NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



345 



ative failure in Ontario. The same is 

 true of the apple crop of New York and 

 most of the Eastern States, and a general 

 average of all the apple producing territory 

 east of the Mississippi river gives less than 

 fifty per cent, of an average crop. 



Our Nova Scotia crop may be safely esti- 

 mated at seventy per cent, of good apples, 

 and if packed strictly in accordance with the 

 Fruit Marks Act now in force, we may rea- 

 sonably expect the highest price paid for 

 apples during the past ten years. 



Toronto Fresh Air Fuxd. — The Toronto 

 Fresh Air Fund has entered upon its eighth 

 year's work, and has for its object the sending 

 away to the country for two weeks, mothers 

 and chMdren who are badly in need of a 

 change. Good homes have been provided, 

 many of them on farms, where they get 

 substantial food and are well cared for. 

 These children and parents are selected by 

 the best known Mission Workers in Tor- 

 onto, who are well acquainted with every 

 case that is dealt with. For the mothers 

 and babes who are unable to leave home, 

 day excursions are arranged, and about one 

 hundred at a time are taken to one of the 

 Parks on the Lake Shore, and before leav- 

 ing for home refreshments are served to 

 them. The pleasure and the profit that is 

 the outcome of this work is inestimable. 

 Thinking that some of our readers might 

 like to help their poorer brethren, we will 

 receive subscriptions and acknowledge re- 

 ceipt, and forward it to the Treasurer in 

 Toronto, or they may be sent direct to the 

 Rev. H. C. Dixon, Room 6, 15 Toronto St., 

 Toronto. 



A New Apple Barbel. — -A new apple 

 barrel — an inspection barrel it is called — is 

 being introduced on the Chicago market. 

 It is described as follows : Six inches from 

 the end of a stave is sawed crosswise i J^ 

 inches on a bevel, and then sawed length- 



wise 14J5 inches, giving an integral tongue, 

 still attached to the stave and easily sprung 

 outward. These staves are from 3^^ to 4 

 inches wide and aS^s inches long. Four of 

 these staves are put into a barrel (on oppo- 

 site sides of the barrel), so that two of the 

 tongues open from end of the barrel and two 

 from the other ; and, by raising the middle 

 hoops and springing out the tongues, a view 

 of the fruit is to be had every quarter of the 

 distance around the barrel nearly its entire 

 length, a fact which the patentees claim 

 would completely discourage the deceptive 

 packer in trying to mix poor fruit with the 

 good, as there is no room for the poor fruit, 

 which fact is sufficient guarantee that fruit 

 packed in these barrels will be true to mark 

 and of the grade represented. — Fruit Trade 

 Journal. 



Crude Petroleum vs. arsenic as an in- 

 secticide has been under test by Mr. G. E. 

 Fisher, Provincial Inspector for San Jose 

 Scale. Hitherto this spray has been con- 

 sidered quite unsafe as an application to the 

 foliage, and only recommended for use be- 

 fore it appears. On the 21st of June Mr. 

 Fisher applied a spray of Paris green to 

 some trees afi^ected with canker worm, and 

 of crude petroleum to others. Four days 

 after he examined the trees and found those 

 sprayed with crude petroleum more com- 

 pletely cleared of worms than those treated 

 with arsenic, and the foliage, so far, not 

 injured in the least by the petroleum. No 

 doubt Mr. Fisher has the secret of safety in 

 the manner of application. The danger is 

 in giving an overdose, and most spray 

 nozzles are altogether too coarse and cannot 

 be regulated so as to produce a vapor. The 

 smallest Vermorel nozzle made has an aper- 

 ture of 5 100 of an inch, or 20 diameters to 

 the inch, but Mr. Fisher has employed a 

 watchmaker to make much finer ones, some 

 of them even as small as 2 100, or fifty to 

 the inch. With those an exceedingly fine 



