THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



163 



Oldenburg. My tree, set out in 1876, 

 has borne every year for five years, and 

 tills year was a marvel of" beauty, as it 

 hung full of most beautiful apples, just 

 such as I exhibited from it at Grand 

 Rapids. I repeat the ^^ gude wife's" 

 words : " Every family ought to have 

 one." — Rural New Yorker. 



NEW PLANTS. 



Among the new plants — new to me 

 — which I have grown this year, there 

 are two which I have found to be valu- 

 able acquisitions. The one is the 

 Dahlia Glare of the Garden, and the 

 other the bulb Milla biflora. These, of 

 course, are not hardy, but are easily 



I cared for during the winter season. 

 Of the first, I have one planted out 

 upon the lawn, which for nearly two 



j months past has been continually cov- 

 ered with its brilliant flowers, never 

 loss than fifty and frequently over a 

 hundred at a time. It has so little the 

 appearance of a Dahlia that it has V>e- 

 come almost a daily occurrence to have 



i passers-by stop and enquire the name 

 of the plant. The most vivid descrip- 

 tion of it was given the other day by 

 one of a number of little girls passing 

 !)y, who cried out, " Oh, look at that 

 < 'hristmas tree, in there, upon the 

 Ljijuss." It is one of the Cactus Dahlia 

 type. 



Milla biflora has given, for a month 

 past, an abundance of pure white, waxy, 

 star-shaped flowei-s, an inch and a half 

 iu diameter and highly fragrant as the 

 ilay closes. As a cut flower, for room 

 decoration, it is particularly valuable, 

 from the fact that it remains perfect 

 for nearly or quite a week after having 

 l»(;en cut. My bulbs were started in 

 small pots in a cold-frame, and after- 

 wards transferred to the open ground, 

 l)ut I presume the same treatment as 

 rcHjuired for the Gladiolus would an- 

 swer for it. — Vick's Magazuie. 



A GLUTTED MARKET. 



'* This country around Keuka Lake," 

 said Captain Smith Fairchild, who com- 

 mands the little steamer Urbana, " is 

 now one of the greatest grape growing 

 regions in the world. The vineyards 

 cover thousands and thousands of acres, 

 clear from the edge of the lake up to the 

 summit of the hills on every side of it. 

 We ship thousands of tons of all kinds 

 of grapes to the New York market 

 every season, to say nothing of the tons 

 and tons that we mash up into the best 

 wine on the American Continent. But 

 I can remember the first grapes that 

 went from here to New York, and, 

 although there wasn't more than 300 

 pounds of 'em, they glutted the market. 

 That's a fact. 



" Stanley Fairchild, my father, was 

 a cabinet-maker, and Uncle Billy Hast- 

 ings lived up on the hill yonder. No- 

 body had ever thought of raising grapes 

 as a business, but Uncle Billy had some 

 of the finest grape arboi-s that ever 

 tempted a youngster. One fall his 

 vines were so overloaded with grapes 

 that he didn't know what to do with 

 'em. An idea struck him that it would 

 be a good thing to ship a lot of 'em to 

 New York. This was in 1847. There 

 was no way to ship 'em except by lake 

 and canal, and Uncle Billy thought the 

 best way to do it was to pack the grapes 

 in a barrel with cedar shavings. He 

 brought a big cedar block to my father's 

 shop, and told him to have it converted 

 into shavings. I was a chunk of a boy 

 then, and father set me to work with a 

 plane to demolish that block. That 

 put mo down on the grape business at 

 once, and I made a solemn wish that 

 the steamboat or the canal-boat would 

 sink that carried Uncle Billy's grapes, 

 so that the business would end right 

 there. I saw nothing bright in a future 

 that had nothing in store for me but the 

 making of cedar shavings. Well, I 

 knoek(Hl that block into curly bits in 



