SIZE OF THE APPLE BARREL. 



In regard to water melons none of 

 these marks will apply. For it does not 

 change color, become fragrant, nor sep- 

 arate any more easily from the stem. 

 How then can you tell ? By two very 

 small things which are frequently over- 

 looked, if you look closely where the 

 fruit stem joins the vine you will see a 

 very small leaf, not more than half an 

 inch in length, and a small tendril just 

 like what grows on other parts of the 

 vine. When this little leaf and tendril 



dry right up then the melon is ripe and 

 fit for the table. 



All melons are better to be fully 

 ripened on the vine. For lack of 

 attending to this, many a tough insiped 

 customer has to be dealt with that ought 

 to have been free and luscious. 



I have not treated of transplanting 

 melon plants for I find that they do 

 better to be sown just where they are to 

 grow, etc. — A. McLaren, before Hamil- 

 ton Horticultural Society. 



SIZE OF THE APPLE BARREL. 



THERE are several sizes of apple 

 barrels in use in the United States 

 and Canada, and it is certainly 

 most desirable that uniformity 

 be attained in this regard. The Nation- 

 al Apple-Shippers Association of the 

 United States have adopted the following 

 size barrel, and have resolved not to buy 

 or ship in any other : Head, 17^6 inches; 

 croetocroe, inside, 28^ inches; bilge, 

 64 inches, outside. This is about the 

 same as our flour barrel, so much used 

 in Western Ontario, but much larger 

 than the usual apple barrel of New York 

 State, and larger than the legal barrel of 

 Ontario. The amendment to the 

 Weights and Measures Act of Canada, 

 as now proposed, provides slightly dif- 

 ferent measurements, but giving cubic 



contents nearly the same. The follow- 

 ing is the proposed text : 



1. On and after the day of 



one thousand eight hundred and ninety- , 

 section 18 of the Weights and Measures Act, 

 chapter 104 of the Revised Statutes, shall be 

 repealed and the following shall be substi- 

 tuted therefor : 



'* 18. All apples packed in Canada for sale 

 by the barrel shall be packed either in cylin- 

 drical veneer barrels having an inside diam- 

 eter of eighteen inches and one-third, and 

 twenty-seven inches from head to head inside 

 measure, or in good and strong barrels of 

 seasoned wood twenty-seven inches between 

 the heads, inside measure, and having a head 

 diameter of seventeen inches and a middle 

 diameter of nineteen inches, and such last- 

 named barrels shall be sufficiently hooped, 

 with a lining hoop within the chimes, the 

 whole well secured with nails. 



" 2. Every person who exposes for sale, or 

 who packs for exportation, apples by the 

 barrel, otherwise than in accordance with the 

 foregoing provisions of this section, shall be 

 liable to a penalty of twenty-five cents for 

 each barrel of apples so offered or exposed for 

 sale or packed." 



Blue Roses Grown in Bulgaria. 

 The blue rose, which, with the black, 

 has so long been a subject of horticul- 

 tural research, has quite unexpectedly 

 made its appearance in a continental 

 garden. Kilanlik, in Bulgaria, whence 

 the rarity is reported, is a district re 

 nowned for its attar of roses and conse- 



quently the flowers are grown on a very 

 large scale. Samples of the soil where 

 this rare plant is grown have been sent 

 to the chemical laboratory of Sofia to be 

 minutely analysed. It is known to be 

 rich in lime, ammoniac, salts of copper 

 and oxide of iron. 



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