family, and has 

 the same old delicious sawdust flavor; it is 

 not one whit better ; it is just redder. Black 

 Ben Davis is just another kit out of the same 

 litter, still if I were going to plant any one 

 of this wretched family it would be the 

 Black Ben Davis." 



DUST SPRAY. 



Prof. Gray, of Cornell University, has 

 been experimenting with dust spray made of 

 copper sulphate, water and lime, dried and 



powdered. This was appHed in the early 

 morning by means of dust guns, and seemed 

 to answer an excellent purpose, the dust 

 completely covering every portion of the 

 tree. The cost was a trifle greater than the 

 liquid. He thought that for small trees, 

 for small fruits, and for cherry and plum 

 rot, the dust spray was the more eflfective. 



BOX OR BARREL. 



One question aroused much interest. It 

 was, What shall be the future package for 

 apples and pears, the box or the barrel ? 

 Hooker, of Rochester, advocated the barrel, 

 because easier to pack, an important point 

 in these days of high priced labor. One 

 grower had used bushel crates in his orchard 

 for gathering, had stored them in these 

 crates and finally used them as market pack- 

 ages in Buffalo with excellent results. They 

 commanded ready sale, and were cheaper 

 than barrels. Mr. George F. Powell had 

 packed 1,000 boxes of Jonathans in boxes, 

 and was holding them in cold storage for 

 special sale as fancy dessert apples. Ell- 

 wanger & Barry have for years used a 

 small box holding about a half bushel, and 

 packed in it fancy pears and fancy apples 

 for a special trade. Anjou pears were 

 wrapped in thin paper on which was 

 stamped in crimson the monogram, E. & B., 

 and sold to a New York buyer, delivered, at 

 $2.00 a box of only 45 pears. Of course 

 every pear was strictly fancy. Winter 

 Niles, Columbia, Josephine and Clairgeau 

 had been tried in the same way, but none, of 

 course equalled Anjou. Jonathan apples 

 were put up in the same style and sold in 

 New York at this season (mid-winter) for 

 $1.50 a box. 



A committee was appointed to consider 

 the box question and bring in a report, and 

 we suggested the advisability of using a box 

 uniform with that agreed on for Ontario 

 which measures 10 x 11 x 20 inches inside 

 measure. 



