2o6 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



instructive talk on cold storage houses of 

 small cost for the fruit grower, at Grimsby, 

 on Friday, April 6th. A large number of 

 fruit growers were present and all felt con- 

 vinced that Mr. Latchford thoroughly under- 

 stood the underlying principles of cold 

 storage. 



Gillet's Lye advertised in these pages is 

 especially commended for use in spraying 

 trees to clean them of fungi and insects. 

 The proportion advised is one package to 

 five gallons of water, but how much a pack- 

 age weighs we are not told. If an article 

 like this would answer the purpose of whale 

 oil soap, which is made of caustic potash and 

 fish oil, it would be more convenient to ap- 

 ply, but this is a question. Probably it 

 would be useful in clearing the cherry trees 

 of the aphis at any rate, and perhaps be a 

 good preparation for routing the oyster shell 

 bark louse. 



The Ontario Fruit Growers' Associa- 

 tion is sending Mr. Wm. M. Orr, Presi- 

 dent, a delegate to Ottawa to interview 

 the Minister of Agriculture regarding af- 

 fording the fruit growers of the province 

 generally better facilities for transport- 

 ing their pears, peaches and early apples to 

 Great Britain in cold storage. The difficulty 

 is to get proper temperature guaranteed, 

 and until this is afforded none of us can ship 

 with confidence. Another object is to unite 

 with other Associations in asking that the 

 Toronto Industrial Fair be made a Dominion 

 Exhibition in 1901, thus attracting large 

 numbers of the visitors to the Pan Ameri- 



JoHN RusKiN. — Who, among us, that 



has read Sesame and Lilies but has felt a 



friend's departure in the news of the death 



of John Ruskin. The Garden thus makes 



the announcement : 



John Ruskin, poet, teacher, reformer and phil- 

 osopher died at his charming home, Brantwood, 

 Coniston. on Saturday last, in the eighty-first 



Fig. 1817. The Late John Ruskin. 



year of his age. Ruskin strived to reach the 

 high ideals preached in his noble moral essays — 

 earnest messages to the world and master-pieces 

 of English prose. His famous works " Modern 

 Painters," "Stones of Venice," "Seven Lamps 

 of Architecture, " " Fors Clavigera," "Untothis 

 Last." and " Sesame and Lilies " are amongst the 

 greatest contributions to the literature of this cen- 

 tury. On Thursday, in the churchyard of Coni- 

 ston, Ruskin was laid to rest, in the beautiful 

 country he loved so well. It was his wish, that if 

 his death occurred in London, to be buried with 

 his father and mother in the churchyard of Shir- 

 ley, near Croydon, the village of which the Rev. 

 W. Wilks is vicar. 



Leaving to others to do justice if they can to 

 Ruskin's genius and its ennobling influence on 

 horticulture as a fine art will you permit me un- 

 der a deep sense of his sudden loss, to cull a sen- 

 •tence or two from the appreciative notice from 

 the Scotsman of Monday on Ruskin's influence on 

 art: — " In his day Ruskin did more for British art 

 than any other man had done. When his first 

 book appeared, British art and taste were fast 

 bound in the traditions of a poor and vulgar con- 

 ventionalism. It was in much the same condition 

 as poetry had fallen into at an earlier date, and 

 from which it was raised by Coleridge, Scott, and 

 the other great poets of the romantic revival. 



" Ruskin led the revival into the realm of art. 

 He woke the nation into a new and finer sense, 

 and a sense of the true and beautiful in form and 

 color. He shook the national taste out of its 

 bondage, purged it of vulgarity, and taught it to 

 see and appreciate the beautiful. The revolution 



