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THE OiiNADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



ADVENTURES OF AN ACORN.* • 



The following lines were written by a 

 Scotch horticulturist, to illustrate how curi- 

 ously seeds are sometimes scattered over the 

 earth. The story in this case is literally 

 true, and what makes the circumstance the 

 more interesting to Scotch botanists, is the 

 fact that the oak thus strangely introduced 

 into that country is of a kind different from 

 any hitherto growing there :- 



In the far off wilds of Canadian woods, 



Where the red man lives and dies— 

 Where the wild turkey hatches and rears her broods 



Unseen to the white man's eyes — 

 There fell to the shot of a gun one day, 



To the sportsman a glorious prize, 

 A turkey, whose flight lay over his way, 



A bird of a royal size. 



This turkey was sent to old Scotia's shore, 



As a Christmas treat to a brother. 

 And never on Christmas board before. 



Had the Scotsman seen such another. 

 And deep in the " crop " of the bird he fotmd 



(Now here is the pith of the story) 

 A seed of a tree whose name is a sound 



Of renown in old England's glory. 



The acorn was planted in mother earth. 



And soon to new life awoke, 

 And fresh from the ground there Issued forth 



A sapling of royal oak. 

 Now wise men all, I pray you please, 



To mark the curious ways 

 By which the seeds of plants and ti'ees 



Are scattered in our days. 



* These lines, by " Patriarch Peter " penned, 

 My less romantic tale amend. W. M. 



Discovery op Extensive Pine For- 

 ests. — The recent exploration party of 

 Colonel Mercer up the Spanish River, in 

 the province of Ontario, is said to have 

 discovered vast pine forests, containing 

 upward of 24,000,000,000 feet of a supe- 

 rior quality of pine lumber, with facilities 

 for getting it to market equal to the best. 



Keeping Apples. — G. F. Newton, in a 

 paper read before the Ohio Horticultural 

 Society, describes an experiment in keep- 

 ing apples, by which he had Tompkins 

 King with fresh flavor and bright color in 

 April, and Rambo and Peck's Pleasant in 

 July. The secret of success was a con- 

 stant low temperature. They were 

 gathered in September, heaped on the 

 bam floor till cold weather, carefully as- 

 sorted, barreled, and kept in a cold cellar. 

 The uniformly low temperature was pre- 

 served by opening the ventilators of the 

 fruit-room in cold, and closing them in 

 warmer weather. — Country Gentleman. 



Shortenino-in the Peach. — Those 

 who have made an actual trial with short- 

 ening in the shoots of the p^ach, do not 

 find it to require the amount of labor 

 which the inexperienced suppose neces- 

 sary. A. C. Younglove, of Vine Valley, 

 N. Y. , shortens back his orchard of 600 

 trees, performing the work expeditiously, 

 and he finds it profitable, greatly improv- 

 ing the fruit. In answer to the frequent 

 inquiry as to the best time for performing 

 the work, late summer and early spring 

 may be given. If done late in autumn 

 the trees are made tenderer for with- 

 standing the cold winter. If done be- 

 fore the leaves drop and while there is 

 still some growth, the wood ripens well 

 and is prepared for the cold. — Country 

 Gentleman. 



Preserving and Marketing — Over 

 Production. — If any one will take the 

 trouble to look into the facts about the 

 comparative price of the different kinds of 

 fruit grown in this country they will see 

 how foolish is the idea that the country is 

 in danger of being overstocked. The price 

 of apples, peaches, pears, strawberries, 

 grapes, etc., for forty years, dividing 

 that time into four periods of ten years 

 each, and statistics show that on an aver- 

 age the price of fruit has constantly in- 

 creased. In strawberries and other small 

 fruits this has been very marked. Pro- 

 duction has grown rapidly in that time, 

 but prices have constantly advanced. Oc- 

 casionally we have a year of great abun- 

 dance of apples, and prices are low. But 

 farmers generally do not seem to have 

 realized yet that the surplus in apples may 

 be very profitably utilized in fattening 

 both hogs and cattle. The best of meat 

 may be made with a little com and plenty 

 of apple food. In older countries it is 

 well known that this kind of feed cooked 

 and mixed 'with ground grain is very 

 healthful for all kinds of stock, and it is 

 doubted that hogs would have the disease 

 known as cholera if fed this kind of ration 

 frequently. So we see that in years of 

 abundance the siu'plus fruit, • when the 

 price is low, may be profitably fed to 

 stock, and thus we may realize a good 

 price for it. There is no danger of plant- 

 ing too many orchards, or of getting too 

 much fruit. — Indiana Farmer. 



PEINTKD AT THB STBAM PRESS ESTABLISHMENT OF COPP, OLARK ft CO., OOLBORNE STREET, TORONTO. 



