98 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



ary to operate on a large scale, and Mr. 

 Eaton has invented apparatus suited to his 

 circumstances. One pump is made to 

 operate two sets of hose, each with double 

 nozzle, thus throwinj^ four streains at once. 

 Extension piece of -^h iron pipe are used and 

 a small saucer shaped piece of g^alvanized 

 iron soldered around them a few inches 

 below the nozzles prevents any drip. Mr. 

 Eaton this year left one row throug^hout his 

 orchard unsprayed, as an experiment, and 

 is more than ever convinced of the value of 

 spraving-. He usually applies the Bordeaux 

 mixture four times a year and believes it o* 

 value as a funi^icide and also a protection 

 against black knot in plum trees. It might 

 be noted that the orchard is free from black 

 knot. 



As to varieties Hillcrest orchards have in 

 apples : — The Gravenstein, Ribston, Blen 

 heim, Wealthy, Baldwin, Wagener, Ben 

 Davis, Golden Russet, Fallawater and Non- 

 pariel. In plums a specialty is made of the 

 Japanese varieties of which there are i loo 

 Burbanks, 400 Abundance, 300 Red Junes 

 and 200 Wickson giving a succession of 

 fruit from August till well into October. 

 One thousand other plums are divided 

 among the Lombard, German Prune, Reine 

 Claude, Quackenbos, Niagara, Bradshaw, 

 Monarch, Black Diamond and Grand Duke. 

 Plums have been shipped to London with 

 results that justify the expectation of finding 

 a market for surplus products. Ten var- 

 ieties of peaches have been planted, seven 



of which, the Alexander, Hyneu's Surprise, 

 Elberta, Crosby, Hill's Chili, Mountain Rose 

 and Early Rivers, ripening in seven succes- 

 sive weeks, have proved sufliciently hardy. 

 This year Mr. Eaton had 400 boxes of 

 Governor Wood and Early Richmond 

 cherries, and expects to have 1000 of the 

 English Morello. The various kinds of 

 cherries ripen from July to September. In 

 pears there are Bartlets, Clapp's Favorite, 

 Duchess, Louise Bonne, Flemish Beauty, 

 Anjou and others. Three kinds of apricots 

 are grown and also several hundred quince 

 trees. 



How rapidly the value of the land multi- 

 plies is seen from the fact that thirteen years 

 ago the oldest part of this orchard was in 

 forest, and six years ago much of it was in 

 stump and worth about $10 per acre. To- 

 day it could not be bought for less than $500 

 per acre. 



Note by Editor. — We are much interested in 

 this account of Hillcrest orchard, and must cer- 

 tainly compliment Mr. Eaton on his wonderful 

 enterprise, and also on the excellent assortment of 

 fruits he has planted. Such a plantation, culli- 

 vated and fertilized in a proper manner, is certainly 

 a valuable piece of property, but surely Prof. 

 Macoun s wide of the mark in his figures. We 

 have heard of fruit orchards in the Niagara district 

 of Ontario, valued at .f 1000 per acre, but always 

 thought such valuation very misleading, and surely 

 Hillcrest, with all its excellent points, is not worth 

 any such value per acre. Pcssibly, in some sea- 

 sons, when the crop is good all around an orchard 

 might yield ten per cent income on one thousand 

 dollars, but what of the years when the crop fails, 

 or the market prices drop to such a point that all 

 the income is eaten up in expenses? These con- 

 ditions sometimes prevail with us in Ontario, and 

 surely Nova Scotia fruit growers are not exempt 

 from such seasons of discouragement. 



STANDARD BASKETS. 



^OR a long time the fruit business has 

 m been in an unsettled condition for 

 i%j want oi uniform packages. Many 

 shippers seem to think that by putting up 

 their goods in smaller packages than their 

 neighbors, and charging the same price, they 

 would make more out of their fruit crop ; a 

 trick that succeeds for a time, but by and by 



defeats its own end, for soon all baskets sell 

 for the price of the smallest. 



At the recent meeting of the Ontario Fruit 

 Growers' Association, held in Brantford, the 

 following gentlemen were appointed a com- 

 mittee on uniform packages : W. M. Orr, 

 A. H. Pettit, L. Woolverton, D. J. Mc- 

 Kinnon, C. W. X'anDuzer, S. M. Culp, W- 



