NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



49 



district. The vine is a strong grower and 

 sets a heavy crop, but our season is too 

 short to ripen it perfectly, and there is not 

 enough heat to give it its best flavor, poor 

 as that is. The year before I threw it out, it 

 mildewed badly with me, but that is not 

 general. Grape growers here consider it 

 too poor in quality for home use, and too 

 uncertain for profit. Moore's Diamond is 

 superior to it in every way for this district. 

 H.\ROLD Jones, Maitland: — In this district 

 the Niagara is a productive variety, and 

 forms large compact bunches, but only in 

 the most favorable positions as regards 

 soil and exposure does it come to full ma- 

 turity. In a few cases it has been consider- 

 ed profitable to raise for sale, but it cannot 

 compare in quality with the same variety 

 grown in the Niagara peninsula, which it 



has to compete against in our markets. It 

 has not become a general favorite for home 

 use. To become popular here it must be 

 classed among the very earliest of the ripen- 

 ing varieties. 



Jas. S. Scarff, Woodstock : — In this 

 district the Niagara seems to be one of the 

 most profitable white grapes grown, because 

 it produces such enormous crops, and be- 

 sides it is a good shipper. It ripens both 

 its wood and its truit very well in this local- 

 ity. 



W. W. Cox, Collingwood : — The Niagara 

 does well in this district ; the wood ripens 

 well, and the fruit is abundant and good. 

 I planted a vine ten years ago in an exposed 

 place, without any protection, not even lay- 

 ing it down in winter or covering it in any 

 way, and it has borne fine crops every year. 



^0t^s and dTommertts 



STONEY CREEK FRUIT GROWERS. 



ON the tenth of January a fine Farmers' 

 Institute gathering was held in the 

 new Town Hall at Stoney Creek. As we 

 entered Mr. T. H. Race, of Mitchell, was 

 giving an address on Apple Culture, and it 

 was evident from the close attention given 

 him that the speaker was touching upon 

 certain points of great interest even in this 

 advanced fruit district. Among those 

 present we noticed, Mr. Frank Carpenter, 

 W. M. Orr, Joseph Tweddle, A. H. Pettit, 

 E. J. Woolverton, J. B. Smith, E. D. Smith, 

 M. P., John Nash, G. Millen and M. Pettit. 



STOCK AND SCION. 



THE old question of the influence or 

 stock upon the scion was up for dis- 

 cussion. It has been long recognized that 

 a tree may be dwarfed by grafting it upon a 



slower growing stock, as, for example in 

 the case of the pear when grafted upon 

 quince roots, or in the case of an apple 

 grafted upon paradise stock. It is also 

 evident that a tree may be rendered some- 

 what better adapted to circumstances by its 

 stock, as for example the peach tree for clay 

 soils when budded upon the plum, or on the 

 almond for dry chalky soils ; or, in the case 

 of the pear which does not thrive on a very 

 light dry sand, but has been made to succeed 

 much better when budded upon the Moun- 

 tain ash. Hardiness has also been gained 

 for a tree by top grafting it upon a hardy 

 stock, and thus a variety weak in the trunk 

 has been made to grow somewhat further 

 north than usual. 



A more unsettled question is that of the 

 influence of the stock upon the quality of 

 the fruit. Fifty years ago Downing wrote, 



