NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



43 



Powell, of New Vork State, states that the 

 great Judg-e Wellhouse orchards, of Missouri, 

 have yielded an average of but fifty bushels 

 of apples per acre for twenty-two years and 

 this is one of the best cultivated of the 

 mammoth orchards of the West. Some of 

 these big orchards have never been pruned 

 or cultivated since they were set. Such 

 orchards will never cause a glut of fine 

 apples in any market, and the fact of their 

 being planted need never make us anxious 

 over the future of our apple markets. 



The secret of making money out of apples 

 in the future is to produce something super- 

 ior to the product of such orchards. A 

 small orchard, no larger in size than can be 

 cultivated, pruned, fertilized and the product 

 handled and packed in the best manner, is 

 the ideal investment. The markets of the 

 world are opening up for choice stock in a 

 wonderful way, and the secret of success 

 lies in supplying this growing demand. 



Cleaning the bark of trees, before spraying 

 for scab or insects, is most important, and 

 a job neglected by most fruit growers. To 

 have healthy, vigorous trees, the bark must 

 be kept in a healthy condition, and how can 

 it be so if covered with dead bark, and with 

 lice which suck away the strength of the 

 trees ? Where San Jose scale prevails this 

 work is doubly important ; and not only 

 must the trunk be scraped in such a case, 

 but the tree subjected to a thorough cutting 

 out of all superfluous wood, that the spray 

 be not wasted on useless parts. To be suc- 

 cessful one must have an eflFective pump, 

 and the operator must be suitably dressed. 



Trolley Lines for Fruit Growers. — Now that 

 the electric roads are being built through- 

 out so many of the best sections of our pro- 

 vince, it is of interest to know that a com- 

 bined road wagon and railway truck has 

 been invented, which promises to be a great 

 saving of expense to the farmer and the 



fruit grower. The frequent loading and 

 unloading of baskets, necessitated in the 

 transfer from packing house to express car, 

 and from express car to consignee, not only 

 takes much time but also causes injury to 

 the fruit. A truck that could be loaded at 

 the packing house, carried bodily on board 

 the trolley and run off directly to the con- 

 signee, without handling the goods, is there- 

 fore a most valuable invention. 



A package for fancy fruit has been invented 

 by Mr. Wm. Wilson, of London, Ontario, 

 which, we believe, will be very popular. It 

 was this package, then not quite perfected, 

 which Mr. M. Pettit used last November in 

 shipping his Kieffer pears to Glasgow. Our 

 only criticism of the package was that a dif- 

 ferent size of case was needed to accompany 

 the diff'erent sized fruits, thus making stor- 

 age more expensive. Mr. Baker, of the 

 firm manufacturing the case, writes under 

 date of Dec. 5th, as follows : 



•'We can now furnish a package that will fit any 

 sized fruit and pack into a compact square. 

 Twenty-four packages fill the space of one cubic 

 ton exactly, making it easy for a shipper to check 

 his ocean freight. So far as I know, or can see, 

 we have now a perfect grader and a perfect 

 package " 



We are much pleased with the prospect 

 of having one exterior size of case for all 

 fruits, and certainly it will simplify the trans- 

 portation problem if a case 22 x 10^ x 12^ 

 in. will contain all sizes of such fruits as 

 apples, pears, peaches, plums, berries and 

 grapes. 



Decease of Mr. W. A. Whitney. — We desire 

 to place on record in this journal the deep 

 regret with which we have received the news 

 of the sudden death of our director for 

 Stormont and Cornwall. We also wish to 

 convey to the bereaved family the sincere 

 sympathy of the directors and members of 

 the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association, of 

 which he has always been an interested 

 member. Mr. Whitney died on the evening 



