35° '1'he Canadian Horticulturist. 



SOME FRUIT NOTES FROM SIMCOE COUNTY. 



HE season of 1894 will not be remembered by fruit growers 

 as one of the most profitable in their experience. Straw- 

 berries here promised well in spring, but owing to cold 

 rains and occasional frosts during blossoming time, the 

 crop did not fulfil early expectations. One noticeable 

 feature about them this year was that owing probably to 

 the heat and wet at picking time, they did not keep or 

 carry well. They would not keep twenty-four hours after picking, and any that 

 were shipped a considerable distance arrived in bad shape and could only be 

 sold at a loss. 



I still cling to Crescent and Wilson for market berries. Haverland and 

 Bubach do well here, also the Williams, but none excel the two old varieties 

 for main crop. Haverland is too soft, it is no use for shipping, although it 

 bears well and does better in a dry season than many others. Bubach No. 2 

 is a poor grower, does not make plants enough ; stems very short and fruit gets 

 badly sanded in showery weather. I have not had enough experience with 

 Williams to know how it will do here, but am favorably impressed with it. 



If we could get another berry like the Wilson, with all its good qualities 

 as to firmness, hardiness, etc , and a Httle larger and a little earlier, such a berry 

 would be a great acquisition. 



I can say nothing as yet of the forty varieties planted last spring, on the 

 Experimental grounds ; it will be a year before I can report anything definite 

 as to their merits or demerits. But so far as I have been able to judge, I 

 think the Woolverton is one of the best of the new varieties 



Raspberries were a fair crop and sold at a fair price. I am getting more 

 in favor of raspberries, in preference to strawberries ; there is not half the 

 labor involved in growing them, a plantation if well cared for lasts a long time 

 and produces well with less fertilizing than strawberries. The Cuthbert is my 

 favorite and it does well here. 



Early apples were a good crop and very cheap, in fact a great many have 

 gone to waste or have been fed to stock. It is a pity to see such fine Duchess 

 apples as are grown in this section wasted. They grow to great perfection 

 here, but transportation charges are so high, there is little or no profit m 

 shipping them, if you pay anything like a decent price for the apples. What 

 we want is an evaporating and canning establishment to work off the surplus 

 and turn it into money in that way. I doubt if the canning factories put up 

 anything nicer or more delicious than canned Duchess, if the apples are picked 

 at the right stage. Winter apples are not more than 50 % of a full crop, and 

 such varieties as are subject to fungus are so badly affected, that only a small 

 percentage will be fit for market.- 



