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The Canadian Horticulturist. 



indicate the exact place for the dropper to 

 place the plant and where the planter is to 

 plant it. The varieties depended upon for 

 main yield about Centralia are nearly alto- 

 gether the Crescent and Warfield, the latter 

 coming into pretty popular use only during 

 the last year. Mr. Kerr reports this to be a 

 very fine berry and very prolific, and he 

 says the plant is a more vigorous grower 

 than the Crescent. Other growers, how- 

 ever, say that it does not equal the latter in 

 point of productiveness. He mulches his 

 strawberry beds with wheat straw and uses 

 from five to eight loads per acre, costing on 

 an average $15.00 per acre. 



Ink for Zinc Labels. — Popular Garden- 

 ing gives the following recipe: two parts ver- 

 digris, two parts sal-ammonaic, one part 

 lampblack, and twenty parts of water; mix 

 well, and^keep in a bottle with a glass stop- 

 per. Shake before using, and write with a 

 steel pen. Common writing ink, in which a 

 little sulphate of copper has been dissolved, 

 will also answer the purpose, but a quill 

 should be used with the latter. 



Apple Scab. — Prof. Goff says the best 

 preventive yet known for this fungus is am- 

 monical carbonate of copper ; one oz. car- 

 bonate of copper dissolved in one quart of 

 ammonia, diluted with ninety parts of water, 

 sprayed upon the tree and fruit before the 

 scab is too far advanced. 



The Box from Russia. — A large box, 

 containing some 2,000 scions of fifty or sixty 

 varieties of Russian apples and pears, has 

 arrived from Mr. Niemetz, of Rovno. After 

 some conference with Mr. Saunders and 

 Mr. John Craig, the latter of whom is the 

 horticulturist at the Central Experimen- 

 tal Farm, it has been decided to consign this 

 valuable stock to the care of Mr. Craig, who 

 will have them grafted and thoroughly 

 tested at the various farms and supply us 

 with the most valuable kinds, in quantity 

 sufficient for distribution from time to time. 

 A full list of these varieties will be found in 

 another column, and for further details we 

 refer our readers to the letters from Russia. 



KiEFFER PEAR.^-This variety is highly 

 commended by some New York State grow- 



ers as a profitable pear to grow for market. 

 They claim that it is as easily grown as 

 potatoes, and though it is of a miserable 

 quality, yet its beautiful appearance com- 

 mands for it a ready sale in the markets at 

 the best prices. The report of the horticul- 

 turist of the New York State Agricultural 

 Station for 1889, while acknowledging its 

 many strong points, such as brilliant color- 

 ing, vigor of tree, earliness of bearing and 

 freedom from injury to fruit by disease or 

 Insects, says Jt ma.y become popular in the 

 markets as a canning pear, but this is all 

 that should be expected of it, as it seems 

 unwise to place a pear of such qualities on 

 sale as a dessert fruit. 



THE LATE MR. CHARLES GIBB, 

 Very sad news for the fruit growers of 

 Canada is the announcement of the death of 

 Mr. Charles Gibb, of Abbotsford, Quebec, 

 on his way home from Ceylon. There 

 is, perhaps, no man in Canada who has so 

 freely and generously devoted himself and 

 his wealth to the advancement of the science 

 of pomology as Mr. Gibb, and his labqrs 

 have won for him many an expression of 

 grateful appreciation. We all feel that in 

 him we have lost a dear personal friend, 

 whose place can not be filled by another. 



Mr. Gibb had gone to China and Japan to 

 study the pomology of that country, and was 

 on his way back when his death occurred 

 at Cairo, in Egypt, on the 8th of March, at 

 the early age of forty-five years. Particulars 

 will follow shortly, when we hope to give 

 him a more extended notice, illustrated, if 

 possible, by a photo engraving. 



YIELD OF THE GRAVENSTEIN. 



Mr. John Donaldson, in a paper recently 

 read before the Nova Scotia O.A.C. gradu- 

 ates on the subject of Apple Culture in Nova 

 Scotia, gives a very bright picture of the 

 profits, such as we fear, will not often be 

 realized. He says : — 



" The Gravenstein tree in our county 

 bears twenty-four or twenty-five barrels in 



