194 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



individuality apart from his race. No two 

 buds, no two trees are exactly alike. Hence 

 in budding or grafting*, it is important we 

 should select for that purpose." 



Speaking at the Georgetown meeting, 

 Mr. McNeill also made the following re- 

 mark : — " I do not think our Fruit Experi- 



ment Stations could do more useful work 

 than by developing good trees from which 

 to supply cuttings for grafting on commer- 

 cial orchards in their neighborhood. This 

 would be more useful work than developing 

 varieties of doubtful merit. " 



Township Inspection for Scale — One of the 



most alarming features of the plague of 

 scale is the apathy of some orchardists. 

 Mr. Purdy's orchard we found badly in- 

 fested ; his peach trees, Japan plfims and 

 pear trees were covered with it, and yet he 

 was most apathetic. "I cannot get rid of 

 this scale" he said, "it will clean out my 

 orchard in a year or two I expect, but I 

 lived before I had an orchard, and I can live 

 after it is gone." 



Now, if nobody suffered but Mr. Purdy, 

 the situation would not be so serious ; but 

 this plague is carried by wind and insects, 

 robins carry it on their feet, and their very 

 nests are alive with it, even flies will carry 

 it ; what then will result if Mr. Purdy and 

 others like him, have breeding orchards 

 from which these pests will spread and cause 

 their neighbors to suffer. Fortunately under 

 a recent Act, local inspectors must be ap- 

 pointed by any municipal council, on the 

 petition of fifteen ratepayers, and such in- 

 spectors will compel the owner of any such 

 pestiferous orchard either to destroy his 

 trees at once by fire, or to treat them as 

 directed by provincial inspector. 



Action was at once taken both in Grimsby, 

 St. Catharines and Grantham, to the appoint- 

 ment of such local inspeclbr for each of these 

 municipalities. 



The Stoney Creek Basket Fai^tory is at 



work and has been since January, turning 

 out several thousand baskets per day, in an- 

 ticipation of a good crop the coming season. 



About 30 hands are employed and the num- 

 ber will increase as the season advances. 



The speed which the workman acquires is 

 wonderful. In answer to my enquiry one 

 man said he conld make up from 400 to 500 

 a day. One little fellow of eight or ten was 

 working in the divisions for berry crates. 

 " I get," he said, " 10 cents a hundred for 

 making them up, and I can make that many 

 in about one hour and a half." 



The basket business is one of the most 

 important industries, because of the im- 

 mense number now used by our fruit grow- 

 ers, who always give them away with the 

 fruit. A traveller for an Ingersoll house 

 says he sold 250,000 between Winona and 

 Grimsby right under the nose of the local 

 factories. One reason for his success was 

 a patent fastener which saves much time in 

 closing up or opening ; and then he was 

 enterprising enough to have the new forms 

 to correspond with the sizes required by the 

 Act, while many of the factories are still at 

 the old sizes, which will all need stamping 

 the number of quarts they contain. The 

 following is a list of the legal sizes of 

 baskets : 



No. I. Capacity, 15 or more imperial 

 quarts. 



No. 2. Capacity, 1 1 imperial quarts, 

 depth 5^ inches. 



No 3. Capacity, 6^ imperial quarts, 

 depth 4^ inches. 



No. 4. Capacity, 2f imperial quarts, 

 depth 4 inches. 



No. 5. Berry box, i Winchester quart. 



No. 6. Berry box, i Winchester pint. 



