100 



I never take a scion from f) Fameuse tree that appears to have the slightest degree 

 of disease. I think it is a great mistake. We must be very cautions, if we want to 

 retain these old favourite varieties. We must be careful in selecting our scions. 



Mr. Allan. — I hope the paper read is to be passed in for publication. It is too 

 valuable a paper to be lost sight of, and I trust Mr. Hadwen will be willing. I am 

 sure every one here can join in the same voice, that we have enjoyed the reading of 

 the paper, and the depth of the paper is such that we must have it before us to 

 read it, and to read it from point to point, as it is of very deep interest to us all. It 

 is one of the most valuable papers I have heard read at any of our conventions. 



Eev. Mr. Fulton. — As to the longevity of the tree, I think the short-lived 

 characteristic of the tree is due in the most part to the carelessness of the nursery- 

 men. As Mr. Shepherd has just stated, we do not pay much attention to the root, 

 and certainly it is the root which supplies the tree. Formerly they used to grow a 

 fine healthy tree from the seed, and when it was sufficiently large it was put out. 

 You cannot expect trees to live if the stock is unhealthy, I know one tree in the 

 County of Huntingdon out of three that came from Mr. Holland's garden, in 

 Montreal, in 1820, which is still a vigourous growing tree bearing fruit, and the trees 

 that I got thirty years ago are perfectly healthy aud good. I am perfectly satisfied 

 that the dif&culty is through the stock. 



Mr. Stark. — May we not attribute all this short life of the present trees to 

 the fact that they are root grafted and set out from nurseries, and that the trees we 

 see about in our country where we find them over one hundred years of age were seeded 

 as early as 1770 or 1780, along there. We find those trees living to-day and bearing 

 crops. I can call to mind one especially, within three miles of my own place. It 

 covers an area of at least 40 feet round, and the trunk is over 2 j feet in diameter, and 

 that tree is still bearing heavy crops of apples. That tree is grafted at some dis- 

 tance from the ground. You can see where all these old trees have been grafted, 

 some of them were grafted early in the present century, and are healthy trees to-day. 

 We find such apples as the Fameuse and the Pomme G-rise planted at the same time. 

 Thej' were good apples for some years ; to-day they are failures. They are not 

 being planted as the 3'oung trees, and not being cared for as the old trees. In the 

 first place, they are not as good all-round apples as those that have been selling well 

 in the market ; they do not carry well and they do not grow well. We have to 

 look after these three attributes in all our apples, to make them a success. Those 

 are three points that you must look after in the commercial apples — first, to grow 

 well ; second, to bear well ; third, to carry well ; and foui-th, study the market. 



Mr. Shepherd, — You can hardly say that the Fameuse does not bear well, and 

 you cannot say it is not marketable. 



Mr. Starr. — I am speaking from my own point of view. The Nova Scotian 

 Fameuse twenty-five years ago was a first-rate apple. To-day^ with the best culti- 

 vation, if we are getting fifteen baJTels from a tree we can sell three as Ko. 1, five as 

 No. 2, and the rest goes into cider. That is where the trouble comes in. 



Mr. WiLLARD. — The subject is full of interest to all of us. But I think that 

 perhaps we fail to attribute the failure of many of our varieties of trees and the 

 apparent degeneracy to the true cause. Now, there has been a change going on, 

 through the last fifty years, throughout this whole country. The time was, fifty 

 years ago, when we had forest trees scattered from one end to the other, almost over 

 all the country, and those forest trees held back our snows and our rain. The 

 modern system of drainage, while it is a splendid thing on manj' grounds, and has 

 created a great value to the country, yet I see the ill effects that grow out of it. Our 

 snows as they melt, on account of the absence of forests, are carried off rapidly, and 

 from our ground being soaked with water in a short time it is too dry. We suffer 

 from drought. I see it in my own orchard, and it has been a study with me what 1 

 would do to avoid it. My orchard is under-drained, and the water is carried off too 

 quickly, and I do not believe it is well for the health of a tree it should be so. Then, 

 again, there are other things. Eeference has been made to the fact that our trees were 

 propagated by root grafting. My opinion is that the trees are injured by the want 



