1888.] TRANSACTIONS. 23 



The columns of the Chi'onicle and Garden^ ^ving upon our 

 Library tables, bear concurrent testimony to an unpropitious 

 season and a sadly deticient yield from the English orchards. 



Soft-witted enthusiasm should find no place in the consideration 

 of this matter. Actual facts, clearly determined and plainly 

 stated, are its only proper solution. Competition presses closely 

 in every market abroad or at home ; and the writer has never 

 forgotten that the orchards of Nova Scotia maintain a most 

 formidable rivalry with our own. It is but a few weeks since 

 a most intelligent correspondent of the Sunday Spy thus wrote 

 and predicted, with some degree of extravagance perhaps, but 

 yet upon a solid basis of fact : 



" The Annapolis and Gaspereau valleys contain about 600 

 square miles of cultivable land. At the present time one- 

 tenth of this area, or nearly 40,000 acres, is planted with 

 apple trees. Almost a half-million l>arrels of Gravenstein, 

 Baldwin, King of Tompkins, Nonpareil,. Russets, Ribston Pip- 

 pins, and other varieties of apples are now annually yielded 

 and exported. Over three fourths of this area is yet in 

 young trees. From 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 barrels of apples 

 will certainly be raised annually in these two valleys within ten 

 years' time. They are proven to be the finest and hardiest 

 varieties in the world, and the demand is never met. In the fall, 

 American buyers fill the region, pairchasing 1,000-barrel lots. 

 Experience has proven that the European markets are just begin- 

 ning to know this fruit region, and, as every barrel which can 

 now be secured is taken there, the competition between American 

 and English buyers will always insure the Annapolis valley 

 apple raisers from $3 to $5 per barrel in gold. The method of 

 English shipment is highly interesting and is additional good 

 luck to Nova Scotia apple farmers. He has only to pack his 

 apples carefully, stencil and brand his name upon it, mark it 

 " John Doe," or " John Roc, London," and deliver it at any depot 

 of the valley railway. If he sends 100 or 1,000 in this way he 

 has no further trouble or anxiety. His apples go direct to 

 Halifax. There steamship agents, who are practically agents of 

 London buyers, care for them. In three weeks' tiu)e the ap])le 

 grower receives by mail exchange on London for the a])ples he 

 has left at the station platform, and the price is the higliest paid 

 in the world. These (ionditions are giving a groat impetus to 

 apple culture in this wonderful valley. About 40 trees are 

 planted to the acre, and at maturity yield from three to seven 



