176 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



THE HUBBARDSTON APPLE. 



I THINK that a great amount of patience mu.st be required to fill such a 

 responsible office as that, of Editor of our Canadian Horticulturist, on 



account of the varied and conflicting experiences in the cultivation of the 

 the different varieties of fruits, plants and flowers had by your subscribers. My 

 experience, with regard to the subject of your last colored engraving representing 

 the Hubbardston Apple, has been very unfavorable, and, if my experience is to 

 be relied upon, some points there made need qualifying. You say, in the outset, 

 that " this apple is less known and cultivated in our orchards than its merits 

 would warrant," and farther on you qualify this by saying, guardedly, " in those 

 sections in which it has been found to succeed." This if rightly understood 

 means volumes, inasmuch as in my estimate of it I would as soon plant the wild 

 thornapple, either for home use or for market. You say that Mr. Wright buys 

 his apples from Prince Edward county, and infer therefore that it thrives well 

 here. This must be a mistake. My experience with fifty trees planted in 1865, 

 turned out so badly that they nearly all died in less than ten years. I then top- 

 grafted them on Tolman Sweet, Golden Sweet, Yellow Siberian Crab and 

 seedling stock with very little more satisfaction. To day I have scarcely a vestige 

 of this apple in my orchard, and during these ten years I can safely say I have 

 not put up ten barrels all told. My opinion is that in our country there are no^ 

 twenty-five barrels of it grown in a year, and consequently it is passing out of 

 cultivation. 



There is a variety called the Nonsuch which is hardy, a large deep basined 

 flatish apple striped with red, three fourths of the size of a King in general, but 

 somewhat coarse and not as long a keeper. This apple I have worked quite 

 freely during the past few years, while the Hubbardston is very tender and should 

 be cultivated where peaches will thrive. A good peach locality may grow them 

 nicely. 



I would like to hear from Mr. Wright of Renfrew, giving a description of the 

 apples which he has been getting from this county as Hubbardston >, and saying 

 from whom they were purchased. I will take much trouble to see a bearing 

 orchard of them. 



Bloomfield, P.E. Co. J. P. WILLIAMS. 



Note by Editor. — We are glad to receive this criticism from Mr. Williams. 

 One of the objects for which this journal is published is to compare the 

 experiences of growers in various parts of Ontario. It is very desirable to 

 know just in what localities any apple will succeed, and in what kind of soil. 

 We should be very sorry indeed if anyone were led by anything in these pages to 

 plant apples unsuited to their climate, and we hope to hear from Mr. Wright as 

 to whether there could be any mistake in his having received shipments of the 

 Hubbardston Apple from Prince Edward Co. In the county list of apples 

 published in the Report of 1884, we find the Hubbardston marked five for 



