244 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



Various remedies have been experimented with, but the most successful 

 one, according to Prof. Slingerland, is a thorough spraying in winter with kero- 

 sene emulsion diluted with from five to seven parts of water. Apply from every 

 side, so as to reach all autumnal buds, for it is about them the blister mite is 

 most abundant. 



Bee-keeping" and Fruit Gro wing".— The bee industry is to be com- 

 mended as a complementary necessity to successful fruit growing. Many of our 

 grapes are not self-pollemizing. Some of our pears are of th^ same deficient 

 nature. All fruits are more or less dependent on bees to carry pollen from one 

 to another. I have no doubt but the possession of a small house of bees in 

 the orchard will be worth thousands of dollars to a man who grows half a dozen 

 or more acres of fruit. Some years the need of this help is not so great as in 

 others ; but there are years when our fruit crop is lost for lack of pollination. 

 The year 1890 was of this sort ; but that year I saw two small orchards loaded 

 with apples ; each orchard had a few hives of bees. The cold rains prevented 

 any general and extensive aid from insects until it was too late. This co-opera- 

 tion of industries is of vital importance. It holds the key of the situation. A 

 complete home ought to include the production of nearly all that we need for 

 food and comfort and clothing. In reality we waste, or allow to go to waste, a 

 large part of the natural products of our land. Honey making as an industry 

 should not be separated from fruit and flower growing, or from general farming. 

 The art is easily learned, and in a family of six persons there will generally be 

 found one who finds especial pleasure in bee culture. Fruit, flowers, and honey 

 are a perfect and natural combination of industries. — American Agriculturist. 



Constant Cultivation. — In Southern California the apple orchards are 

 cultivated and irrigated about the same as the orange groves, resulting in an 

 abundance of fruit. Belleflower apples raised in this way are twice as large as 

 those raised in Maine, and equally as fine flavored, if not superior. Irrigation 

 in New England is not so much' needed, of course, as it is in Southern Cali- 

 fornia, but in dry seasons it would be a great benefit. It would save the drop- 

 ping of fruit from drouth, and enable the trees to bear larger and more perfectly 

 developed fruit. If the surface in our apple orchards were kept cultivated but 

 not planted to crops, the ill effects of severe drouths could be guarded against, 

 to a great extent. By keeping the surface often stirred the pulverized soil of 

 the surface would act as a mulch and prevent the soil beneath from drying up. 

 By cultivating the surface lightly after each rain, the evaporation from the soil 

 would be checked to such an extent that the orchard would not suffer for want 

 of moisture, even in severe drouths. In our Northern States we seldom have 

 drouths lasting more than six weeks, so that by cultivating the surface soil after 

 each rain, the orchard would be materially protected from very dry weather. — 

 American Agriculturist. 



