NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Pollination will not take place and 

 apples will not set, if blossoms are kept 

 continually wet during the pollination 

 season, as has been proved by experi- 

 ments at the New Jersey Station. 



The American Pomological Socie- 

 ty is now working in connection with 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture. 

 The Society furnishes matter for the 

 report and for fruit catalogue, etc., all of 

 which is printed and published by the 

 Department, as a serial portion of the 

 Department's publications. Notwith- 

 standing its wide sounding title, this 

 Society has small meetings, and lacks 

 the esprit de corps that is manifest in the 

 meetings of the Fruit Growers' Associa- 

 tion of Ontario, which latter, by the way, 

 is now the largest and probably the most 

 influential Society of its kind in the 

 world During the last ten years our 

 actual paid membership has grown from 

 1,500 to 4,150. 



The Western Horticultural So- 

 ciety has published their first Annual 

 Report. They have about fifty mem- 

 bers, and a legislative grant of $100. 

 The Secretary is Mr. A. P. Angus, Win- 

 nipeg. 



The Annual Report of the Fruit 

 Growers' Association of Nova Scotia for 

 1898, contains the papers read at the 

 Annual Meeting, Wolfville, last January. 

 The Secretary is Mr. S. C. Parker, Ber- 

 wick, N. S. 



Spraying with Pure Kerosene.— 

 Last summer we tried spraying our rose 

 bushes with a very fine spray of pure 

 kerosene to destroy the green aphis. 

 We used Mitchell's Hand Sprayer, which 

 makes the finest perceptible mist, and 

 had excellent results — the ce were de- 



stroyed and the bushes uninjured. We 

 tried the same spray on our Akebia vine 

 with injurious results on the tender 

 young wood, and therefore cannot yet 

 speak as confidently regarding the use 

 of kerosene as we would like. Mr. H. 

 P. Gould, of Cornell, has made some 

 experiments and writes in Bulletin 155 

 that pure kerosene is likely to seriously 

 injure peach trees, even when dormant ; 

 a twenty per cent, solution, however, is 

 safe at any time. Apple trees are less 

 susceptible, often enduring pure kero- 

 sene without injury, while 50 per cent, 

 of kerosene is quite safe. The safest 

 time to apply it is on a bright sunny day. 

 A solution of 20 per cent., i.e., 1 part 

 oil to 4 parts water, is harmless to plants 

 and destructive to insects, even to the 

 San Jose scale. 



An Agricultural College in Nova 

 Scotia. — We have just received a clip- 

 ping from the Halifax Herald, containing 

 an address at Wolfville, by W. C. Archi- 

 bald, in which he eloquently pleads for 

 the establishment of a first class agricul- 

 tural college at Wolfville ; a college in 

 which, as he says, " any person can find 

 instruction in any study, beginning with 

 agriculture as the chief corner stone." 



There is no doubt that this is the true 

 means of correcting the unequal condi- 

 tion of the farmer in the social scale ; 

 as well as of securing to him better re- 

 turns for his work. 



Our premium plants are giving 

 splendid satisfaction. For example, Mr. 

 D. W. McFarlane, Picton, writes : — 

 The Crimson Rambler you sent me last 

 spring, has exceeded my expectations. 

 It sent out two shoots of between three 

 and four feet in length, with one cluster 

 of roses, fourteen in number. I prize it 

 very much. 



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