224 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



lowing are exceptional prices that have 

 been realized per statute acre for other 

 fruits and vegetables in recent years : — 



"Very early potatoes |500 



Onions 960 



Early lettuces 500 



Plums 500 



Gooseberries 500 



Strawberries 750 



Black currants 840 



Filberts 1,000 



It will be observed that onions and 

 filberts head the list, but the produce 

 of an acre of mushrooms is worth more 

 than double that of either onions or 

 filberts. — Pall Mall Gazette. 



THE SMOKE TKEE. 



Bless this dear old plant ! If we 

 were constrained to part with all our 

 shrubs but one, we should hold on to 

 the Smoke tree. It is easy as one 

 looks at it from a little distance to fancy 

 it a cloud tinted with the faintest rose 

 and the faintest green blended together, 

 or a mass of smoke such as may issue 

 from a combination of colored fire- 

 works. There is no shrub like it while 

 in bloom. The delicate, downy inflor- 

 escence is not due to tlie flowers, which 

 are quite inconspicuous, but to the 

 feathery pedicels that elongate and so 

 diff'use themselves as to conceal the 

 leaves, while because of their delicacy 

 we see only softly-blending colors that 

 might well indeed be smoke or a cloud. 



We have seen specimens of this little 

 tree 20 feet in diameter — a mass of 

 light, mossy green and purple or rose. 

 Later, all this becomes gray, and its 

 beauty is gone, though the later growth 

 of leaves takes its place in a measure. 

 One likes old-fashioned things that 

 bring to mind the old homestead or the 

 familiar country gardens of early days, 

 and the Smoke tree, though among the 

 choicest collections of plants of more re- 

 cent times, seems like an old and tried 

 friend among aristocratic strangers. 



It has been said that this little tree. 



so distinct from all others, so oddly 

 beautiful to those who see it for the 

 first time, rejoices in a dry, warm soil. 

 It is true. But it also thrives in 

 heavy, moist soils. We have it in both 

 positions, and it seems to prefer the 

 latter. Its botanical name is Rhus 

 cotinus, and is known familiarly as the 

 Purple Fringe, Wig tree, and Venetian 

 sumach, as well as the Smoke tree. — 

 Rural New-Yorker. 



FARMERS' ORCHARDS. 



Read before the Farmers' Institute, by T. Beall, 

 Esq., Lindsay. 



While this south riding of Victoria 

 is not supposed by its inhabitants to be 

 generally favorable to the production 

 of fruit, it is known that samples are 

 often shown at our county exhibitions, 

 and at the Mariposa fall shows, which 

 would take first prizes at our provincial 

 exhibitions. This is especially true of 

 apples. 



The prize lists of our county exhibi- 

 tions show that these exhibits are not 

 confined to any one locality, but are 

 produced throughout the whole riding, 

 from the southern, western and northern 

 parts of Mariposa, the sou thern, northern 

 and central portions of Ops, and in 

 Verulam, along the southern shores of 

 Sturgeon lake. It must not, however, 

 be understood that apples can be pro- 

 fitably grown on every farm, although 

 there are but few farms whereon suffi- 

 cient soil may not be found to produce 

 at least enough fruit for the family use. 



The causes for the prevailing opinion 

 that apples cannot be profitably grown 

 here, notwithstanding the beautiful 

 samples that are every year exhibited 

 at our fairs, are not difficult to find, and 

 indeed may all be summed up by one 

 expression — lack of knowledge — as may 

 be witnessed in too many orchards 

 throughout the country, and proven by 

 almost every act of the would be grower, 

 from the time the trees are being con- 



