THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



©IPIM litter; 



The Niagara Fruit Exhibit Before the 

 Dulce and Duchess. 



Sir, — In looking over the February number of 

 of the Horticulturist I find a timely communica- 

 tion from J. P. Brennan, Esq., Grimsby. I am 

 more than surprised at his closing remarks, 

 namely, " We had a golden opportunity to show 

 the Duke and Duchess of York the resources of 

 the fruit sections of Ontario, but it was lost," &c. 

 Doubtless Mr. Brennan at the time of the Niagara 

 Fruit Exhibit was very busy with the final dis- 

 posal of his fruit crop, and like some other fruit 

 growers failed to notice in the Toronto daily 

 papers, also the St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and 

 Niagara Times papers reports of this Niagara 

 Fruit Growers' Exhibit for the Royal party at the 

 Queen's Royal Hotel, Oct. 12, 13, 14, 1901. I 

 now enclose a clipping from the Toronto Mail 

 referring to the subject : — 



" No, the fruit growers were not behind. The 

 exhibit Was in every respect a decided success and 

 is thought to be the best advertisement ever given 

 our export trade in fruit. 



"The collection of peaches, grapes, pears, straw- 

 berries and figs was exceptionally fine in regard 

 to flavor, size and color, and was said to be the 

 best ever seen at that late season, Oct. 12th to 14th. 



"The exhibit in the above named fruits was 

 larger than at any time seen on the tables during 

 our Ontario Fruit Exhibit at the Pan-American, 

 except after the loth of September, when the 

 tables of that exhibit literally groaned under the 

 pressure." 



I seldom take the trouble to correct an error in 

 print, but in justice to the committee, the con- 

 tributors and Mr. Winnett of the Queen's Royal 

 Hotel, Niagara, who together paid every cent of 

 the cost of this exhibit, this explanation is now 

 needed. 



The chairman of this exhibit received a letter 

 from the Governor-General Lord Minto, express- 

 ing the thanks and high appreciation of the Royal 

 party to the fruit growers for their excellent dis- 

 play of fruit at Niagara. I am, yours sincerely, 



W. Armstrong. 

 Riverside Fruit Farm, Queenston, Feb. 19, 1902, 



Orchard Tools and implements. 



Sir, — I think a very interesting article might be 

 written on orchard tools and implements. I have 

 a good sized young orchard which I have been 

 cultivating with a disc harrow, but that is a pretty 

 heavy instrument for a team, and my idea is that 

 an orchard would be easier and better cultivated 

 if part of the cultivating were done with a spring 

 tooth cultivator and not a harrow, because I 

 think the harrow does not stay well enough in the 

 ground and is liable to be knocked against the 

 trees with stones, but the spring tooth cultivators 

 that are made now have very high wheels. The 



trouble with those is that if the trees are branched 

 out 4 or 4^ feet from the ground, they run out a 

 little before growing upwards, and with the high 

 wheel cultivator cne has to keep out perhaps three 

 feet from the trees, or the high wheel will scrape 

 the l.mbs. 



Francis S. Wallbridge, Belleville. 



Fruit and Health. 



Sir, — Has the Association ever paid any atten- 

 tion to the scale on the orange imported into this 

 country, or has the Association ever paid attention 

 to the fruit and vegetables imported into this coun- 

 try in a diseased condition? What effect has this 

 decayed fruit on the health of the people? Some 

 five years since I noticed on the Ottawa market, 

 imported cabbage in a decaying state. I claimed 

 at the time, that if such importation was continued 

 it would bring sickness to the consumer. The im- 

 portation has been continued and I claim as a 

 result it is largely responsible for the present state 

 of health in the Dominion of Canada. 



Those imports ought to be inspected at the port 

 of entry by a health officer and all fruit that is in bad 

 condition returned to the shipper at the shipper's 

 expense and not to be appraised by the custom- 

 house officer. 



In regard to fruit packing, when fraud is found 

 why not make the penalty the returning of the 

 package to the shipper and charging him all ex- 

 penses. 



Billings Bridge, Ont. Market Gardener. 



Bug Death— A New Insecticide. 



Sir, — Having recently received numerous en- 

 quiries regarding the composition of "Bug Death" 

 a new insecticide, for destroying the potato beetle, 

 we submitted the material to analysis and obtained 

 the following data : — 



Moisture 40 per cent. 



Insoluble matter, sand, etc 11.21 " 



Oxide of iron and alumina 5.60 " 



Lime 51 " 



Potash none 



Zinc oxide 82.10 per cent. 



Lead and cipper. faint traces. 



Phosphoric acid traces. 



Chlorine 47 per cent. 



Nitrogen 107 " 



These results show that it is practically an im- 

 pure or commercial zinc oxide, no doubt a by- 

 product. As regards the essential elements of 

 plant food, it is strikingly deficient, the only con- 

 stituent present of any fertilizing value being nit- 

 rogen, of which there is only one-tenth of one per 

 cent. It is therefore, obvious that any claims 

 made for it as supplying nourishment for crops are 

 without foundation. Yours truly, 



Frank T. Shutt, 

 Dominion Experimental Farm, Ottawa. Chemist. 



