$ ®pef? Letters. $ 



Apple Shipping". 



Sir, — I notice in your valuable journal for 

 March, that at a meeting of the Niagara Dis- 

 trict Fruit men, the subject of ventilated cars 

 for shipping tender frait in summer, was 

 taken up and handled very ably, but to my 

 mind there was a matter omitted of far more 

 importance viz., wiuter shipping of apples to 

 Europe. Now it is a fact that thei e has been 

 very heavy losses this winter caused by apples 

 being frozen on the way to the shipping ports 

 and lying around waiting for vessels to arrive, 

 and other causes. I have a circular from 

 Wcodall & Co., Liverpool, stating that apples 

 in some cases turned out frozen, out of the 

 bottom of the vessels, even after the long 

 voyage and in the warm vessel. 



Apples, when frosted and put into the ves- 

 sel in that state, will turn wet when they 

 thaw out and will commence to rot at once. 

 I just hive returns for a car of Spys from 

 Live -pool, $1 13 a barrel that cost me in the 

 orchird last fall $1.50 for the fruit. I think 

 this was the best car I ever shipped and 

 would have made money had it arrived in 

 good order. We want heated cars the same 

 as those used on the C. P. R. I understood 

 they have a coal oil lamp that is sufficient to 

 keep the frost out of a good refrigerator car, 

 also there should be a large shed at Portland 

 and other points of shipping, into which cars 

 could be run in till the y are ready to be un- 

 loaded. I think that if this matter was taken 

 up and remedied, we would not have so many 

 barrels of slacks and wets and worthless rot- 

 ten apples exported. 



E. Leonard & Sons, Cobourg. 



Stronger Solutions Paris Green 

 Advised. 



Sir, — According to my experience the pre- 

 sent formula for paris green for the distrac- 

 tion of eating insect pests is not strong enough 

 to kill anything. 



For Gooseberry worm last year I went by 

 the formula 4 oz of paris green to a coal oil 

 barrel of Bordeaux mixture. This had no 

 effect and 1 doubled the dose 8 oz , and this 

 only just succeeded. 1 then sprayed potatoes 

 4 oz. with milk of lime in the mixture and 

 found it of no use. To ascertain what we had 

 been using by the old teaspoo i measure, I 

 filled a barrel and to every pail of the mixture 

 — (milk of lime and water) — I put a teaspoon- 

 full of paris green this was 14 oz. to a barrel 

 40 gals. 



A gentleman living near had his orchard 

 overrun last spring with the tent caterpillar, 

 upon my advice he got a spray pamp and put 

 on the orthodox 4 oz. and this did not delay 

 their operations of stripping his orchard in 

 thp least. 



1 notice in reports spraying for codling 



moths is not always successful, nor in my 

 opinion will it ever be with 4 oz. of paris green 

 to 50 or 40 gals, of water. Still I would coun- 

 sel every one using Paris green to use milk of 

 lime, as this not only protects the foliage from 

 the effects of the poison and fixes it to the leaf 

 but actually nourishes the leaf. This latter 

 seems questionable but my experience so far 

 seems to justify this conclusion, and this con- 

 tention supported by other investigators, that 

 the leaf should feed on the lime by absorbtion 

 does not seem improbable when we remember 

 that many plants take nitrogen from the air. 

 Let this be as it may I am satisfied that the 

 leaves of bushes that are kept coated all sum- 

 nier with lime are of more than normal thick- 

 ness and size and retain their greenness till 

 destroyed by frost. 



Another point ; I am satisfied from my own 

 experieace and from the experience of others, 

 and the lecture given here last winter before 

 the Farmer's Institute by Alex. McNeil Esq., 

 still further fortifies the opinion, that goose- 

 berry mildew is not affected by Bordeaux after 

 the spores once get hold on either leaf or fruit. 

 Our vantage time is before the leaf comes out, 

 I gave mine a good drenching last fall, not 

 after the leaves had fallen but after they were 

 no longer needful to the bush ; this I did with 

 pure blue stone water 2 lbs to 40 gals., but 

 for the future I shall add lime even before 

 the leaves come out, as it fixes the blue stone 

 to the stems for weeks. 



Stanley Spillet, Nantyre. 



Manuring. 



Sir, — Your correspondent writing about 

 Potash seems to have entirely misunderstood 

 its application to plant life As an alkali 

 and iDase it is undoubtedly important in flesh 

 building both in plants and animals, and 

 although some eminent agriculturists have 

 intimated that magaesia and soda can to 

 some extent take its place, yet they have 

 never for a moment suggested that we can 

 get large crops of anything without potash 

 in plentiful supply. There is, however, a 

 great deal of potash in Canadian as in most 

 other soils, ia fact it is usually in much better 

 supply than lime alkaline base. It is very 

 often locked up in unyielding forms in the 

 earth, but is readily liberated by the free 

 caustic lime of the tetra-basic phosphates. 

 The use of mono-calcic (superphosphates) 

 phosphates, or even the di-calcic or tri-calcic 

 (bone) phosphates will not effect the unlock- 

 ing of the potash because they have no further 

 base of free lime as the tetra-basic phosphates 

 carry. This is one of the many reasons why 

 the tetra-basic phosphates are being recom- 

 mended by the highest authorities as prefer- 

 able to superphosphates and bone. 



In the light of the most recent researches 

 we are again emphasizing the teaching of Lie- 

 big that the acids need more careful attention 



Jo6 



