40 



'I'Hh: Canadian Horticulturist. 



i!i.i:.\Hi;i.M ni'i'ix Ai'iM.i-:. 



()\\ thai our Association is considering the relative values 

 of the standard varieties of apples for the various dis- 

 tricts of Ontario, it will be interesting to note the reputa- 

 tion which that excellent late fall or early winter apple, 

 the Blenheim, sustains in (ireat Britain. The following 

 extract is from The Garden, one of the leading English 

 magazines ; — 



•' J'his is of all British apples the best known, and it is well, for the sake of 

 future apple consumers, that its merits should be kept before the ])ublic, or it 

 may happen that the present generation will refrain from [)lanting it largely, and 

 thus, when our present fine old trees have died out, the best all-round apple in 

 cultivation will have ceased to exist. It is a fact even now that, as compared 

 with the Baldwin, Wealthy. King of Tompkins County, and other showy trans- 

 atlantic apples in the market, we have few varieties which will, in the eyes of pur- 

 chasers, find more favor than the Blenheim Pippin. As a high-class dessert 

 variety, none, on the whole, excel Cox's Orange Pippin or Ribston Pippin. 

 These are. however, attractive only under superior culture and when carefully 

 selected and packed. America can send us nothing equal to these in flavor, but 

 in external appearance they beat us. Hence it is that whilst the sale of British 

 apples is limited to the fruiterers, we see the richly-colored American sorts in 

 every grocer's window, where, sold at per pound, just as Spanish onions or dried 

 fruits are, they find favor which our own varieties never can apparently possess. 

 The hot American summers produce in the apples a drier flesh and brighter 

 skins than our poor summers can give. It is a great pity some efforts were not 

 made to plant the Blenheim Pippin on warm sites and slopes, where, in addition 

 to being forced into fruiting rather earlier than happens when the trees are 

 planted on cold soils, or indeed anywhere, we should always get the richest 

 color the variety will produce. In some positions the Blenheim is almost rosy 

 tinted ; when so colored it is one of our very handsomest apples. But generally 

 its matured hue is of a russety gold, and being of good size also and of the most 

 perfect form, it is not possible to furnish in the l)ulk a more taking market ajiple. 



Kaspberrv Pi..\'N'iiN<i. — Five or six years is the average term of thiration of 

 raspberry plantations ; if retained longer, the fruit is small and but little of it. 

 As it takes a year or two for the plants to reach their best bearing condition, it 

 is well to make a new plantation every third year, and thus have two plats, one 

 <:oming into full bearing as the other is going out. Plants can be set in fall oi 

 spring.- ■ V'icKs Magazine. 



