UCH is said concern- 

 ing the desirability of 

 laws to prevent or- 

 chardists from spraying their 

 trees with poisons while in 

 bloom, inasmuch as such 

 practice endangers the life of 

 bees. The matter is urged with vehemence by the 

 bee-keepers. It occurs to us that these persons are 

 pursuing a course both impolitic and unnecessary. 

 They should urge education rather than legislation. 

 So far as we now know, there is no necessity for 

 spraying trees when they are in bloom ; in fact, 

 there is certainly one reason that might be urged 

 against the practice, besides the waste of time and 

 labor — there is a possibility of interfering with pol- 

 lination. There are very few growers who spray 

 their trees while in bloom, and those who do spray 

 at that time will at once change their practice if 

 told that no good is to come from it. Our bee 

 friends, we fear, have verily made a mountain of a 

 mole-hill ! 



* 



THE farmer's institute movement has been the 

 strongest lever ever applied to the elevation 

 of farming. It has spread slowly, but it has 

 never lost an inch that it has once gained. The 

 long period of trial, experiment and adaptation is 

 past, and the movement is now extending itself 

 everywhere in the full assurance of success. In 

 some kinds of farming and in many places, it has 

 transformed the whole atmosphere and practice of 

 the farmer. Dairying, stock-farming and grain- 

 growing have received the largest benefits, for the 

 mass of farmers following these businesses have 

 been densely ignorant. In fact, it appears as if 

 these farmers have never looked upon their farming 

 as a business, but as merely a means of subsistence. 

 Farmers are now instructing farmers. The advice — 

 once called theory — of professional men has become 

 the practice of many. 



Horticulturists, as a class, have had compara- 

 tively little benefit from the institute movemen' 

 This is due largely to the fact that fruit grow s 

 and gardeners must know their business well in 

 order to gain even a livelihood, and having known 

 in a measure, they have not needed the enlighten- 

 me institutes to so great an extent as some 



But times are changing with the horticul- 



turists as with others. Increasing competition in 

 business, problems of distribution of products and 

 adaptations of kinds and methods, ravages of num- 

 berless insects and fungous pests, are yearly de- 

 manding greater attention. We need horticultural 

 institutes, and a sti^ong movement is making in New 

 York to secure them for that state. Other 

 branches of farm practice have been broadened 

 and ennobled ; why not horticulture ? 



* 



THE crudest notions are still current in regard 

 to the danger to human life from the use of 

 arsenites upon fruit trees. It has been proved 

 several times that no danger results from a discreet 

 and careful use of the poison, and yet people talk 

 about the absorption of the poison by the roots and 

 even by the fruit itself. It must be borne in mind 

 that only such materials as are in solution can en- 

 ter plants, and that both Paris green and London 

 purple are practically insoluble in water. And the 

 plant also has a power of selection, by means of 

 which it rejects many injurious substances. English 

 growers have not yet adopted the practice of spray- 

 ing fruit-trees, and among the English people in 

 general there appear to be many crudities afloat 

 concerning the matter. The following extract from 

 correspondence of the London Echo is a sample : 

 " When we remember that the skins of all fruits pos- 

 sess asmotic properties — the skin being simply a mem- 

 brane or porous structure — the dangerous nature of the 

 process will be seen at a glance. Even nuts absorb and 

 suck up water, so that the shrivelled, dried-up kernel 

 within swells out and again completely fills the shell. 

 Should the practice spread, I fear that the use of the 

 king of fruits may one day become as deadly as the 

 thorn apple, which for years was said to be used at the 

 incantations of the witches. But although the American 

 growers have been cautioned against the dangerous 

 pature of arsenic as an insecticide, the system continues 

 to spread, so that to-day 75 per cent, of them use it in 

 preference to any other. The purifying effects of all 

 kinds of fruit acids and juices are proverbial, and it 

 becomes all who are interested in an increased consump- 

 tion of fruit to see that the products of EngHsh or for- 

 eign orchards are put before the public in good condi- 

 tion. I do not wish for a moment to blight the pros- 

 pects of the American apple trade, but unless the sys- 

 tem I have exposed is stopped the British public will do 

 well not only to confine itself solely to English apples, 

 but to all kinds of EngHsh fruit." 



The comparison drawn between the shells of 



