2o6 The Canadian Horticulturist 



DLEXHEIM ORANGE APPLE AND SAUNDERS' PLUM. 



Sir, — The correspondence addressed during the past few months to the 

 Horticulturist on the merits of the Blenheim Pippin must, I think, have 

 fully established that excellent apple in the confidence and favor of the Ontario 

 fruit growers. There never was any question raised as to its high individual 

 qualities, the only one being as to its productiveness, and the complaints as to 

 that still come to me by letter from the localities mentioned in my first article on 

 the subject, namely, Middlesex, Kent, and Norfolk counties. However, the 

 Blenheim is fully re-established in my former confidence and favor as a result of 

 the many positive testimonies as to its productiveness. It was one of the varieties 

 that I recommended to the Fruit Committee as most suitable and desirable for 

 this district ; but when the report came out I was somewhat surprised to find 

 that another — the Cranberry Pippin, an apple that I was entirely unacquainted 

 with — had been substituted for it. How the error occurred, or, if not an error, 

 why the Committee meddled with my recommendation, I never learned. I 

 think the correspondence regarding the alleged defect — unproductiveness — has 

 been profitable. 



As to the Saunders plum, I was not aware until the last number of the 

 Horticulturist reached me that our good friend, Mr. Dempsey, had stood 

 godfather to that most excellent fruit. I am glad to know that it had so worthy 

 a sponsor. My only crime seems to have been in believing that I had discov 

 ered the birthplace of the plum so appropriately named by Mr. Dempsey. It 

 was not a grave offence, and I am not yet certain that I sinned at all in that 

 belief; though there does seem to be a discrejjancy as to the season of ripening 

 and I could not desire to conflict with so acknowledged an authority as our 

 good friend Dempsey. But why dwell upon so trifling a matter ? The plum 

 that I referred to is a very firm one. If the Saunders is no better but a month 

 earlier, Messrs. Morris & Wellington have in their hands a plum that cannot be 

 surpassed in its suitability to the conditions and requirements of this country. 

 Mitchell, Out. T. H. Raci:. 



Raspi'.errv. — Of the Black Cap family the Older, Tyler, and Shaffer's 

 Colossal, are giving the best crops of best (juality for dessert and canning in 

 north Iowa. The secret of setting the tips to secure a uniform stand, is to put 

 them in with the roots pressed downward as in planting the strawberry, leaving 

 the crown at the surface or near it. Deep planting always results in a poor 

 stand. Of the red species the Cuthbert has given the best satisfaction for home 

 use. At the north it will pay to cover the rnsj)berry as is now practiced with 

 the blackberry. By watching the neighbor who has l)ecome an expert, it will 

 be found that the job of covering is not as great a labor as is usually suspected. 



