October, 1907 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



257 



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NOTES FROM THE PROVINCES | 



By our Regular Correspondents and OtHers y 



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Montreal 



E. H. Wartman, Dominion Fruit Inspector 



Montreal Island is noted for melons, onions, 

 and Fameuse apples. Melons are a good crop. 

 The finest quality is put up for Xew York and 

 selling at f.o.b. 'here at $10 to S12 a dozen. 

 Those of fair quality sell at $■') a dozen for 

 local trade. Once in a while you will see a 

 beauty in a store window with a card attached, 

 stating," Weight .!() lbs., price $2.50." Seed 

 onions are the heaviest croj) that I ever saw 

 in any country. 



Last month I visited the orchard of Mr. C. P. 

 Mewntan, of Lachine. It is 50 acres in ex- 

 tent, planted largely with apples of the Fam- 

 euse type, which are clean of fungi, due to the 

 practice of spraying annually. We have had 

 no dry weather since vegetation started in 

 spring. With so much moisture in the air and 

 ground, and with occasional extreme heat, 

 one naturally would look for apples spotted 

 with fungi. There are many of this kind 

 where the spray pump was idle. One barrel 

 of clean Fameuse is worth at least two barrels 

 of spotted ones. 



Duchess, Tetovsky, Yellow Transparent, and 

 Astrachan, are picked and marketed in 

 11-quart baskets, which retailed in Montreal at 

 50 to GO cents. The apple crop of the island 

 is an average one. Those who did not spray 

 or thin the fruit, will lose. I saw one orchard 

 of ion Wealthy trees, all drooping like an um- 

 brella, but with fruit that will not amount to 

 much. This season two-thirds of the poorest 

 specimens should have been removed. 



NOTE — The foregoing arrived too late for insertion in 

 the Septenit>er issue. The regular Oetober letter follows. 



-Editor. 

 OCTOBER REPORT 



As an Ontario man, I see many sights in the 

 neighborhood of Montreal that make one feel 

 sorry that such things prevail. Recently I 

 strolled about two miles west of Westmount. I 

 met boys, girls, men and women on their way to 

 the city carrying apples in bags holding about a 

 peck to one bushel each. A short distance 

 behind them, I met two men with double-bar- 

 relled shotguns going in the same direction. 



The apples going forward so far this season 

 are not satisfactory. Generally they are im- 

 mature, small and off color. When I was a 

 buyer and shijiijer in Prince Edward County, 

 Ont., 1 thought that .Sept. 20 was early enough 

 for the picking of Colverts, Jennettings, .Alex- 

 ander and 20 Ounce Pippin. This year, apples 

 got a late start and as they were picked as early 

 as Sept. 25, is it reasonable to expect that these 

 varieties would have color sufficiently good for 

 No. 1 grade? Picked at that stage, they are 

 uninviting; in fact, so green that they are, un- 

 wholesome for food. Were they left until better 

 colored, they would bring more money. I have 

 known Colverts to get so red that when opened 

 in Liverpool they sold for nearly as much as 

 Kings. 



The apples going forward are really too green 

 for evaporating ])urposes. Greenings are coming 

 forward. Oct. 1 is early enough for this class. 

 A case illustrates my point. A friend of mine 

 who had a well-kept orchard, largely of R.I. 

 Greenings, became uneasy for fear the wind 

 would blow them off, and commenced to pick 

 about .Sept. 25. It was the lesson of his life. 

 He graded them and packed them in barrels, 

 leaving the heads out. Two weeks later he re- 

 packed them, and it took three barrels to make 

 one. The immature fruit had siiotted so badly 

 as to necessitate the throwing of two barrels out 



of every three; they were nearly worthless. 

 This year I- have noticed even Xo. 3 quality of 

 Colverts, Jennettings and Greenings going to 

 the best market that we may ever hope to have. 

 They arc not fit for cider. I say, Shame' shame' 



BritisK Columbia 



C. p. Metcalfe, Hammond. 



The plum and prune shipments are over for 

 this season. The crop was considerably below 

 the average, and the prices were good. Growers 

 have had no difficulty in disposing of the crop 

 as the demand exceeds the supply. The demand 

 in the markets of the Northwest provinces has 

 increased so rapidly for plums and prunes, 

 especially Italian prunes, that they have been 

 obliged to import Washington prunes at in- 

 creased cost, as British Columbia was unaljle 

 to keep pace with the markets. 



Winter apple trees are fairly well loaded and 

 should yield a good crop of clean fruit. There 

 have been no severe winds as yet and wind- 

 falls arc few. 



Exhibitions are in full swing again. Every 

 agricultural society that can possibly sectu'e the 

 required 50 members is entitled to a govern- 

 ment a])propriation, if it desires to have an 

 exhibition. I think it a mistake the multiplica- 

 tion of so many small shows all drawing govem- 

 iTient money, which could be spent to better 

 advantage in the development of the larger 

 exhibitions, and in the encotu-agement of district 

 or municipal exhibits at these exhibitions. 

 Large growers will not go to the expense of pre- 

 paring exhibits for these small shows, where the 

 prizes offered are insufficient to covei the 

 trouble and expense, and where the commercial 

 aspect of fruit growing is seldom introduced. [^ 



There has been a record crop of blueberries 

 in Xew Brunswick. The berries have been 

 of large size and the market good. 



Apples promise a fair crop in Nova Scotia, 

 and the quality is good. Gravensteins anil 

 Spys show some spot. Other varieties appear 

 clean or nearly so. Prospects indicate thai 

 there will be exported about 350,000 barrels 

 of fairly good fruit. 



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W. H. BRAND, Canadian Rcprcscnlativc, JORDAN STATION, ONT. 



