l^HE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



looking over his farm this season I am 

 convinced that his methods of cultiva- 

 tion and care of his trees has much to 

 do with it. Besides the labor that he 

 puts upon the soil Mr. Orr gives due 

 attention to washing, pruning and spray- 

 ing his trees, and I never saw anything 

 look finer or cleaner than all his orchard 

 plots did a few weeks ago. All his plum 

 trees six years planted, and from that to 

 thirteen years and over, were as full as 

 they could bear ; and a young pear or- 

 chard five years planted, treated as 

 above and looking fully as well as the 

 plums, Mr. Orr says is already giving a 

 fair return for labor and land value. One 

 thing is certain that Mr. Orr has his 

 farm as clean as it can be ; is giving it 

 a thorough system of cultivation and is 

 taking nothing from it but his fruit crop. 

 As to how well and how much the latter 

 pays for expense, labor, and land value, 

 and at what age the trees begin to pay 

 a fair equivalent, and at what ratio they 

 increase from the paying point, Mr. Orr 

 alone may be able to say. 



Another matter of interest on Mr. 



Orr's farm is his apple orchard planted 

 on the mountain side where cultivation 

 is impossible. Here the trees seemed 

 to thrive well enough but did not ap- 

 pear to be bearing very well. The un- 

 der growth I suggested might be against 

 them and we thought the situation an 

 ideal one for sheep grazing. Mr. S. D. 

 Woodward, of Lockport, places great 

 value upon sheep in the apple orchard ; 

 so do many farmers about here in my 

 own county. But Mr. Orr's reply to my 

 suggestion was that he had tried sheep 

 and could not protect them from dogs. 

 This seemed to me a strange state of 

 affairs in a civilization such as you enjoy 

 in the Niagara peninsula. Such a state 

 of things could not exist with us up in 

 these back townships, and why should 

 they with you. With that defect reme- 

 died and Mr. Orr's mountain side apple 

 orchard stocked with sheep his fruit 

 farm might well be considered an ideal 

 one. 



T. H. Race. 

 Mitchell, Aug. 15. 



THE EMERALD PLUM. 



(F30 long ago as the year 1889, the 

 V\ late Warren Holton, of Hamilton, 

 yf well known in fruit growing circles, 

 sent us a sample of a new seedling 

 plum, which he called " Early Green." 

 In an accompanying note he said, " con- 

 sidering its size, fair quality and in 

 particular its early season (1st August), 

 in ripening, I think it may prove worthy 

 of cultivation." 



About August 1st, 1899, ten years 



later, we received another sample of this 

 plum under the name of Emerald, which 

 we had little difficulty in identifying as 

 the same. The accompanying engraving 

 shows this plum in natural size, the color 

 is greenish yellow, form roundish, of 

 good size and excellent quality, coming 

 in before the better varieties of Japan 

 plums, and not being subject to rot- 

 this plum will no doubt be of consider, 

 able value. 



34o 



