THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



concluded that the commercial cherry grower 

 needs to plant the firmer varieties, which 

 are noi subject to their ravages. 



"I question," said Mr. W. N. Hutt, "the 

 wisdom of shooting those waxwings, in- 

 deed the legality of it. I believe they are 

 insectivorous birds, and friends of the fruit 

 grower, and should be protected. Surely 

 some other means of protecting the cherries 

 could be adopted, and the lives of these 

 birds preserved." 



"I have always read", said Mr. Orr, "that 

 cherries succeed best on sandy loam ; but 

 that is contrary to my experience. I have 

 planted Early Purple and Windsor on both 

 sand and clay, and I have found the trees 

 much more productive on clay, healthier and 

 longer lived." , 



FEEDING BIRDS ON CHERRIES 



[V/r R. GEORGE F. POWELL says he 

 1 X plants a quantity of the early varie- 

 ties, sweet cherries, purposely for the birds 

 to eat, especially such varieties as Coe's 

 Transparent, Gov. Wood and May Duke. 

 These trees, he says in Rural New Yorker, 

 are given up entirely to the birds. 



I have made it a practice in planting 

 cherry orchards to put in a quantity of trees 



of the early varieties of sweet cherries, such 

 as Coe's Transparent, Gov. Wood and May 

 Duke. We never pick them and never 

 allow a bird to be frightened from the trees. 

 They live upon these, and by the time our 

 more valuable cherries, such as Black Tar- 

 tarian, Black Eagle, Napoleon and Windsor 

 are ripe we have no trouble from the robins. 

 There will not be even two per cent, of these 

 fine cherries picked or damaged by the birds. 

 If every one would make it a point to put 

 in a few extra trees of these early, juicy, 

 sweet cherries, they would have little trou- 

 ble with their more valuable varieties. 

 Rather than kill off the birds I would plant 

 cherries and give them the entire crop. It 

 is one of the great drawbacks that we have 

 so few birds inhabiting our orchards, in 

 consequence of which we are forced to carry 

 out the expensive process of spraying, 

 without which comparatively little fruit of 

 value could be produced. It is a great mis- 

 take on the part of fruit growers to kill off 

 the birds, and I find that it not only econo- 

 mical to plant cherry trees for them, but I 

 find that it brings larger numbers to my 

 place, and they are very helpful in keeping 

 down many insects that are not destroyed 

 by spraying. 



THE MAPLE AS A SHADE TREE 



A LETTER FROM ALEX. M NEILL, OF WALKERVILLE 



SIR, — I have on several occasions when 

 speaking to our Societies in different 

 towns and cities, regretted the fact that our 

 people plant the maple so exclusively as a 

 shade tree. The maple is indeed a beauti- 

 ful tree, and I hope the time may never 

 come when it will not be extensively planted; 

 but a recent visit which I made to the city 

 of Burlington, Vt. , would have convinced 

 me had I not already been convinced, that 

 the American Elm is superior in every 

 respect. It is comparatively free from 

 attacks of insects, has a most graceful form, 



and endures the hardships of street and 

 park life quite as well as any tree that is 

 is planted. The streets and parks of Bur- 

 lington have many notable examples of the 

 great beauty of the American elm as a shade 

 tree ; and there is no reason why our towns 

 and cities should not use a greater variety 

 of shade trees than they do, and when a 

 selection is made there should always be a 

 large proportion of that " forest on a single 

 tree " — the elm. This tree grows nowhere 

 in greater perfection than it does in 

 Ontario. 



