Thk Canadian Horticililkisi. 



l-Ri:Vl IN NORTH SIMCOE. 



HE i)ast season has been a favorable one for fruit in this section. 

 Strawberries were a very fair crop and of good quahty, in fact I 

 never had finer berries than I had this year. The main crop, as 

 regards varieties, were the old reliable Wilson and Crescent. The 

 Haverland, though comparatively new in this section, is a decided 

 success here ; yields well and carries its size well to the end of the 

 season. My experience with the Bubach does not lead me to think 

 favorably of it. The fruit is large and of very good quality, but it does not bear 

 half as well as the Haverland ; it makes very few runners, so that it propagates 

 very slowly : the fruit stems are very short, so that in seasons like the past one, 

 with frequent heavy showers, the fruit is badly sanded. I think the Williams 

 berry will prove a decided acquisition here. The worst enemy to the strawberry 

 i? the rust on the leaves, the Wilson being the most susceptible to it. No 

 remedy has as yet been tried to check it, though I purpose experimenting in 

 this line next year with the Bordeaux mixture, and other solutions of that kind. 

 Raspberries did well, though not very promising in the early part of the 

 summer, being backward in leafing out, owing, I think, mainly to the severe cold 

 weather in April after the snow was gone. Yet they recruited wonderfully and 

 <^ave a very good crop, and i)rices were better than have been for some years. I 

 o-row the Cuthbert principally and the soil and climate here seem to suit it well, 

 except that in very severe winter, it kills back a little of the tips. 



My experience this year with grapes has not been a happy one, and shows 

 that except with the earliest varieties they are a very uncertain crop in this 

 locality. My vines were well loaded, the fruit (mostly Concords), large, bunches 

 well shouldered ; the berries much larger than those grown further south. But, 

 owing to wet backward weather and lack of sunshine, not more than half of them 

 ripened. The severe frost in the first week of October caught them, and spoiled 

 them. I tried smudging but it was no use. 



The apple crop has been a good one and the fruit, as regards quality, 

 probably the best of any section in Ontario. The section known as the Geor- 

 gian Bay Counties, has been especially favored this year in the apple crop. The 

 crop has been saved in good condition and buying was brisk, the bulk being 

 bought for export and fair prices realized. Considerable fruit has been sent 

 from this section for exhibition at the World's Fair, and when that opens next 

 spring, the fruit from this section will speak for itself. I believe the Georgian 

 Bay Counties produce the best apples in America, if not in the world. 'Tis a 

 big assertion to make, but as Burns said, " Facts are chiels that winna ding and 

 canna be disputed." 



1 notice Mr. Allan's article in the November nuniUr, and that he .says some 

 very trite things concerning the fruit trade There is more truth than poetry 



