92 



and we had the Pameuse apple on the table. The lady said. " Now Mr. Peters, I 

 want you to pack us a barrel of those apples.'' The husband said. "If we get a 

 barrel of this kind, we will eat them up and have nothing left for the winter. Let 

 us divide it." So they had a barrel filled with one-third Eussets, one-third Yellow 

 Bellflowerand the other third Pameuse. I saw them about a month afterwards, and 

 they said: "Those apples were very fine, and are all gone. They were just as good 

 _ in the middle of the barrel as on top." That is the way I like to pack my apples. 

 I said : " Your husband could tell you why I did that. He said : " You have me in 

 a corner." Then I said: "I was in business in St. John with another brother, and 

 whenever we would open a barrel that was the same all the way through we had 

 the habit of saying : " The man who packed that barrel belonged to the right church." 



Mr. Pettit. — What was the nuniber of quarts to the acre ? 



Mr. Peters. — That is strawberries. I remembei' a half acre being cultivated in 

 the district of this village, and four thousand five hundred quarts were marketed 

 from half an acre. I would not be afraid to make that statement at home, where I 

 am known, and I trust you will accept it; but if an average per acre were given, I 

 should say that 6,000 quarts is considered good. 



Mr. BucKE. — I think it is a pity that the production of large fruit in New 

 Brunswick is so very low. I see the exports from New Brunswick last year were 

 3,000 bushels, while from Nova Scotia it was 302,000. 



Pacts and theories relating to the Period op Life and tendency to Degenerate 

 OP Pruits and Vegetables: by 0. B. Hadwbn, Worcester, Mass., ex- 

 President Worqester County Horticultural Society. 



Man can understand, to a certain extent, the organism of flowers — their petals, 

 stamens and pistils, and their functions, and the microscopic pollen or tVuctifying 

 particles, which the scientific horticulturist makes use of in ci'oss-fertilizing or 

 hybridizing, tending to produce new and distinct varieties — a process which, under 

 his skilful guidance, seems destined to end only with creation itself. He sees the 

 offices of insects in transporting the pollen from flower to flower, thus, without the 

 aid of man, producing seeds containing germs in numberless vaiiety, yet keeping- 

 each variety distinct. In the apple and pear no two seedlings thus far appear to be 

 alike; there is but one Baldwin apple, and one Bartlett pear, and but one of each of 

 the hundreds of sorts tbat have been designated by name. While horticultural 

 science assures us of the germinal principle of seeds, we are as yet unlearned in the 

 method by which the qualities of flowers and fruits are transmitted from one to 

 another through the pollen, but this remains to be ascertained hereafter. 



The study and i^ractice of horticulture have a tendency to raise man to a higher 

 level; it quickens and intensifies his senses of sight, smell and taste, and increases 

 his capacity for the enjoyment of life. How readily the eye of the horticulturist 

 detects upon our tables new flowe:', fruit or vegetable. How quickly he scents its 

 fragrance, and how fastidious and sensitive is his taste when a new fruit is brought 

 to the test, and how diplomatic, yet emphatic, is his language if it is found deficient 

 in any particular. 



The philosophy and science of horticulture seem to have been understood even 

 in the remotest ages ; they are mentioned by Confucius, who lived 550 years before 

 the Christian era. He speaks of seed planting thus : " Let it be sown and covered 

 up, the ground being the same, and the time of sowing likewise the same. It 

 gi'ows rapidly up, and when the full time is come it is all found to be ripe. Although 

 there may be inequalities of produce, that is owing to the difference of soil, as rich 

 or poor ; to the unequal nourishment afforded by the rains and dews ; to the difterent 

 ways in which man has performed his business in reference to it." 



The Greeks, even as far back as the fifth century, were not strangers to horti- 

 culture ; they speak of the details of its practice with as much intelligence, precision 

 and enthusiasm as do many at the present day. Many of the same general prin- 

 ciples seem to have been understood and applied. Pruits were grown from seed, 



