1S4 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



arrivals have been on a Small scale during th-j month of April, and the shipments 

 are nearly over, but there has been a good demand for Canadian apples and 

 extreme prices have been realized. Some samples, which were excellent in 

 quality and condition, sold from 345. to 385. per barrel. This seems encourag- 

 'ng. The season has been the largest on record, the receijjts at Liverpool, alone, 

 being nearly one million barrels, and the demand during all the shipping period 

 has been so good that the apples have brought a higher range of prices all 

 through the season than usual. Canadian Baldwins opened the season at igs. 

 6d., and since then the lowest prices touched for sound stock was 14^. 6d. The 

 heaviest receipts were in the month of November, amounting to about one 

 (juarter of a million barrels, ninety thousand of which were received in one week. 

 But the demand was so good that they were readily bought without causing any 

 decline in the prices. Canadians will be interested in noticing that Canadian 

 Ben Davis apples are quoted at a lower price than either the Baldwin or the Spy- 

 From this circular it would appear that the arsenic scare, which has been raised 

 by the Horticultural Times, has, after all, had very little effect upon apple con- 

 sumers in Great Britain. They evidently have too much good sense to be so easily 

 deterred from purchasing a good article. 



The Evils of the Black Knot.— Bulletin 40, of the New York Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, is devoted to the black knot, and gives some instances 

 of the terrible nature of this disease. 



Mr. G. D. Powell, of (ihent, gives the following as his experience : 

 "The black knot has about swept the plum growing .interest out of exis- 

 tence in the Hudson River Valley. I planted an orchard of one thousand 

 trees and fought off the knot for seven years. Each year there would be 

 some formation, but we persistently kept it off. Last spring there was 

 none to be seen on my trees when they were in bloom, every particle having 

 been taken off. But on the first of .September, the trees were completely 

 covered, and the entire tops had to be destroyed. The whole trouble came 

 from some old trees adjoining my farm, which were neglected by my neighbor." 



Mr. G. Brandon of Athens, N. Y., says, that some time ago there was a plum 

 belt three miles wide on each side of the Hudson River, beginning at Cedar 

 Hill, near Albany, and extending to the southward .some thirty-six miles. He 

 himself had an orchard of 6000 trees. At that time it was no uncommon thing 

 for a steamer to carry thence, from one hundred to five hundred barrels of plums 

 to New York, at one trip. For four days' picking, in one week, he once 

 received $1,980. In 1884 he netted $8,000 from his plums, but the next year 

 he rooted out over five thousand trees, on account of the plum knot. 



We extract these instances merely as a warning to Canadian plum growers, 

 hoping that all may be aroused to seek more effective legislation for the destruc- 

 tion of this dreadful fungus. 



