4o6 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



crowds which were attending the London 

 Old Boys' reunion, the local committee 

 changed its plans and the trolley ride came 

 in the morning instead of the afternoon. 

 Luncheon was served at Springbank Park. 

 The social feature was very much enjoyed 

 by those present. R. W. Rennie, secretary 

 of the London Horticultural Society, very 

 ably acted as chairman at the banquet. 



A short afternoon session was held at 

 which a paper was read from Joseph Ben- 

 nett, of Montreal, on what can be added to 

 the present list of cut flowers to meet the 

 demandof customers for something diflferent. 

 This brought up a lively discussion, but it 

 was the general opinion that nothing of im- 

 portance could be added to our present list 

 that would be remunerative. \V. Holt, of 

 Hamilton, opened a discussion on the ques- 

 tion of a uniform scale of prices in the plant 

 trade and the subject was pretty thoroughly 

 thrashed out, the conclusion arrived at being 

 that the best man will always be at the top. 



Hamilton was chosen as the next place Q'i 

 meeting. 



President, Joseph Bennett, Montreal ; ist 

 vice-president, C. Webster, Hamilton ; 2nd 

 vice-president, G. Robinson, Montreal ; 

 secretary, A. H. Ewing, Berlin ; treasurer, 

 H. Simmers, Toronto ; executive committee 

 for three years, Walter Munston, Toronto, 

 O. G. Johnson, Kingston, W. J. Lawrence, 

 Mimico. 



In connection with the trade exhibit, only 

 two were staged, Gammage & Sons, show- 

 ing a good collection of palms, araucarias, 

 ferns, begonia Gloire de Lorraine and others. 

 A. H. Ewing, of Berlin, staged some very 

 fine Boston ferns. ■ The flower show of the 

 London Horticultural Society did not con- 

 tain as many exhibits as last year, owing to 

 the fact that sweet peas in this section of the 

 country are almost over. Notwithstanding 

 these drawbacks, a very creditable display 

 was made, containing upwards of 1,000 

 vases of flowers. 



OUR EXHIBIT AT THE INDUSTRIAL. 



•HE! results of our experimental work in 

 pomology is beginning to show itself 

 in the increasing value of this annual 

 exhibit. We had about 800 plates of fruits, 

 of nearly as many varieties, on exhibition, a 

 large number of them quite new, and exhib- 

 ited in Ontario for the first time. Mr. John 

 Mitchell, our plum experimenter, showed 

 about 50 varieties of plums, all alphabetically 

 arranged, a great convenience, for exhibitors 

 in correcting nomenclature frequently came 

 bringing their plates for comparison of varie- 

 ties. Among his Japan plums, were the 

 "Gold", which, on account of its golden 

 color and red cheek, was much admired. 



The Gold was certainly most attractive 

 by reason of its rich golden yellow color, 

 with tinge of red. It is said to be a remark- 



able keeper and shipper, and has been in- 

 troduced with great encomiums by Messrs. 

 Stark Bros., of Louisiana. Probably this 

 is the first time this variety has fruited in 

 Ontario. 



Hale seems very productivp ; a tree 3^ 

 years planted bore 3^2 baskets of plums ; 

 ripe about end of August. An Abundance 

 plum tree planted five years in clay soil, pro- 

 duced ten baskets of fruit. 



On the whole Mr. Mitchell considers the 

 Japans too low in quality to be of permanent 

 value for the markets. 



There were a large number of the Domes- 

 tica class of plums, and among them a seed- 

 ling which he called Drake's seedling, season 

 2oth to 30th of August, of yellow flesh, and 

 with skin colored dull red on sunnv side. He 



