3^2 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



One of the most interesting fruit farms visited in this locahty was that of 

 Mr. John G. Mitchell, consisting of about fifty acres, of which fifteen are devoted 

 to fruit ; and the whole place is in a most excellent state of cultivation. 

 The thrifty farmer is known by his fences, and those of Mr. Mitchell are 

 quite models in this respect. The particular fruit for profit with him, as with 

 most growers in this valley, is the plum, and the success attending his efforts 

 was well shown by the immense loads of Coe's Golden Drop, Lombard, Glass 

 etc., which were harvestea from his trees. 



Mr. Hartman showed the same success in his own orchard with plums, and 

 not far away in the vicinity of Collingwood there are many other noted plum 

 growers, and among them, Dr. G. M. Aylesworth, a well-known member of the 

 Fruit Growers' Association, who ships a large quantity of this fruit, both north, 

 ward as far as North Bay by rail and Sault Ste Marie by boat, and southward by 

 express to Toronto and Montreal. Among all these growers a great deal of dif- 

 ficulty has been found in identifying varieties, owing to the frequent mistakes 

 made by careless nurserymen in the propagation of trees, and to the frequent 

 habit of substituting one variety for another when filling orders. Should a 

 plum station be established in this vicinity, all varieties will be grown and little 

 by little all misnamed varieties grown in the section will be identified. 



Mr. Mitchell's apple orchard was also well worthy of attention. Here, as 

 indeed all over this section, there is a good crop of apples, the best probably in 

 the whole province, for the apple scab thus far has not become so prevalent in 

 this northern section as it is in the southern districts. The local estimate of 

 the crop is sixty per cent, of a full crop of apples ; probably this means very 

 near the average. So successfully is the apple cultivated in this section that a 

 large aJ}J>/e store house has been erected near Thornbury by Messrs. Ingersoll & 

 Hunt, where apples are stored in barrels and repacked for export just at such 

 times during the winter season when they will bring the most money. The 

 double wainscoted walls are filled with sawdust, and both on the outside and 

 inside of this double wall air spaces are constructed. This house is cold in 

 summer, and sufficiently warm in winter to preserve the fruit from freezing, 

 without fire. 



Some of the principal varieties of apples grown for market in this district 

 are Ben Davis, Spy, King, Baldwin, Ribston Pippin, Fameuse, Cayuga Red 

 Streak, St. Lawrence and Golden Sweet, but of all kinds the most productive is 

 the Ben Davis. Some five year old trees of this variety in Mr. Mitchell's 

 orchard are loaded to the very ground with fine, well-colored fruit, and this early 

 and regular bearing seemed to be a marked characteristic of this variety. 



Pears are not widely cultivated as yet in this section. Indeed, many of 

 our varieties would probably be too tender this far north, but the Flemish Beauty 

 which is hardy, succeeds admirably. Some trees of this variety in Mr. Mit- 

 chell's orchard produced fruit which was remarkably fine. One tree in parti- 

 cular, which was fifteen years planted, had produced four barrels of pears in 



