THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



A Report From Ireland. 



Sir, — I do not think much of the Gault 

 raspberry you sent me. It seems to be a 

 small, poor blackberry, inferior to what we 

 have wild here in our roadside hedges. I 

 should much like to hear your opinion or 

 that of some of your correspondents who 

 have tried them, on the Honeyberry. Now 

 I think setting fruit in my garden, and the 

 Iceberg White blackberry, which I think is 

 one of Luther Burbank's raising, 3 though I 

 did not have it from him 



W. E. GUMBLETON. 



Belgrave, County Cork, Ireland. 



Fruit in Lal^e Huron District. 



Sir, — The very cold weather we had the 

 latter part of February and first part of March 

 did a great deal of damage to the wheat fields, 

 but no injury to the fruit, large or small, that . 

 I can see in this section. I see that Mr. Race 

 of Mitchell states that raspberries were win- 

 ter killed in that part ; here no harm was 

 done to any varieties We had a good crop 

 of strawberries, gooseberries, currants and 

 raspberries ; also a fair crop of cherries, but 

 the birds take a lot of the early sorts ; in fact 

 we cannot get any to ripen. I find the Rock 

 port is exempt from their attacks Plums 

 are a very good crop and very free from the 

 curculio ; pears are a very light crop, and 

 apples, the most valuable of all fruit, are of 

 fine quality. This year they are very clean 

 and free of the codling moth. I think the 

 severe cold must have settled them and the 

 curculio. Apples are not so very plentiful, 

 but good in quality. A number of the trees 

 had no blossom. The King of Tompkins I 

 have found hitherto shy bearers, but last 

 year they bore heavily and again this year are 

 yielding well. The grape vines were dam- 

 aged to quite an extent. The hard frost we 

 had gave my. boxwood a sad scorching, and 

 injured the Baltimore Belle so badly that there 

 was no bloom. The Deutzia crenata suffered 

 severely. 1 see by the reports that the Tent 

 Caterpillars have been numerous down east ; 

 I find in this section they have been compar- 

 atively scarce. Our spring grain of all varie- 

 ties is a heavy crop ; potatoes also will turn 



out well. The bugs are not very numerous ; 

 likely the cold affected them also. VSe had 

 I might say no spring ; it turned from winter 

 to summer suddenly. Although vegetation 

 was late in starting, the growth was rapid 

 when it began. While east of us rain was 

 much needed, in these parts we had an abun- 

 dance of it, enough and to spare ; several 

 heavy rain falls that damaged some of our 

 early potatoes and peas, which together with 

 hot weather caused the weeds to grow ram- 

 pant, and we could not keep them down or 

 kill them. I am sorry to say that farmers 

 generally don't try to do it, seemingly, not 

 thinking that the weeds rob the soil to a very 

 great extent — so much so that not more than 

 half a crop can be grown on a good many 

 places. It is really disgraceful to see some 

 farms, actually covered with weeds of every 

 description, which are constantly on the in- 

 crease. 



Ooderich. 



Walter Hick. 



The Export of Peaches. 



Sir. — In talking to Mr. Davies Allan com- 

 missioner of Cape Town south Africa, on 

 Saturday last, I found out that they ship 

 fruit from there to England in first class con- 

 dition, although the fruit is double the time 

 on the voyage that ours are. He told me 

 that the secret in shipping peaches was never 

 to let the hands touch the fruit. They have 

 pinchers made for the purpose that fits round 

 the joint of the peach fruit when they give it 

 a gentle twist and the fruit seperates from the 

 tree and it is placed into a shallow box or 

 crate and they never commence to pick until 

 about four o'clock in the afternoon and each 

 box or crate as it is filled is placed into 

 refrigerator cars on sidings run from the 

 main track into the orchards, when filled they 

 are sent on their long journey in cold storage 

 and it takes eighteen days for the peach to 

 reach London England, when they get good 

 prices for the same. Would not a trial of 

 this kind be of much interest to our fruit 

 growers in Ontario. 



R. Cameron. 

 Niagara Falls South. 



Destroying Ants. — Make holes with 

 a crowbar or convenient stick, from six 

 inches to one foot deep and about fifteen 

 inches apart, over the hill or portion of 

 the lawn infested by the ants and into 

 each hole pour two or three teaspoon- 

 fuls of bisulphide of carbon, stamping 

 the dirt into the hole as soon as the 

 liquid is poured into it. The bisulphide 



of carbon at once vaporizes and, perme- 

 ating the ground, destroys the ants but 

 does not injure the grass. One should 

 remember while using this substance 

 that it is highly inflammable and should 

 not bring near it a flame or even a 

 lighted cigar. Mass. Exper. Station, in 

 Minnesota Horticulturist. 



370 



