122 Thk Canadian Horticl'ltl'rist. 



Certainly this matter needs immediate attention. 'Inhere is too mucli machi- 

 nery involved in getting a petition of fifty ratepayers in order to compel the 

 council to appoint an inspector, and it is too bad that after such inspector is 

 appointed, he should have to sit at home and allow the plum knot or peach 

 yellows to flourish all around him, along the roadside and in his neighbors' 

 orchards, not daring to utter a word unless he receive a written complaint from 

 some ratepayer in his municipality. The worthlessness of the jjresent Act is 

 plainly evident to anyone who rides through the plum or peach growing sections 

 of our country. Everywhere wretched plum, cherry and peach trees are dragging 

 out a miserable and sickly existence, owing to these diseases. What use is it 

 for anyone to plant an orchard of these valuable fruits, with the absolute certainty 

 that the spores from neglected trees near by will utterly ruin his hopes of profit ? 



On Thursday evening, loth of March, the writer read a paper before the 

 Hamilton Scientific Association, on Fungi Affecting Fruits, and as a result a reso- 

 lution was passed supporting the efforts of the fruit growers to secure improved 

 legislation for the destruction of peach yellows and plum knot. 



On the evening of the nth of March, a joint committee of the above 

 named Societies, with some representatives of the Ontario Fruit Crowers' 

 Association, waited upon the Minister of Agriculture, urging the importance of 

 amending the Act in such a way as to make it more effective. They also 

 advised the appointment of a general inspector of diseased fruit trees for the 

 provmce, who would enforce the penalties of the Act upon parties neglecting to 

 destroy their diseased trees when notified l)y the local inspector. 



Mr. Dryden regretted that so important a subject had not been brought under 

 his notice at an earlier date. In his opinion, the appointment and control of 

 such general inspector might, very properly, be undertaken by the Ontario Fruit 

 Growers' Association, and he would like a definite plan to be formulated as soon 

 as convenient, in order that action might be taken at the next session. 



Thi: Fir.st Exhibit at CHic.\r.o.Mr. j. M. Samuels, Chief of the Dejjart- 

 ment of Horticulture, Chicago, writes : To the Department of Horticulture 

 belongs the distincticjn of the fir.st exhibit, installed, for the World's Columbian 

 Exposition. 



P. S. Peterson, a nurseryman, of Rose Hill. Chicago, has. during the past 

 week, planted six trees on the grounds near the horticultural building, as a per- 

 manent exhibit, and as a |)ractical illustration of the successful methods of trans- 

 planting large ornamental trees. They are an Elm, fifty tcet high and two feet 

 in diamater, commemorative of (ieneral Sherman, brought from the woods in 

 1876, then fifty years old, and planted on the nursery grounds at Rose Hill; 

 a Hackberry, forty feet high and two feet in diameter, commemorative o( Ceneral 

 ('.rant, also transplanted from the woods in 1S76 ; a Linden, forty feet high and 

 eighteen inches bole : a Willow, thirty feet high and thirty feet spread ; a sugar 

 Maple, forty feel high and ten feet spread ; an Ash, thirty-five feet high and 

 fourteen feet stem. It recjuired a force of twenty-two men and twelve horses to 

 transplant the trees, and the cost of the work was about $700. 



