NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



403 



England, is famous for his horticultural 

 books, and all the result of his delight in 

 gardening. And here is another Canadian 

 minister, the Rev. J. Pullman Pilcher, of 

 Smith's Falls, Ont., whose success is evi- 

 dent, who kindly sends us a photograph of 

 his garden with the accompanying letter. 



Sir, -By this mail I forward a photograph of 

 my flower garden. I am the pastor of a very large 

 congregation, yet for my pleasure and health I find 

 time to cultivate a large garden. The work is all 

 done my myself before breakfast. One hour a day 

 will keep a garden in good order, will supply fresh 

 crisp vegetables for the table, flowers for the 

 church, neighbors and friends and appetite for the 

 gardener. 



OUR EXHIBIT AT THE INDUSTRIAL. 



THE display of fruit from our fruit sta- 

 tions was exceedingly good this year. 

 Each of our experimenters arranged his 

 fruit in alphabetical order, for convenience 

 of singling out any variety under consider- 

 ation ; and the labels, being written out 

 boldly with a shading pen by our assistant, 

 were a most important feature. The num- 

 ber of varieties of grapes shown by Mr. M. 

 Pettit was limited, owing to the lateness of 

 the season, but the apple collection from 

 Mr. Dempsey, the pears from Mr. Hug- 

 gard, and the plums from Mr. Mitchell, 

 were unusually interesting. 



THE CHABOT. 



THIS plum (pronounced "sh?bbot") is 

 coming to the front rank among the 

 Japan varieties. It fruited this year for 

 the first time at Maplehurst, and we 

 first noted that the tree was fairly pro- 

 ductive, and the fruit large and most 

 attractive in color. Next we tested its 

 flavor and were surprised at its excellence ; 

 it was tender, juicy and of a delicious flavor, 

 and were almost convinced that it was the 

 best Japan plum we had yet tasted. Surely 

 this belongs to the first rank of Japans. 



It was a little disappointing, however, to 

 see this plum as grown in the Beaver Valley 

 in the Georgian Bay District, and shown by 



Mr. John Mitchell, our experimenter there, 

 for in his exhibit it was much smaller and 

 apparently quite inferior. Conditions of 

 moisture, richness and cultivation of soil 

 must have much to do with these diff'erences, 

 and should be further investigated. " In 

 my opinion," said Mr. Orr, of Fruitland, 

 "the best three Japan plants are Red June, 

 Burbank and Satsuma. 



"I do not know the Chabot, and of course 

 it may displace one of these. Satsuma is 

 blood red in flesh, and very desirable for 

 canning purposes." 



" In my opinion," said Mr. John Mitchell, 

 our Clarksburg experimenter in plums, "the 

 three best Japans are Red June, Chabot 

 and Burbank. I also think very highly of 

 the Satsuma, and would place it fourth on 

 my list, for it is productive, quite hardy, 

 and a splendid preserving plum. 



FINE FRENCH PEARS FOR ONTARIO. 



WE have noticed in our experimental 

 plot several varieties of pears 

 worthy of the attention of our fruit growers. 

 One is Triomphe de Vienne, which is of about 

 the same season as Bartlett, but larger in 

 size, and another is the Hoosic, which is a 

 trifle later, but is not only larger than the 

 Bartlett but has a fine red cheek and is of 

 excellent quality. Dr. Charles Saunders, of 

 Ottawa, was particularly taken with a beau- 

 ful dwarf tree of this variety at Maplehurst, 

 which was bending down with its tremend- 

 ous load, and took a photograph of it for 

 the exposition at St. Louis. Surely it would 

 be a splendid export variety. 



" I have an excellent French pear here 

 at the Industrial," said Mr. W. M. Robson, 

 of Lindsay, "which is worthy of notice. 

 I procured the cions from the late J. K. 

 Gordon, of Whitby, who was so well 

 known for the large collection of foreign 

 pears and plums in his garden. It is 

 Beurre de Mortillet." It was truly a 

 magnificent pear, averaging 2^ inches in 



