THE BALDWIN CHERRY. 



237 



degrees of temperature. It is not ad- 

 visable to ship our apples to England 

 in October in the ordinary freight com- 

 partments, if the temperature at the time 

 of shipment is 50 degrees or over that 

 mark. A reference to the maximum tem- 

 peratures of the month of October, at Mon- 

 treal, will be interesting. In 1899, the 

 average maximum temperatures for the four 

 weeks of October were as follows : — First 

 week, 47 degrees ; second w^eek, 58 ; third 

 week, 65 ; fourth week, 45. 



In 1900 it was much warmer, viz. : — First 

 week, 70 degrees ; second week, 55 ; third 

 week, 62 ; fourth week, 63. 



It is strange that the third week of this 

 month, in each year, the temperatures aver- 

 aged over 60 degrees maximum — much too 

 hot weather to pick, pack and ship Fameuse, 

 at a time when the fruit is pretty well mat- 

 ured, and expect it to arrive on the other 



side in a satisfactory condition. My 

 advice is not to ship at all, except 

 in cold storage, during the hot term. The 

 holds of the ships are much too hot to carry 

 the fruit over in good condition, and hence 

 it is that we frequently hear of fruit arriving 

 slack, and in bad order. The plan I have 

 adopted, the last couple of seasons, is to 

 send the cases of apples to the cold storage 

 warehouses during- the hot term, immedi- 

 ately after being picked, and to keep them 

 there a month or so in cold storage, and they 

 reach their destination in splendid order. 

 Last season in the month of November, I 

 successfully exported Wealthy, in cases, 

 which had been put in cold storage six to 

 seven weeks before being shipped, but I 

 could not have expected to ship the same 

 cases in the months of September or Oct- 

 ober, and meet with the same success, 

 unless transported in cold storag^e. 



THE BALDWIN CHERRY. 



'N a publication, issued by the State of 

 Kansas, entitled the Cherry in Kansas, 

 (for which the writer is indebted to 

 ^^ Mr. Wm. H. Barnes, Secretary Kan- 

 sas State Horticultural Society), is an ac- 

 count of a cherry originating in Kansas 

 which seems to give promise of being a de- 

 sirable variety for fruit growers in Ontario. 



It is stated that the origin of the tree was 

 on this wise : In the spring- of 1888 S. J. 

 Baldwin, of Seneca, Kansas, planted an or- 

 chard of eight hundred cherry trees, that 

 the bud part of this tree got broken out, 

 that a vigorous sprout shot up from the 

 stock, which was suffered to become a tree, 

 and in 1892 began to bear fruit. After hav- 

 ing borne fruit for four consecutive years, 

 Mr. Baldwin was so well pleased with the 

 quality and early ripening of the fruit, and 

 the vigorous habit and productiveness of the 

 tree that he decided to propagate from it. 



In the spring of 1898 he set out two hun- 

 dred trees g-rown from this new variety. 



The following winter, 1898-99, was unpar- 

 alleled in severity, causing the death of a 

 great number of trees of English Morello, 

 Early Richmond, Montmorency and others 

 of that class, and so badly injuring those 

 that survived that there was scarcely half a 

 crop in the season of 1899. Notwithstand- 

 ing the extreme cold the original tree bore 

 a full crop in 1899, and of the 200 young 

 trees set out in 1898 only four died. 



The fruit is thus described by Mr. Bald- 

 win : " Large, almost round, very dark 

 transparent wine color, flavor slightly acid, 

 yet the sweetest and richest of the Morello 

 type." With commendable naivete he says 

 that at first he named the new cherry " Kan- 

 sas Queen," but learning that the rules of 

 the American Pomological Society forbade 

 giving compound names, at the suggestion 

 of Mr. W. F, Heikes, Huntsville, Alabama, 

 it is named *' Baldwin." 



D. W. Beadle. 



Toronto. 



