THE CANADIAN H0RTICULTUKI8T. 



19 



Pioneer Fruit Picker. — Mr. Burges.s 

 writes : " I think if Madam Eve, 

 or Mrs. Adam, liad used the Pioneer 

 Fruit Picker it would have saved her 

 some trouble, as I under.stand it was 

 only choice specimens she used, and not 

 the general crop." 



Clean Manure! ! — The Neio Farm 

 makes the following extract from the 

 R. .V. F. : " The cold well water which 

 we are apt to look upon as the purest 

 of all drink, is fairly reeking with dis- 

 ease germs . . imperceptible to the 

 taste or smell. . . The ordinary farm 

 vault is a veritable j^lague spot," &c. ; 

 and then adds : " If these disease 

 germs are conveyed into vegetables in- 

 stead of into water, is the case any the 

 better ? and yet the garden is fertilized 

 by the same material which poisons the 

 water without imparting ' taste or 

 smell.' We believe in using clean fer- 

 tilizers on crops for human food." Our 

 exchange would deprive our gardeners 

 of the most valuable manure they can 

 possibly use by this curious statement. 

 Who ever heard of garden vegetables 

 taking up from the soil any disease 

 germs or other elements foreign to their 

 natural constitution ? 



A Toronto Lady writes : " Allow me 

 to express my pleasure and sense of 

 the usefulness of such information con- 

 cerning the cultivation of window and 

 other desirable plants, as Mr. Hermann 

 Simmers gives of the Easter Lily in the 

 December issue. Florists do themselves 

 great injury, both in guai-ding their 

 methods of growing popular flowers, 

 and in sneering at, or writing over the 

 heads of amateurs, as is too frequently 

 done. The more flowers we are suc- 

 cessnd in growing, the more we shall 

 buy." 



Fugimation for Aphides. — Eben Rex- 

 ford writes in the Orchard and Gar- 

 den that he has found nothing so 

 satisfactory for ridding the greenhouse 



of plant lice as fumes of tobacco. Kero- 

 sene emulsion, tobacco soap, tobacco 

 water, all effectual enough and suitable 

 for outdoor use, are too dirty to be used 

 inside. The plants should be well 

 sprinkled first, and a dense smoke left 

 in over night, then the death of the 

 aphis is certain. 



PROTECT THE BIRDS. 



A SOCIETY has been formed in New 

 York City for the protection of birds. 

 It is called the Audubon Society in 

 honor John James Audubon, the great 

 American naturalist, and it originates 

 in a desire to put a stop to the whole- 

 sale destruction of our useful and oi-na- 

 mental birds, which just now threatens 

 to rob our yards and forests of a great 

 portion of their charms. 



This savage butchery of birds for 

 uses of ornament and fashion is now 

 carried to an extent that most thought- 

 less devotee of fashion, were the facts 

 once laid before her. We say her, be- 

 cause it is kind, sympathetic, compas- 

 sionate woman who shrinks from bru- 

 tality, and is naturally the champion 

 of the beautiful in nature ; it is she, 

 we say, who encourages this murderous 

 business. 



Here are a few figures to startle the 

 most thoughtless, selected from the 

 Society's circular : 



" Although it is impossible to get 

 at the exact number of birds killed 

 each year, some figures have been pub- 

 lished which give an idea of what the 

 slaughter must be. We know that a 

 single local taxerdimist handles 30,000 

 bird skins in one year ; that a single 

 collector brought back from a three 

 months' trip 11,000 skins; that from 

 one small district on Long Island about 

 70,000 birds were bi-ought to New 

 York in four months' time. In New 

 York one firm had on hand February 

 1, 188G, 200,000 skins. The supply 

 is not limited by domestic consump- 



