THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 77 



SOME PROBLEMS IN HORTICULTURE. 



I — Fungi Affecting Fruits. 



Read before the Hamilton Association, March loth, i8gi. 



BY L. WOOLVERTON, M. A. 



How charming, to the inhabitant of the town, are the scenes of 

 rural hfe ; the rosy apples, the golden peaches and the various hued 

 grapes — how attractive ! His visits to the country are usually made 

 during the summer season, during the time when the orchards are 

 either clothed in rich abundance of pink and white blossoms, or else 

 are laden down with their luscious fruits. The harvest time to him 

 appears a time of joy, a time of festivity, and he thinks that, if he 

 could exchange his life in the town for one upon the farm, he would 

 reach the height of bliss. It is a mistaken notion to suppose that 

 the whole round upon the farm, and especially upon the fruit farm, 

 is but one continued round of pleasurable occupation and at the end 

 of the year a pot of gold. 



How true in this case is the old proverb " distance lends 

 enchantment to the view." 



So old Horace, the Roman poet, puts it when he describes in 

 his first Satire, the people who are always wishing they could ex- 

 change their lots with others, fancying that any other occupation is 

 more pleasant than their own. 



" Qui fit, Maecenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem 

 Sen ratio dederit seu fors objecerit, ilia 

 Contentus vivat, laudet diversa sequentes ? " 



Our friends in the town know little of the hardships and dis- 

 couragements which are the lot of the fruit grower, nor of the many 

 long years spent in battling with difficulties before reaching his 

 present prosperous condition ; and it is to give the members of the 

 Hamilton Association some idea of the diffioulties which are in our 

 way, as fruit growers, that the writer has agreed to prepare this paper. 



The recent problems facing horticulturists come naturally under 

 two heads, first. Fungus Diseases, second. Insect Enemies ; and in 



