HARD 2' rRcns. 



6x 



NOTICE OF THE HARDY FRUITS OF UPPER CANADA. 



To the Caledonian Horticultural Society 



Edinburgh* 

 |URING my residence in Upper Canada 

 I had frequent opportunities of seeing 

 and admiring the profusion of fine 

 fruit produced in that country, the 

 apples in the orchards are particularly fine, 

 accustomed as I had been to see fruit-trees in 

 general raised only from grafts or buds, I had 

 no idea of the facility with which apple trees 

 can be raised from seed, and in a very few years 

 in that fine climate, produce abundance of ex- 

 cellent flavored fruit. There are many of the 

 trees, however, that produce fruit fit only for 

 cider, which are more valuable to the inhabit- 

 ants than the fine sorts, as they can find a ready 

 sale for their cider which they could not do for 

 their apples, were they ever so fine flavored ; 

 and for that reason they are at no trouble in 

 selecting their seed from the finest kinds, or 

 grafting or budding from them. 



The inhabitants of Lower Canada seem to 

 have paid considerable attention to the cultiva- 

 tion of fruit-trees for a length of time, as may 

 be judged from the fine specimens of healthy 

 old trees that are to be seen in their orchards. 

 They cultivate several kinds of very fine apples, 

 which havie probably been introduced from 

 France, particularly the Pomegrise, Bourassa 

 and Fameuse ; they are also beginning to cul- 

 tivate several varieties that have been grown 

 from seed in the country, I have no doubt 

 whatever, that, if proper care is taken in saving 

 of the seeds, seedlings will be procured so simi- 

 lar to the original in appearance and flavor that 

 the difference would not be easily detected. I 

 was informed that the island of Montreal, about 

 thirty years ago, was much famed for the quan- 

 tity and excellent quality of its pears, but now 



♦ This paper is one that I picked out of a book of the 

 minutes of the Royal Caledonian Society, Edinburgh, read 

 at that Society's moeiittg in tlie second year of its existence 

 by one of its directors, when the King was one of its pa- 

 "■*"'^- RoDEuicK Cameron, 



Niagara Falls. 



there are very few of that fine fruit in the coun- 

 try, part of the young ones are in an unhealthy 

 state, and no person could assign any cause for 

 this general decay of their pear trees. The 

 Kentish cherry succeeds better than any other 

 that I have seen cultivated in any part of North 

 America that I have visited ; they produce fruit 

 in great abundance, and certainly better flavored 

 than in this country. They are propagated from 

 suckers chiefly, which leads me to suppose that 

 the original trees have been propagated from 

 seeds imported from Europe. I have seen good 

 crops of some other kinds in Kentucky and 

 Virginia, viz., blackhearts. May dukes, etc. ; 

 but there the trees are much injured by the in- 

 tense heat of the sun, and most kinds of cherry 

 trees grow very erect, from which circumstance 

 the foliage can yield no protection or shade to 

 the stem or trunk of the tree, and in a few years 

 it will be completely decayed, except a small 

 piece of wood and bark on the north side. I 

 observe that the branches that were shaded 

 from the sun by their own foliage had sustained 

 no injury from the above cause. 



Peach trees succeed tolerably well in Lower 

 Canada on walls ; in Upper Canada, particu- 

 larly on the Niagara river, they succeed very 

 well as standards. They grow with great ra- 

 pidity, but very little attention is paid to them ; 

 they are all raised from seed, and many will 

 produce blossoms, if not fruit; the third sum- 

 mer, A few are large and fine flavored fruit, 

 and many tolerable. 



Quinces, on the Niagara river, produce gen- 

 erally a good crop. They are certainly a finer 

 flavored fruit than those produced in England, 

 being free from the disagreeable smell that the 

 English quinces have, and are esteemed the 

 best fruit for preserving in that country. The 

 trees are remarkably dwarf, which I suspect is 

 owing to the method they have in propagating 

 them, which is altogether from cuttings, and 

 these are generally branches of considerable 

 size, and planted in the spring. 



