THE CANADIAN IIORTICULTUKIST, 



good and really excellent fruits have been raised than ccmld he readily 

 credited. 



Tlie one that first fruited is a very large, late, and prolific Bigarreau 

 cherry, of a dark reddish purple color, and excellent (juality, which F. 

 Ii. Elliot, Es q., of Cleveland, then secretary of the American Pomo- 

 logical Society, to whom I sent samples, pronounced "one of the 

 best late market cherries." Another is in my opinion the earliest and 

 best cheiTy yet raised, evidently a seedling from the " Early Purple 

 Gttigne," but a much stronger grower, with larger leaves, and fruit 

 larger and finer flavored, a week earlier than the Early Purple, which 

 it otherwise resembles. I sent sample trees of the best of my seedlings 

 to leading pomologists in the United States. The Hon. Marshall P.. 

 "Wilder, of Boston, writes me, "The Dougall's Early Cherry is a good 

 acquisition, and has already made a fine tree." Ellwanger and Barry 

 also wrote, "Please send us descriptions of your seedling cherries; No, 

 (Dougall's Early) fruited with us this season and promises well." 

 Mr. Elliott also commended it highly, but as I have mislaid his letter 

 1 cannot quote from it. The fruit the first year a tree bears is never- 

 so fine as after it has borne for some years, the accounts from these 

 cherries will therefore no doubt be still more favorable in a year or two. 



Another seedling is a large black Bigarreau cherry, good quality 

 and very prolific, but of a decidedly weeping habit, so much so that it 

 has to be budded on mazzard stocks, six to eight feet high, to form a 

 good tree. If budded low it never mounts up or forms a tall tree. 



Another small batch of seedling cherries have fruited this year for 

 the first time, several of which are finer than the old varieties ; one in 

 particular, a large, dark-red Bigarreau, is as early as "Dougall's Early," 

 described above. 



Seedling Plums. — Of the plum seedlings several proved very fine,, 

 •but the greater part were planted where the Curculio destroyed the 

 fruit, so that I have only been lately proving them from young trees 

 planted in my fowl yards. One of these bore last year for the first 

 time, and proved to be the most beautiful plum I ever saw. It is 

 nearly as large as the White Magnum Bonum growing alongside of it, 

 ripening a little later, and of a diiierent form, with a bright, clear, 

 transparent, yellow skin — getting, just as it begins to ripen, a beautiful 

 carmine cheek — more like a wax fruit than a true one. It is an early, 

 great, and regular bearer, being overloaded with fruit this year again. 



