A SUCCESSFUL HOUSE MEETING 



THE GRIMSBY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY— A MEET- 

 ING AT THE HOME OF THE PRESIDENT, MR. A. 

 G. PETTTT— APPLE GROWING DISCUSSED— JOSEPH 

 TWEDDLE, OF FRUITLAND GIVES A TALK. 



THE Grimsby Horticultural Society find 

 great profit in house to house meet- 

 ings. People enjoy a quiet, social evening-, 

 which is utterly devoid of formality or class 

 distinction, of either society or church. One 

 paper read and discussed, with a few num- 

 bers of music and readings for variety, and 

 an hour for informal conversation seems 

 quite enough to provide. 



Sometimes a fruit topic should be taken 

 up to interest the men, sometimes a floral 

 topic to interest the ladies ; and in this way 

 monthly meetings may be held throughout 

 the winter. 



Mrs, A. G. Pettit, president of the Grimsby 

 Society, had the February meeting at her 

 own home on the Sth inst., and a good 

 number gathered to hear Mr. Joseph Tweddle, 

 of Fruitland, talk of his experience in apple 

 growing. 



APPLE GROWIN(J. 



This gentleman, confident in the efficacy 

 of spraying, when associated with pruning 

 and cultivation, rented some orchards that 

 were in a disgraceful condition through 

 neglect, and which were giving their owners 

 no returns. He followed out the directions 

 given in this journal for tillage and spraying, 

 and as a result cleared a good sum for him- 

 self after paying all expenses. 



'* I believe," he said, " that there are 

 rich rewards yet in store for Ontario fruit 

 growers who give proper attention to our 

 ol friend, the apple. With new apple mark- 

 ets opening up both in the east and in the 

 west, it is foolish to destroy an apple orch- 

 ard, and still more foolish to keep land 

 occupied with apple trees and neglect to 

 care for them. Many of them are simple 



brush heaps, yielding little, if any, fruit, 

 and that of the poorest quality. Yet even 

 these orchards can be made to produce 

 fruit that is almost, if not quite, perfect. 



HOW TO GET FINE APPLES. 



** You must get to work and prune out the 

 rubbish and burn it up ; head back severely 

 those trees that are weak, to induce fresh 

 growth, but not those that are thrifty, and 

 thus produce uniformity in your orchard ; 

 thin out useless wood ; protect the roots 

 with leguminous crops, such as vetch or 

 clover, sown in July ; cultivate and manure, 

 and then you are ready for spraying J" 



Mr. Tweddle has had excellent results 

 from his work, so everyone wanted to know 

 how he did it. 



"My idea in spraying is protection ot 

 foliage and fruit from fungi, so I try to keep 

 them well covered with Bordeaux." 



" What do you use to keep off insects?" 

 asked some one. 



"I use white arsenic in preference to 

 Paris green," he said, " because it remains 

 in suspension much better." 



** Does it not burn the foliage?" 



"No, not when used with lime. I boil 

 one pound of arsenic and two pounds of 

 lime in three or four gallons of water for 

 about forty-five minutes, and then use the 

 sediment, an arsenic of lime, in loo gallons 

 of water. I do not find any injury to the 

 foliage from its use in this way. I have 

 tried the same in my plum orchard, and 

 wholly cleared it of curculio. " 



"I do not see much use in spraying a 

 plum orchard for curculio or rot," said Mr. 

 Rutherford, of Grimsby, "because with most 



