THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 169 



supply the market, when the kck of fresh fruit, owing to the long 

 winter, secures for the earliest berries gilt edged prices. 



Each succeeding year appears to awaken more and more interest in 

 the fruit business and fruit culture, and tliough sometimes we raise all 

 the fruit we consume, still nothing is exported from here; and all our 

 winter apples, and most of the summer ones, are imported from the 

 west and from over the line from the United States. Both citizens 

 and grocers' are looking for the time when the Alden, or some other 

 equally siiccessful fruit drying establishment, shall have started business 

 in the more favored parts of this Province. Parties having a good 

 dried article of fruit to ship, may be sure of a large and ready sale in 

 this market. Dried fruits have a consideral)le advantage over- green, 

 the freight is cheaper, and they do not spoil by keoy>ing, if not placed 

 in too damp a situation. 



I should have mentioned, that although hardly a vine was seen 

 here ten years ago, gTape culture is very rapidly extending. The pure 

 bright air and unclouded sky appears to suit this luscious fruit, and 

 though our hot season is comparatively short, the grape ripens as early 

 here as in more western sections. The Champion has so far proved 

 the earliest variety, and though it has no great excellence of quality, 

 it is liighly thought of as the first of the season. 



HOKTICULTURAL GOSSIP. IV. 



BY L. WOOLVERTOX, M. A., GRIMSBY. 



The Esthetic in Horticulture. — We think that in no department 

 of rural life are there so great inducements to the cultivation of a 

 refined taste as in horticulture. The farmer must year by year turn 

 up his soil and plant over, so that no arrangement is permanent; 

 but the grower of fruit plants trees tliat are to endure for two or three 

 generations. The latter may plan out his roadways throughout his 

 orchards, and decorate them with ornamental trees and shrubbery ; he 

 may also remove all tliose hideous cross-fences which disfigure a grain 

 and stock farm, and if he has means, so arrange his trees and driveways 

 that his grounds shall almost deserve the name of park. We know 

 some would cry out against such waste of valuable ground ; we plead 

 for it nevertheless to a greater or less extent, according to circumstances. 



