108 THE CANADIAN ITORTICULTUKIST. 



FRUITS m WYOMmG COUNTY, STATE OF NEW YORK. 



It is the custom of the Western New York Horticultural Society 

 to appoint a committee on fruits in each county, and to expect from, 

 the Chairman of that committee a report at the winter meeting. Tlie 

 following report, prepared by Mr. Hugh T. Brooks, Chairman of the 

 Wyoming County committee, is well worthy of careful perusal, and 

 will afford much food for reflection. It wall be found equally appli- 

 cable to many counties in Ontario. 



AVYOMING COUNTY. 



Wyoming County don't bother much with small fruits, probably because 

 it is a large county. We have scai'ce anything under cultivation smaller 

 than pumpkins, except apples. We had plums, but when the black knot 

 and the curculio put in their claims, we gave them up quietly, rather than 

 have a fuss about it. 



We have here and there pear trees of native breed, set by our fore" 

 fathers when the country was new ; they are healthy, like the men who 

 planted them, but not one farmer in five puts out any of the new sorts. In 

 most of our families they are forbidden fruit. 



Peaches, often very good ones, raised from the stone, are among the 

 recollections of our childhood, but of late not one family in twenty makes 

 an effort to grow them. They miss the virgin soil, the shelter of the 

 woods, and we fear suffer from unnatural methods of propagation. Mi'. 

 Look, of Wyoming, mentioned in our last report, and who died since, 

 grew them successfully, proving plainly that there are warm, dry, sheltered, 

 elevated positions in the country where peaches would grow if the worms 

 were killed and they were otherwise cared for ; especially if some virgin 

 soil was put about their roots. 



An enterprising fellow-citizen some years ago heard of strawberries, 

 and judged from reports (pi-obably circulated by nurserymen) that they 

 were good things to have ; so the next time he went somewhere he brought 

 home some vines. He yjut them in a rich place, tended them well the first 

 year — folks generally do — they grew and blossomed finely, but not a single 

 beriy — not one ! He didn't swear — Christians are not expected to— but 

 ho wanted to very bad. He said he expected to be cheated from the first; 

 he was warned against tree peddlers and the like ; he ought to have known 

 better than to chase after new things ; there was a time when farmers 

 stuck to their own business, and he should do so for the future. Prof. 

 Zenas Morse, of Hamilton Academy, learned in horticulture and all 

 sciences, was induced to come among us, and explained that our fiiend's 

 strawberries were the " Staminate" kind — a sort of bachelor brotherhood, 

 which, left to themselves, never amount to anything anyway. Col. Cheney 

 came to the rescue, invented a new kind, offered to tell everybody how to 

 raise strawberries, raised them himself, claiming that as land was not scarce 

 in Wyoming County, there was no good reason why we should go to 



