The Canadian Horticulturist. 415 



Talman Sweet is known to succeed in many trying sections, as far as cold 

 is concerned, in the north-western States and in Canada. In the trial orchard 

 at the Experimental Farm, Stump is decidedly tender, being injured each 

 winter, while Talman Sweet alongside rarely loses an inch of its terminal growth. 

 These facts illustrate the value of multiplied testing stations, and so emphasizes 

 the good work now being undertaken by the Ontario Government, in con- 

 junction with the Provincial Fruit Growers' Association. 



Arch-Grafting. 



This ingenious method of strengthening the tops of trees, as described by 

 Mr. Leveans, is decidedly novel and apparently of much practical value. It 

 calls to mind a useful system practised by Mr. Robert Jack, of Chateauguay, 

 P.Q. In his large orchard many old trees have been prevented from splitting 

 by bracing with iron rods. Whenever a fork showed signs of splitting, the two 

 principal limbs involved were connected at some distance above the crotch by 

 means of an iron bracing rod. This brace consisted of a round iron rod of the 

 proper length to connect the branches. Each end of this rod was supplied with 

 a threaded bolt attached by a loose eye or loop. Holes were then bored through 

 the branches, the bolts inserted and the operation completed by the addition of 

 washers and burrs. Many of these braces had been in use for years without 

 any apparent local injury to the trees. 



Acclimation of Plants. 



The whole subject embracing the acclimation ©f plants and its possibilities, 

 is an exceedingly interesting one, and one allowing free scope to the theorist. 



It does not seem to me feasable to discuss this subject apart from the 

 ■closely allied principle of heredity. Acclimation only appears reasonably possi- 

 ble when working through heredity. That this has occurred, there are too 

 many familiar examples about us to allow us to doubt for a moment the state- 

 ment. The Box Elder {Uegundo aceroides) of Ohio and that of Manitoba are 

 botanically the same, yet the Ohio form is not hardy at Ottawa, much less in 

 Manitoba. The Eastern American elm, botanically the same as that native to 

 Manitoba, winter kills at Brandon. These Northern forms have, undoubtedly, 

 been developed by a slow system of acclimation working through seedling pro- 

 duction. Within the present lifetime of man, the apple and most other cultivated 

 fruits have extended their area of profitable cultivation northward, always through 

 seedling production, accidental or otherwise ; but no amount of nursing has 

 ever rendered any individual of these fruits better able to withstand the vicissi- 

 tudes of climate, or has added to its hardiness — that is in the life of a single 

 generation. So that it would probably be a waste of time and energy to attempt 

 the production of hardy varieties by propagating, by grafting fro.n individuals 

 grown in cold climates ; but by following nature's method through seedling pro 

 duction, the area of probable success rapidly widens. 



