The Canadian Horticulturist. 



269 



A VISIT TO THE LEAMINGTON EXPERIMENT STATION. 



N Friday, the 15th of June, Professor Hutt and the writer 

 visited our Experiment Station in Essex Co. Leamington 

 is prettily situated on the shore of Lake Erie, but rather 

 inconvenient of access by rail. The soil in that vicinity is 

 mostly light sand, and well adapted to the cultivation of 

 the peach, but the peach growing section is very limited. 

 The farm of Mr. W. W. Hillborn is situated in the heart 

 of this favored locality, and is being almost entirely devoted 

 to the cultivation of the peach and strawberry. Of the 

 latter he has about six acres in full bearing, and has already 

 tested more than one hundred varieties. Of the kind now 

 in cultivation, he prefers for market purposes, Bubach 24, Williams, Wilson, 

 Saunders and Woolverton. As an early berry, Mr. Hillborn prefers the Beder 

 Wood to Michel's Early, because it is just as early and much more productive, 

 and for a late berry the Parker Earle, which is about as productive as Bubach 5, 

 and is a fine showy berry. The plants have peculiar habit of growth, not 

 spreading as much as other berries, but keeping well in hills. For a table berry 

 the Governor Hoard is good, having an extra fine flavor. The Middlefield is not 

 a good market berry. The foliage is very healthy and beautiful, but does not 

 endure drouth very well. One sample of this variety that we picked measured 

 one and five-eights inches in length by one and three-quarters in breadth. But 

 Mr. Hillborn's great specialty is in the cultivation of the peach. He has already 

 planted about sixty acres of this fruit, and is to plant out about fifty acres more 

 in the spring of 1895. When planted, his will be the largest peach orchard in 

 Canada. He has laid out his orchard in a systematical way, in the manner of 

 the streets of a town. The large drives or streets are thirty feet in Width, and 

 the blocks contain five hundred trees each, with twenty rows in each block. 

 His plan is to number the block, then the rows and the trees in each row. His 

 record book then will enable one to find at once any variety in any part of the 

 orchard. The light sandy soil of this locality, which is very dry and naturally 

 well drained, though rather too light for strawberries, is exactly suited to the 

 cultivation of the peach. This fruit seems scarcely ever to fail to produce a 

 crop. It was stated by one of the fruit growers in that section that there had 

 not been more than one or two total failures during the past fifteen years. The 

 greatest inconvenience is in shipping ; on account of the connection it is diflScult 

 to reach the markets of Toronto, so their principal shipments are made to 

 Buffalo, London, Detroit, Sarnia and St. Thomas. 



Mr. Hillborn's method of protecting his trees from the peach tree borer is 

 worthy of notice. To thirty gallons of water he adds equal parts of lime and 

 ashes, about one bushel of each ; to this he adds one of crude carbolic acid. 



