THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



263 



Niagara District Grape Growers' As- 

 sociation. — Ed.] 



^tBrdlaneouB, 



AUTUMN. 



BY GRANDMA QOWAN, MONTREAL. 



( Written for the Canadian Horticulturist. ) 



Autumn has come with her fairy waml, 

 And touch'd the trees, the fields and 

 liowers ; 



Peace reigns supreme all o'er the land, 

 And glorious foliage fills our Ijowers. 



Trees standing still to greet the sun, 

 With weight of fruit are bended low, 



Whisp'ring their summer's work is done ; 

 And dew-kiss'd grapes luxuriant glow. 



Plenty has come, in golden showers, 

 Down from a loving hand divine 



To these ungrateful hearts of ours, 

 80 prone to murmur and repine. 



Here in this sylvan solitude, 



All radiant with autumnal dyes, 



I praise the " Giver of All Good," 



With tremulous voice and tear-dimm'd 

 eyes. 



Forfend ! when angel reapers come 

 To garner in the golden sheaves. 



That I, now in my setting sun, 



Have naught to give but withered leaves. 



The weeds we have with us always. 

 This statement is indeed near the truth, 

 tliere being some marked exceptions in 

 the cases of a veiy few very clean cul- 

 tivators of the land. Professor Lazen- 

 by, of the Ohio Experimental Station, 

 Columbus, Ohio, has gone to great 

 pains to show why weeds are so per- 

 sistent in their presence ; this by count- 

 ing and closely estimating on the seeds 

 of some of the more common ones. As 

 to results, he found on one plant of the 

 everywhere abundant Shepherd's Purse 

 (Capsella Bursa pastor Is ) 77,500 seeds; 

 on a rank Burdock (Lappa major) 

 400,328 seeds; on a large Wild Parsnij), 

 19,000, and many other kinds were 

 nearly as numerous as those of the ones 

 named. — Pop. Gardening. 



Not in Bloom. — He (at the horti- 

 cultural show) — "This is a Tobacco 

 Plant, my dear" Slie — "Indeed! how 

 very interesting ! But I don't see any 

 cigars on it." — Harper's Bazaar. 



To Protect Shade Trees from 

 Stock. — Take a stiff board six or eight 

 feet long and set it up against tlie tree; 

 then, beginning at the top, wind barbed 

 wire very loosely around both tree and 

 edging, fastening to the latter at inter- 

 vals of two or three inches, and fasten 

 sevei-al short pieces of edging inside the 

 upper and lower coils to keep the wire 

 from wearing the bark. — Farm arul 

 Home. 



I HAVE found that air-slacked lime 

 sowed over the foliage of Kittatinny 

 blackberries just before blossoming has 

 (or something has) completely cured 

 them of the rust that threatened to de- 

 stroy the plantation. Have any of 

 your readers had like experience? — 

 W. P. Gorsa, in Farm and Home. 



Lady — "Have you given the gold- 

 fish fresh water, as I told you, Maria?" 

 Maria — " No, ma'am ; and why should 

 I ? Sure, they haven't drunk what they 

 have yet !" 



Apples for London. — C. S. Nixon, 

 Montreal, Forwarding Agent for Simon 

 Jacobs (fc Co., writes : — " Have just 

 been advised by our Halifax correspon- 

 dent that the steamers left that port on 

 Saturday, 9th Oct., with about eleven 

 thousand barrels Nova Scotian apples 

 for London." 



A Fine Quince Tree. — Mr. D. Ker- 

 man. President of the Grimsby Fruit 

 Growers' Association, has a beautifnl 

 quince tree in liis garden. Just now 

 (Oct. 1) it is loaded with immense 

 orange quinces, probably enough to fill 

 a barrel. It grows in such a uniform 

 sha])e that it is an ornament to his 

 grounds, and not like the neglected 

 scrubs we so often see. Mr. Kerman 

 cultivates it well, and digs in a dress- 



