The Canadian Horticulturist. 235 



The society at Lindsay has a large membership, the annual meeting was 

 well attended and the floral display in the hall was a magnificent one. What 

 surprised me much was to find in that Northern town that the pear and plum 

 trees, grapevines, and shubbery of all kinds looked just as vigorous and thrifty as 

 at any of the frontier towns on Lake Ontario, and that roses were grown more 

 extensively and with less difficulty out there than at the front. 



Mitchell. T. H. Race. 



CANADIAN APPLES FOR NEW YORK CITY. 



To the Editor ^The Canadian Horticulturist. 



Sir, — ^A few days since my grocer opened a barrel of Baldwin apples taken 

 the day he purchased them from a cold storage warehouse. They were of good 

 size, fine red color, and fairly free from defects. He gave $5.50 for them, and 

 retailed them at 75 cents per peck. They were Northern Spy apples. 



To-day I gave five cents for two medium-sized Northern Spys, of fine 

 color ; on the same stand prime navel oranges from California, were selling, at 

 the same price. During the months of October, November and December last 

 we paid our grocer 40 cents per peck for Southern Greenings. They were thick- 

 skinned, coarse-grained, and of a flat sub-acid flavor, only good for cooking, 

 and yet they were the best for the money in the market. 



It is now ten years since I left Oshawa, Ontario, and came here to reside. 

 The fruit most difficult to obtain of fine quality, each spring, has been apples. 

 Apples from south of Lake Erie and New York State are poor keepers, and 

 lack in flavor. The very best apple country upon this continent is in Ontario, 

 east of Kingston, and south of Georgian Bay. The skin of the apple in that 

 section is thin and high-colored, the flesh fine-grained and brittle, the flavor 

 a brisk, rich subacid ; fine to eat out of the hand, or to cook. They are better 

 keepers than any apples that I know of. By the time young trees planted now 

 come into full bearing, we shall have in this Republic 100,000,000 of con- 

 sumers ; and if all the land in the section of Ontario I have named was planted 

 with apples, this market would consume them at remunerative prices. There 

 is not the slightest danger of over-stocking this market with apples oi prime quality 

 exposed for sale in March, April, and May. 



I have never tasted a prime red Astrachan since I came here, such as I 

 grew in my garden in Oshawa, although I have hunted the markets for them. 

 I suggest that some fruit dealer send to this market some fine red Astrachans 

 this summer in kegs or half barrels ; pack them carefully ; ship to some good 

 commission merchant in New York ; brand them plainly as from Canada, and 

 adopt some trade mark so as to establish a reputation for the brand, and I am 

 confident that even after paying the duty and charges upon them they will yield 



