42 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



,@TEi hm €@AnEiTJ 



Aphis and Rose Thrip. — At our Cobourg 

 meeting- a paper was read by Mr. Jackson, 

 of Port Hope, on the Rose, and in the dis- 

 cussion he advised spraying the foliage with 

 a strong solution of whale oil soap and ex- 

 tract of tobacco, using 20 parts of the former 

 to one of the latter. This, he said, would 

 rid the bushes of the pests. The extract of 

 tobacco can be purchased in pint bottles at 

 drug stores. 



Deep Rooted Trees are advocated by Rich- 

 ards, of Texas, as a means of withstanding 

 the effects of drouth. He claims that trees 

 should be so pruned and trained that they 

 send down their roots deep into the subsoil, 

 and argues that the deeper rooted they are, 

 the healthier, the longer lived and the more 

 productive they will average. We shall be 

 glad of the views of our readers who have 

 been observant of these conditions. In our 

 own opinion such treatment would not be 

 altogether advantageous, for the nearer the 

 surface the roots lie, the more easily can 

 they be fed with surface manuring. 



A Fruit Grader to separate our various 

 fruits into uniform sizes has become a ne- 

 cessity of the age. It is impossible to grade 

 by the eye to such exactness as is neces- 

 sary. This was plainly shown by the re- 

 ports of inspectors at Montreal, who, hav- 

 ing examined fruit so graded, warned the 

 packers that they had found in their pack- 

 ages three specimens out of ten that were be- 

 low the grade size. This variation may not 

 have been more than 1/8 of an inch, and not 

 noticeable to the best educated eye, and yet 

 was sufficient to subject the shipper to a fine 

 and to the publication of his name as that 

 of a person guilty of fraud. 



The expense of buying a grader is there- 

 fore one of the necessities of the man who 

 desires to ship graded fruit. Fortunately 

 such a machine, invented here in Ontario 

 by Mr. A. H. Pettit, of Grimsby, was shown 

 at our Cobourg meeting last December, and 

 we hope it will soon be placed upon the 

 market. 



Nitrification. — Wis. Bui. 85 gives results 

 of some investigations of the variations in 

 the amount of Nitric nitrogen and soluble 

 salts in the soil under different conditions 

 of cropping and culture, concerning the 

 amount required for healthy growth, etc. 



It was found that soil srirred once in two 

 weeks was left, after ninety-one days, with 

 53 lbs. of Nitric nitrogen per million of dry 

 soil, and that stirred once a week left the 

 same quantity of soil with 98 lbs. of Nitric 

 nitrogen. It was found that the largest 

 amount was developed during an interval of 

 258 days by stirring to a depth of three 

 inches ; a less or greater depth not giving 

 as good results. 



Large vs. Small Fruit Farms. — The question 

 of the over production of fruit is considered 

 anew year after year, and the occasional gluts 

 in our markets and the low prices returned 

 us often give great reason for anxiety lest 

 we soon reach the day when prices do not 

 give any surplus over the cost of production. 

 And this day will not be very far distant if 

 we continue to grow scrubs, for in these 

 days a glut of trash is easy to bring about ; 

 bnt a glut of large sized, highly graded fruit, 

 with fine color and first quality, has never 

 yet occurred. Those immense apple orch- 

 ards of the Western States are unwieldy 

 and the results unsatisfactory. Mr. G. T. 



