The Canadian Horticulturist. 321 



CRAIGHURST EXPERIMENT STATION VISITED. 



N Monday, the 23rd of July, Prof. Hutt, of the Ontario 

 Agricultural College, Official Visitor for the Dept. of Agri- 

 culture, and the writer, who is Sec. of the Board of Control 

 of the Ont. Experiment Stations, visited Mr. G. C. Caston, the 

 experimenter in apples and small fruits at Craighurst, twelve 

 miles north-west of Barrie, in the County of Simcoe. It 

 was a dusty ride along that sandy old Government road to 

 Penetanguishene, but the beautiful glimpses of distant hills 

 and water in the direction of Collingwood seemed to 

 brighten the way and make it a delightful journey. Mr. 

 Caston received us kindly and entertained us most hospit- 

 ably, for Mrs. Caston is a lady of distinguished parentage, and understands the 

 art of treating her visitors well, 



Mr. Caston cultivates about fifty acres, besides having a bush of maple 

 trees thirty-five acres in extent, from which he receives quite a revenue in maple 

 syrup. He taps about 500 trees, and this season he made about 200 gallons. 



Mr. Caston's apple orchard of five or six acres evidences the best of care 

 and cultivation, but the climate is severe at this distance from the lake, and 

 many varieties, quite hardy at Collingwood, fail utterly here. One feature of his 

 place was especially notable, viz., a high board fence, about 14 feet high, all 

 along the north-west side of his apple orchard, forming an admirable windbreak. 

 The most productive variety which grows in Mr. Caston's orchard is the 

 Duchess ; the trees were just loaded to the ground, and the fruit was clear and 

 bright. Had Mr. Caston planted all his orchard of this one variety, there is no 

 doubt he would have made far more money out of it ; but his fondness for 

 experimenting led him to planting many other varieties, and in some cases to 

 top graft quite a number of kinds upon a single tree. 



Mr. Caston has about 75 varieties of Russian apples under test, together 

 with 30 or 40 varieties of strawberries, and numerous other plants, and to this 

 collection yearly additions will be made by the Board of Control, in order to 

 make this station as efficient as possible. 



The Fall Web-Worm is just now (Aug. 9th) quite injurious to the foliage 

 of the raspberries. This attacks nearly all our fruit trees and plants, but is 

 easily subdued by cutting off the twigs or branches affected and burning them. 



A Thief Rewarded. — A thief in thejact of breaking into a safe was 

 greatly astonished oh looking up to see a gentleman quietly watching his pro- 

 ceedings. He tried to escape, but the gentleman stopped him. 



" Go on, my friend'" he said. " I am greatly interested in your work.'* 



" How is that ? " inquired the astonished thief. 



" Because I have lost the key to this safe. If you can open it, you shall 

 be well rewarded for your trouble." — Arlequin. 



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