NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



35' 



!siriall fruits succeed well, especially the 

 peach. He has 50 acres largely in fruit, 

 and grows Clyde and Williams strawberries 

 with great success, Mr. Cohoon, near Port 

 £urwell, has 1,500 peach trees in his or- 

 chard, while Dr. Marlatt, near Aylmer, has 

 an orchard of about 1,000. 



A DEFINITION OF NO. 2 APPLES. 



AT the recent meeting of the Interna- 

 tional apple shippers at Niagara 

 Falls, the following definition of what 

 should constitute No. 2 grade of apples was 

 adopted : " No. 2 apples shall be hand- 

 picked from the tree; shall not be smaller 

 than 234 inches in diameter, and of fair 

 i:olor for the variety. The skin must not 

 be broken or the apple bruised- and practi- 

 cally free from scab and other defects. 

 This grade must be faced and packed with 

 as much care as No. i fruit." 



THK APPLE CROP PROSPECT IN AUGUST. 



AT the same convention a report was 

 made showing the size of the crop 

 in the United States and Canada, compared 

 with that actually produced last year. 

 Large percentages were given for Nova 

 Scotia, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsyl- 

 vania, indicating an excellent crop, where 

 a very short crop or failure existed last 

 year. " The crop in New England, New 

 York and Ontario last year, while large, 

 was of such poor quality that the percent- 

 age of No. I apples was very small. This 

 year, although the crop is lighter, the pros- 

 pective quality of the apples is much better, 

 and with Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia^ 

 West Virginia, Nova Scotia and Pacific 

 coast states more than offsets the small crop 

 and poor quality in the middle west and 

 other states." 



ENGLAND A POOR FRUIT GROWING 

 COUNTRY. 



\\ 



7 HEN one travels throughout Great 

 P>ritain he is no longer surprised 



at the immense quantity of foreign fruit 

 that is annually imported, nor at the high 

 prices often paid for high grade stock. 

 The climate is so cool in summer, and so 

 often damp from rain or fog, that the fruit 

 does not take on a high color, nor does it 

 ever attain that delicious flavor for which 

 our Canadian apples are famous. The 

 trees themselves are sickly and stunted in 

 growth so that they are not capable of pro- 

 producing a very large yield of fruit. We 

 were surprised when visiting the orchards 

 to see the apple trees almost completely 

 covered with moss, and no attempts made 

 to clean the trunks. One beautiful Cordon 

 rpple walled in garden at Melrose was 

 so covered with lichens and mosses 

 that the wood was completely hidden 

 and the tree much stunted in growth. 

 We suggested to the gardener that 

 a scraping and an application of some 

 alkaline wash might help to cleanse the bark 

 and give fresh vigor to the tree ; but Eng- 

 lish conservatism ruled and the gardener 

 §said he did not have much confidence in 

 such treatment and seemed to think it 

 scarcely worthy of trial. 



THE ENGLISH FRUIT CROP A FAILURE. 



AFTER an extended tour among the 

 fruit growers of Great Britain, we 

 have come to the conclusion that the pres- 

 ent season is a favorable one for the export 

 of our choice apples and pears. A spring 

 frost of unusual severity played sad havoc 

 with all fruit crops. Not only were tender 

 fruits like cherries almost completely cut otf , 

 but even pears and apples were blackened 

 and fell from the trees, leaving scarcely 

 enough to pay for gathering. There is, 

 therefore, an unusually good opening in 

 Great Britain for our early apples and 

 pears, with which the English grown apples 

 usually come into strong competition. 



In regard to our winter apples- these are 

 never much affected by the English crop. 



