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Spraying Trees. 



Sib, — I notice that Mr. A. VV. Graham had poor success in spraying his trees. My 

 experience diflFers from his. I began spraying my plum trees just after the blossoms began 

 to fall, and sprayed them three weeks, once each week, with Paris Green My sprayer 

 was a jarass syringe, which did very good work. The result was, that I got forty baskets 

 of large plums from twelve trees ; General Hand and Rradshaw sold for ^1.00 per basket, 

 and the Reine Claude and Lombard for 75 cents. They took two first prizes at East York 

 township fair, and two at Markliam fair. In a previous season when I did not spray I had 

 a very poor crop of plums, and my neighbor who did not spray last year, as a result has to 

 pick his plums before they were ripe, because they rotted so badly and dropped of. 



Thos. Gardiner, Eglhiton, York Co. 



Zanzibar Water Lilies. 



Sir, — We derived great pleasure from our water lilies last year. Our tank is six feet 

 across and eight inches deep, and in this we place six inches of rich soil — an old hotbed 

 bottom would furnish the right thing In the tank we put six plants in the first week in 

 June, and in about two weeks the first flowers were open, and the plants continued bloom- 

 ing until the first frost in winter. There were from six to ten flowers open every day ; the 

 flowers opened in the morning and closed in the evening. We had one plant in a wooden 

 pail and it bloomed, but the flower was small ; one of those in the tank measured eight 

 inches across, while that in the pail was only three inches. In some respects the flower is 

 not equal to our Nymphaea odorata, but the easy manner of growing them places them a 

 long way ahead of our natives. You have only to put the seed in a bowl or open dish in 

 which is placed a couple of inches of soil, and keep it covered with water at a temperature 

 of 70° or 80°, and in about two weeks they will have started to grow. At first the growth 

 is slow and the leaves were only about two inches across when I planted ours out in June. 



E, W. BowsLAUOH, KingsviUe^ Ont. 



Judging Onions. 



Sir, — For over thirty years I have exhibited onions at our township show, both from 

 seed and the English Potato onion. Now I claim that if the prize list calls for (as ours does) 

 6 onions, red, white and yellow from seed, then 6 onions, *' English Potato," that the inten- 

 tion of the directors is that the exhibit shall consist of six perfectly grown single onions. 

 Some few years ago a party sent six bunches, but as there were five entries of single onions 

 he got no prize. If bunches are to be shown, then I claim that the prize list should call for 

 one peck of English Potato onions for planting ; in that case I should pick out the best 

 developed bunches, containing each at least eight small onions of good shape, as there is a 

 gre*t difference between a good sample and a poor one Then I claim that a well grown 

 single Potato onion can be known from any yellow onion from seed, particularly the Dan- 

 vers, which is a pale yellow, for there are two very distinct peculiarities in a Potato onion 

 when ripe and matured ; first, you will find the yellow marking on the outside leaves to he 

 darker, having a tinge of color different from other yellow onions ; second, the first few ; 

 outside leaves are always dry and feel like paper, and when ripe are always detached from 

 the neck. 



Chas. Jas. Fox, Delawart. 



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