246 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



recommended, and I have a good many trees of that variety set, but they have 

 not fruited yet. Among the sour cherries none have been more profitable than 

 the Montmorency Ordinaire, and English Morello. The Early Richmond bore 

 heavily when young, but now trees that are twelve or fifteen years old, healthy 

 and thrifty, blossom full and bear but little fruit. For five or six years after 

 they came in bearing, the Elkhorns were my most profitable cherry, but lately 

 they are dying out without any apparent cause. The May Duke seems a short- 

 lived tree. The fruit is better for family use than [for market, because the crop 

 ripens so unevenly, thus necessitating several pickings. 



Packages. — Until recently I used five and ten pound baskets, now I use a 

 crate containing shallow boxes which are filled from the bottom, thus expedit- 

 ing packing so that the stems are covered when the package is opened for 

 inspection. 



General Remarks. — Sweet cherries here are not so sure a crop as the sour, 

 but the fruit usually sells for a higher price. The main causes of loss of crop 

 are cold storms or frost while in bloom, and rot. Moist, hot weather will some- 

 times destroy an entire crop three days before it is fit for market. I have known 

 cherries to be perfectly sound when picked in the morning, appear streaked 

 when shipped at evening, and nearly all rotten the next morning in market. 

 The English Morello, and perhaps some other sour cherry trees, are subject to 

 black knot. It appears to be identical with that on the plum tree. The free 

 use of the pruning-knife has been my only treatment. So far it has been success- 

 ful, as I have lost no trees, and the disease has been nearly eradicated. — W. D. 

 Barnes, in Rural New Yorker. 



Plum Culture is beginning to receive more attention in Nova Scotia, 

 and a few venturesome ones are going to try it on quite a large scale. For 

 plums, as well as for peaches, I cannot quote a higher authority than Mr. 

 Willard, who from a young plum orchard of sixty acres shipped 16,000 boxes 

 the last season. He says, " I have found that successful plum growing demands 

 a succession through the season, beginning with the first that ripen in July or 

 August, through to October, by this means holding the market and doing the 

 business with ease without a glut on hand at any one time. The Czar or 

 English plum is the earliest, then follows the Field, Bradshaw, Geuii, Prince of 

 Wales, Peters' Yellow Gage, Hudson River Purple Egg, Union Purple, and last 

 to ripen Grand Duke. These are all tried and tested sorts." The Lombard also, 

 is widely known and well liked. In addition to these the following are highly 

 recommended by large and practical fruit growers, Niagara, Shippers' Pride, 

 Burbank, German Prune, Wild Goose, McLaughlin, and Coe's Golden Drop. — 

 Nova Scotia F. G. A. Report for i8gj. 



