The Canadian Horticulturist. 383 



M Ke^ OP Little }Ki)o(jor) fr^dWs. ^ 



Sir, — There appears to have been an unfortunate misunderstanding of my 

 remarks in Orchard and Garden, about the Bessemianka and other Russian 

 pears. In saying that I had found no one who had been able to bite into one, 

 I mean because they had not been able to get hold of one to bite. But the 

 Canadian Horticulturist seems to understand me as meaning that they were 

 unbiteable. From all I can learn, there are a considerable number of them of 

 dessert quality, besides Bessemianka. In a few years we shall know more on 

 this point. 



Yours sincerely, 



Newport, Vt. T. H. Hoskins. 



The Margil is an old English dessert apple, of slender growth. Mr. Down- 

 ing describes it thus :-rFruit small, roundish oblate, yellow, striped with red. 

 Flesh yellowish, firm, aromatic. Good, October and November. 



A correspondent sends us three samples of this apple, and it impresses us 

 favorably for dessert, especially for those who delight in the Spitzenburg flavor. 



The black currants are cultivated the least of almost any good fruits in this 

 country, and it seems strange that such a fruit is so generally neglected. The 

 black currants were at one time very popular in England, and troches made from 

 them were universally used by singers and speakers. There is no fruit grown 

 that will make a richer jelly and prove of more medicinal value in cases of colds 

 and sore-throats. The black currants sell for about half as much per pound as 

 the red, but then the bushes yield a much greater weight. If their culture was 

 more extended the demand for them would become more universal, and the 

 time will come when they will be more appreciated by the public. There is 

 certainly profit ih currants even though little attention is given to their cultiva- 

 tion. They will pay their way even when planted on poor soil, and not culti- 

 vated, but under intelligent culture they bring in a handsome return for all labor 

 bestowed upon them. In respect to the currants many of the new varieties intro- 

 duced within the past few years are great improvements upon the old sorts, 

 which were rather small in size and less agreeably flavored. Fancy currants put 

 up in tiny packages always command good prices, and the first pickings of either 

 the white or the red varieties cannot fail to bring in returns almost double those 

 which caij be secured later. — Farm Life. 



