200 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



When poured on the yellow varieties of raspberries this fluid has been found 

 to preserve their colour well ; it is also recommended for the preservation of red 

 and white currants, gooseberries, white or yellow cherries, peaches and other light 

 coloured fruits, including green and yellow apples. 



Flitd No. 4. — Solution of Salicylic Acid one drachm to the (}uart. Dissolve 

 one ounce of Salicylic in eight ounces of Alcohol and add this to two gallons ot 

 water, shake well, allow it to stand for a short time, when it will be ready for use. 



This fluid has been found useful for preserving red and dark coloured grapes ; 

 it may also be used in place of Fluid No. 2 for the fruits mentioned under that 

 head, although it has not proven quite so successful as the Boric Acid. 



Fluid No. 4 was used successfully by the writer in preparing fruits for the 

 Indian and Colonial Exhibition in i8<S6. Nos. i, 2 and 3 are recommended as 

 the most successful of a number of fluids tested during the past year by Dr. 

 Chas. E. Saunders, of Ottawa. 



Thinning Fruit. — An experienced orchardist in the East covers the same 

 ground we have already advocated in Fruit nfid Floivem in what follows : He 

 says that "he thinned the fruit on his trees at the rate of twelve trees in ten 

 hours. They were large enough to yield an average of six bushels to a tree. 

 He figures in this way : If he had a thousand trees it would cost him $85 to 

 have them thinned, with labor at $1 a day, or $170 at .$2 per day. He has but 

 few culls among his apples, and the selected crop will easily bring him ten cents 

 per bushel more than the fruit from trees which were not thinned out, which, at 

 six bushels to the tree, would increase his sale by $600. 



"Again, he claims still another greater advantage It is not the growth of 

 the fruit that exhausts the tree so much as the formation of the seed, and reduc- 

 ing the number of seeds grown by picking off one-half or two-thirds of the fruit 

 that sets, he relieves the tree so that it can form fruit buds in the fall for the next 

 year's crop. In ten years he has not had a failure of the trees to bear every 

 year, excepting when they were overloaded and he neglected the thinning. Then 

 all the strength was used up in growing fruit, or rather seed, and there were no 

 blossom buds formed." 



The last clause in the above has not often been so plainly stated and is often 

 overlooked, but is so plain that it is correct that we wonder that sensible men 

 should need to be told of it. — Fruit and Flowers. 



Tmk Hi.st Ki;.mi.I)\ ior I>i.a( k Knot in plums is the knife, cutting out all 



knots early in spring, before the leaves appear. The branches and trunk should 



then be sprayed with the simple solution of sulphate of copper — 1 lb. to 26 gals. 



of water — to which 2 oz. of Paris green may be with benefit added. .Ml wild 



rees in the neighbourhood should be treated in the same way. or cut ilown. 



