82 



THE CANA.DIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



BEPORT OF SEEDLING AND NEW 

 FRUITS FOR 1881. 



In some of the departments of fruit 

 culture this season, the supply has been 

 most abundant and plentiful, more so, I 

 believe, in this section than in some of 

 the other sections of our province. As 

 I have previously reported, for this sec- 

 tion the small-fruit crop of this season 

 was most encouraging and abundant. 

 And now again, I am most happy to be 

 able to report a magnificent crop of fine 

 apples and luscious grapes. These crops, 

 1 believe, were quite exclusive and sec- 

 tional as far as our province is concern- 

 ed, being much larger and finer than 

 in many other sections. For these ex- 

 pressions of benevolent favor, we should 

 be more and more thankful than ever 

 to the Great Fountain of good, "who 

 supplies the need of every living thing. " 

 Without further preliminaries then, I 

 shall at once take notice of the staple 

 fruits as they occur in their order of im- 

 portance, commencing with 



APPLES. 



In these the old standard sorts as 

 Rhode Island Greenings, Baldwins, 

 Northern Spys, and Russets, are as 

 popular as ever and lose nothing of 

 their real value and importance as do- 

 mestic and marketable fruits. As T 

 have previously intimated, our crop of 

 this fine popular, standard fruit for this 

 season was not only abundant, but 

 liandsomely developed, and much to 

 the pecuniary profit of our growers. 

 The demand for our apples this year 

 was better than ever before, and our 

 growers sold the whole of autumn and 

 winter fruit to dealers who came to 

 the orchard and supplied the packing 

 for the whole. The price paid was 

 from 80 cents to $1.00 per barrel for 

 autumn, and $1.00 to $1.50 for winter, 

 and it was astonishing to see the quan- 

 tities shipped at our ports. The con- 

 sequence is our people are very much 



encouraged in their eflforts at apple 

 growing, and are already planning for 

 the extensive planting of new and much 

 improved orchards, as they now see in 

 the light of a keen market where they 

 have previously erred, and are deter- 

 mined to rectify these matters. We 

 have no indigenous apples of any im- 

 portance whatever, as our natural 

 specimens are too small and repulsive 

 in flavor and texture in the light of 

 better sorts. We have, however, seen 

 some new sorts lately introduced that 

 are likely to be of great value in our 

 future stock of winter apples, and three 

 of the best of those are Mann Apple, 

 Grimes Golden, and Smith's Cider. 

 The first is large, fine, and a good 

 keeper, and the second and third are 

 beautiful in color and relishable in tex- 

 ture and flavour ; they are doubtless 

 great acquisitions to our present envi- 

 able stock. We had early Harvest this 

 year and in good condition Aug. 6th. 

 and the beautiful new Russian apple 

 Tetofsky, Aug. 8th. We are now grow- 

 ing a few western varieties that may 

 ultimately be of great service to us, 

 and valuable additions to our stock. 

 These are Walbridge, Haas, Perry 

 Russet, Utter's Red and Wealthy, 

 mostly from Minnesota, and they are 

 making splendid progress. In a few 

 more years therefore, we hope to have 

 something more splendid in the apple 

 line to report. 



PEARS. 



This season was unfortunately an off 

 year in our pear orchards, if the few 

 scattering trees generally planted in 

 this county, can properly be so desig- 

 nated. For growing this fruit we have 

 a country well adapted both in soil and 

 climate, and yet there are lamentably 

 few and poor specimens grown, that is, 

 compared with our capabilities. Why 

 this is so is something like a mystery, 

 but must be accounted for on the prin- 

 ciple of reckless indifference. For 



