The Canadian Horticulturist. 261 



NOTES FROM MAPLEHURST.— II. 



E are often asked the question, IV/ia/ is the best summer pear for 

 profit 1 We have just now, August 14th, several varieties ripen- 

 ing, as, for instance, Beurre Giffard, Chambers, Doyenne d'Ete, 

 Osband's Summer, Rostiezer, Summer Belle and Tyson ; and 

 judging from our present experience, we would be inclined to 

 reply Beurre Giffard. While Doyenne d'Ete heads the 

 list for earliness, the Giffard is not more than a week later and so 

 superior in size and quality, that it is well worth waiting for. Chambers, or 

 Early Harvest, is a fine pear about as large as the Giffard, and, with us, on the 

 dwarf, very productive. It comes from Maryland and has been highly recom- 

 mended by the Kentucky Horticultural Society as the best and most profitable 

 market pear of its season. Its rich, golden yellow color, with blushed cheek, 

 would surely sell it quickly in any market, but the Giffard so surpasses it in 

 quality, that we would certainly give it the first place. Walking with some friends 

 along our " specimen row " the other day, we handed them first the Chambers 

 and then the Beurre Giffard, and all at once chose the Giffard for eating, one 

 lady remarking that it was "almost like candy." The Osba?id's Summer is 

 rather small and very perishable, while the tree itself is very subject to blight. 

 The Rostiezer is a pear of excellent quality, but its small size and dull, green 

 color make it almost unsalable in the market ; even the Sttmmer Belie of 

 most wretched quality but fair size, will sell more quickly in the market than the 

 Rostiezer. Some growers highly commend the Tyson and certainly, for 

 productiveness, vigor, and healthfulness of tree, it is one of the best ; but the 

 color of the fruit is poor, and, consequently, it is not very saleable, especially as it 

 ripens near the season of the Bartlett. 



Of blackberries, our experience this season is highly in favor of the Kitta- 

 tinny for this section of country. The Taylor, Snyder, and Agawam are 

 too small to be profitable where the Kittatinny will succeed. This latter has 

 yielded us this year a wonderful crop, the result we think, not only of a favorable 

 season, but of the liberal application of ashes and superphosphate. We are be- 

 coming more and more convinced that these are of exceeding great value in the 

 apple orchard, and in the blackberry and raspberry plantations ; for this is not 

 the first instance where we have harvested an enormous crop of berries after a 

 liberal treatment with these fertilizers, and the same may be said of our apple 

 orchards. 



The jRed Astrachan apple has proved itself to be one of the most pro- 

 ductive of early apples on our ground. A lot of one hundred trees, fifteen years 

 planted, is estimated to have a crop this season of at least three hundred bar 

 rels, and this we count a large yield, when we consider that this is not the bearing 

 year of nearly all the trees. Many of them are borne down to the ground with 



