4o8 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIS2. 



Ptnus strobus. We learn that Bhotan pine 

 is found in the Himalayas at elevations be- 

 tween five and ten thousand feet. This is its 

 home. Here it flourishes, growing frequent- 

 ly to the height of 1 50 feet. Brown, the noted 

 Scotch forester, states that it was introduced 

 into Britain in 1823. It appears never to have 

 been very widely cultivated, but specimens 

 are found scattered throughout the British 

 Isles and in America; one frequently meets 

 with it in the New Eng^land states. Like 

 white pine, the leaves are found in whorls of 

 five. They are glabrous on their inner faces 

 and a blueish green without. The cones 

 are produced singly, are cylindrical and 

 slightly conical in form. 



The tree has a very general resemblance 

 to the white pine. The distinguishing points 

 are the leaves and the cones. The former 



are longer and the latter more slender. In 

 outline, the Bhotan pine is tall and distinctly 

 conical. The specimen at Gibbland farm was 

 planted in 1878. It is now something over 

 twenty feet in height. Not quite as tall as a 

 Douglas spruce along side of it which was 

 planted at the same time, (see illustration.) 

 The wood of Bhotan pine does not appear to 

 be as much prized as White pine, being 

 somewhat softer in texture with less strength. 

 The chief uses of this tree then are those 

 which serve the aesthetic, and tend to please 

 the eye. In outline it is handsome and sym- 

 metrical. In shading and coloring, like all 

 silvery leafed trees in the early part of the 

 summer, it is particularly soft and beautiful. 



John Craig. 

 Cornell University, 



Ithaca, N. Y. 



OUR FRUIT MARKETS. 



OOKING at the value of our Winter 

 Apples from the standpoint of the 

 fruit grower, we are inclined to take 

 the views of apple buyers cum grano 

 salts. First, we are told of the enormous 

 crops in England and on the Continent 

 then that the crop of North America is 

 equal to that of 1896, when prices ruled so 

 low in the month of December that many 

 shippers only received about enough to pay 

 freights, and had better have left their ap- 

 ples to waste in the orchard. 



It appears that these buyers have met in 

 Toronto and agreed to pay only 50c. a bar- 

 rel for winter apples ! Are we growers to 

 have such a low price put on our goods as 

 this and submit without a word? The fact 

 is that these buyers are organised and will 

 act in concert with regard to the purchasing 

 price, while we growers, having never 

 agreed about the selling price, are simply 

 at their mercy, and must take what they 

 choose to offer. 



Were it not for the organization of the 

 buyers, the law of competition would get us 

 fair play, but as it is what can Vv'c expect 

 but to suffer from a disadvantage ? But even 

 this condition of affairs may not be an un- 

 mixed evil, for it will lead to a new system 

 of fruit shipping, sooner or later. At 

 Grimsby, for example, eight of us, who 

 have large orchards, have united for the 

 purpose of packing our fruit uniformly and 

 making up carload lots for export on our 

 own account. We grade our finest colored 

 apples with Wartman's grader, making 

 apples 2% inches in diameter No i, 

 2% A No. I and 3, Extra A No. i ; or, 

 instead of Grade we sometimes use the 

 words Diameter 2% inches, etc. We 

 wrap them in tissue paper and pacK them 

 in boxes, with excelsior or sphagnum pack- 

 ing. Then we use a uniform set of marks, 

 so that the goods we ship are at once recog- 

 nized, and will command their true value in 

 any market 



