The Canadian Horticulturist. 365 



At that time the old Spitzenburg was in high favor, in quahty the king among 

 apples. The yellow Belleflower, the Genetting and a few other named varieties 

 had their place, and the rest of the orchard was made up largely of a come-by- 

 chance collection. Among the choicer fruits, the cherry was the queen. Occa- 

 sionally one would come across a farmer with an Yellow egg or a Green Gage plum 

 tree on his premises, and the existence of a pear tree was famed for miles about. 



After an absence of twenty-five years, I returned, during the summer just 

 past, to spend a few weeks in that loved, and, in some senses, hallowed home of 

 my boyhood. But what a change ! Looking from one of my old haunts, out 

 upon the lake, a soft and silent voice spoke from within, " changed in all save 

 thee." The neighborhood, however, had lost nothing in beauty, and certainly 

 none of its interest and attractiveness for me. Although the woodlands, which 

 used to stretch away to the northward, had nearly all disappeared, the apple 

 orchard on every hand had taken up a considerable portion of the landscape 

 they had left bare. Not the apple alone, for the plum and the pear held a pro- 

 minent and considerable place. It struck me, indeed, that the section from 

 Whitby to Cobourg and northward, about ten miles, was peculiarly adapted to 

 pear culture, for nowhere in the province did I see trees looking more thrifty, or 

 anything like as heavily laden with fruit. I saw nothing to compare with them 

 at St. Catharines or Hamilton, on my way round about, returning home. The 

 apple orchards in that same tract referred to were likewise uncommonly thrifty; the 

 Baldwin, the Greening and the Spy surpassing anything that I had seen west, 

 except perhaps in the neighborhood of Clinton, The plum does well down 

 there ; and why should it not ? for there the wild plum seems to be in its nur- 

 sery home. 



Driving northward toward Peterborough and Lindsay, through our good 

 friend Mr. Beal's district, and making closer observations by the way, I was per- 

 suaded that Mr. Beal has a good deal of educating to do among the farmers of 

 his vicinity and southward. I never saw a country so full of wild plums, many 

 of them comparing favorably with that humbug, the Weaver, and also wild or 

 chance apples. The roadside and inland fences seemed to be in some localities 

 overgrown with both of them. But I found a great falling off in the better 

 varieties of apples after leaving Port Hope, about fifteen miles, and on to within 

 a few miles of Peterborough and Lindsay. On speaking to some of the farmers 

 of the defect, as I termed it, I found them in a skeptical frame of mind as to the 

 suitableness of their soil and locality for pears, cultivated plums and the better 

 varieties of apples. I was convinced of their mistaken idea, the farmer at the 

 front thought that way but twenty years ago. It is true, where I did come across 

 a more progressive farmer and found an excellent orchard upon his place, that 

 his trees were not as thrifty in appearance as further south ; but they were suffi- 

 ciently thrifty and well enough loaded with almost perfect fruit, to convince me 

 that the prevailing belief among the farmers was a mistake. At an altitude of 



