THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



173 



available plot of ground, not except- 

 ing even the front yards of the farm 

 houses, is occupied with this cereal. 

 But although the capabilities of the 

 soil are so good in this direction at 

 present, the continual cropping of the 

 soil, without fertilizers, will slowly but 

 surely bring about a time when wheat 

 can no longer be grown with profit. 

 No doubt our visit would be a fortu- 

 nate one for many of these farmers, 

 should their attention be thereby di- 

 rected, more or less, into the cultivation 

 of such staple fruits as will succeed. 

 The section is especially adapted to 



PLUM CULTURE, 



and it was shown by the discussions 

 that all the best and most profitable 

 varieties, such as Lombard, Imperial 

 Gage, Pond's Seedling, Washington, 

 tfec, gi'ow finely and produce fruit in 

 great abundance. The Curculio and 

 the Black-Knot are comparacively un- 

 known to many plum growers in this 

 favoured district. Samples of plums 

 were laid upon the table at the meeting 

 in such immense clusters as to call 

 forth many exclamations of surprise. 

 The writer counted upon one branch of 

 the Lombard, about six inches long, no 

 less than fifty fine, healthy plums ; nor 

 was this an exceptional branch but a 

 fair sample of the crop in general. No 

 wonder, under such conditions, that 

 Mr. Brown's experience with Lom- 

 bards was, that the trees had literally 

 borne themselves to death. Thinning 

 was advised, but many seemed to think 

 it would be too much trouble. What a 

 long time it takes to educate our farm- 

 ers and fruit-growers to the importance 

 of giving more attention to just such 

 particulars in order to attain success in 

 fruit culture. 



The experiment of shipping plums 

 from Collingwood to Winni[)eg by 

 water has been successfully tiied by 

 Dr. Aylesworth, jun., who has a fine 

 large plum orchard, and it appears that 



there is a particularly good market for 

 Collingwood plum growers in this di- 

 rection. 



We have already said that most of 

 the standard varieties of apples succeed 

 well in the neighbourhood of Colling- 

 wood, and along the shores of the Bay; 

 and farther back in the countiy where 

 these fail, the Duchess, Tetofsky, 

 Wealthy, Alexander, Haas, Brockville 

 Beauty and Red Pound have been 

 found hardy and profitable. In addi- 

 tion, we would suggest a trial of the 

 Shiawassee Beauty, the Salome, the 

 Cellini, and the McLellan of Vermont. 

 Small fruits are especially adapted 

 to this district. Samples of as fine 

 Crescent, Sharpless and other sti-aw- 

 berries were shown at the meeting, 

 by local growers, as could be shown 

 in -Awj other part of Canada, showing 

 that Collingwood has no need to de- 

 pend upon Toronto fruit dealers for her 

 supply of this fruit, for if her gar- 

 deners but awake to their pi-ivileges, 

 they will be fully able to furnish their 

 own markets. 



The streets of Collingwood have been 

 largely planted with the Willow and 

 the Lombardy Poplar, because it was 

 supposed that other street trees would 

 not succeed well, and, indeed, the few 

 Maples we saw lacked that thrifty 

 growth and dark-green foliage vrhich 

 they exhibit elsewhere. But we no- 

 ticed the native Elm springing up frde- 

 ly along the road-sides everywhere, and 

 surely its value must be underestimat- 

 ed. No tree is better adapted to street- 

 planting. The close habit of growth 

 and the dense foliage of the Maple so 

 shut in a sti'eet that, not only the view, 

 but even the light, is half excluded ; 

 while the beautiful curving branches of 

 the Elm form a magnificent archway 

 over a i-oad, without too much obscur- 

 ing the view. 



Dr. Stevens showed us a curiosity 

 on his lawn. It was a varie/ated 



