90 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



inches high, to protect the first shelf, for if a careless attendant should build a 

 very hot fire it might burn the shelf. The house can be built larger or smaller, 

 so as to meet the requirements of any fruit grower. 



Between the two fire doors is placed a wooden box or square tube (not 

 shown in the cut), running lengthwise horizontally through the house, with slid- 

 ing doors at the ends to regulate the current of air, and with holes along the 

 top. This supplies fresh air, as it is heated and passes upwards. It regulates 

 the temperature and prevents the fruit from cooking. The house may be larger 

 or smaller than the diminsions given, according to the amount of fruit likely to 

 require drying. 



QUICK GROWING TREES. 



NOTICE that Mr. W.W. Smith, of St. Catharines, in his article on 

 '' The West Wind," in the January number of the Horticultur. 

 1ST, speaks of some of the varieties of the willow as being ** by 

 far the quickest growing of all our trees," and for this reason, he 

 recommends them for planting for wind breaks. I like his 

 article, but not the willow. It is not a good, erect grower, is a 

 great harbor of insects and worms. It is very dirty in spring from its catkins^ 

 makes great dirt at all times from dead small twigs, etc., and its roots are liable 

 to fill and stop drains. I would sooner recommend the basswood, a native of our 

 forests, a very rapid grower, and very valuable as a honey-producing tree, making 

 the air heavy with the rich perfume of its blossoms late in June, when the season 

 of most flowers is past. I would also recommend as fast growing trees, our 

 native tulip, or whitewood, or a still more valuable and easier transplanted — the 

 white ash. But the tree that outstrips all others for fast growing belongs to 

 the much despised poplar family ; but, unlike its much despised relatives, it is 

 a beautiful spreading tree, with broad dark green leaves that hold their lustre 

 through the most severe drought that we have ever had. It is the Carolina, or, 

 as we call it here, the broad-leaf poplar. 



I have had as a common growth, the second year from transplanting, ten 

 feet, and last year 1 measured two cases of thirteen feet growth, corresponding 

 side branches, etc. One tree, measured in girth, gave twenty-seven inches, four 

 feet from the ground, five years from transplanting — a whip then. I have not 

 cut up any of them, but the wood in large limbs that we have occasion to cut, 

 seems very hard (for poplar) and capable of taking on a good polish. The tree 

 stands erect and is in every way a fine-looking one. 



Port Huron. L. B. Rice. 



