FRUIT REPORTS. 
205 
REPORT OF NIAGARA PENINSULA. 
BY M. BURRILL, ST. CATHERINES- 
1. Tliat portion of Ontario known as the Niagara district, which is largely 
-contained within the counties of Lincoln and Welland, is devoted to fruit 
•culture to a great extent. Although a considerable quantity of apples, ber- 
ries, grapes and other fruits are grown in Welland and the higher parts of 
Lincoln, it is in the strip of country lying between the lake and the rocky 
escarpment known locally as “the mountain,” that the more tender fruits 
are chiefly produced. The breadth of this strip at its eastern limit in Ni- 
agara would be some six miles and at Grimsby (thirty miles to the west) 
between one and two miles. The average width is possibly four miles. As 
a general rule the soil near the base of the “Mountain” is of a strong and 
fairly heavy character, and grapes and plums occupy a considerable share 
of this ground. Nearer the lake, where the soil is of a lighter description, 
peaches are more extensively grown. The elevation of most of the good 
peach orchards is fifty to one hundred feet above the lake level. 
2. The general testimony is, that while plums, pears, grapes and apples 
w T ill succeed admirably on the heavier soils, sand is to be preferred for the 
peach, cherry and raspberry. The price of land has practically not advanced 
during the past fen years. Fairly good, unimproved lands, well adapted to 
fruit can be bought from $75 to $100 an acre. 
3. The leading varieties found most profitable here are: Apples — Baldwin, 
Greening, Oldenburg, Gravenstein, Northern Spy, Cranberry Pippin, Blenheim 
Pippin, Golden Russet. Pears: Clapp, Bartlett, Clairgeau, Bose, Kieffer, 
Angouleme, Anjou. Plums— Bradshaw, Imperial Gage, Abundance, Burbank, 
Lombard, Washington, Yellow Egg, Bavay. Peaches— Rivers, Hynes Sur- 
prise, St. John, Early Crawford, Jacques Rareripe, Late Crawford, 
Chili, Longhurst and Smock. A good many Elberta, Fitzgerald and Crosby 
have been planted the last few years. Cherries— Richmond, Montmorency, 
Black Tartarian, Yellow Spanish, May Duke, Windsor. Grapes, black — 
Moore Early, Champion, Worden, Concord, Rogers Nos, 4 and 44; red 
Moyer, Delaware. Rogers NO. 9 and 15, Salem and Brighton; white, Niagara, 
"Strawberries — Van Deman, Haverland, Williams, Warfield, Dominion 
and Clyde. Raspberries, black— Gregg. Hilborn, promising new variety. 
Smith Giant; red, Marlboro, Cuthbert. Blackberries — Kittatinny, Lawton, 
"Snyder. Gooseberries— not profitable; Downing, Pearl, Whitesmith are most 
grown. Currants, red— Fay, Cherry, black— Naples, Lee. 
4. Of the apple orchards about half are in sod and about half cultivated. 
Peach, pear and plum orchards, vineyards and berry plantations are usually 
cultivated thoroughly. 
5. Winter, cover crops are not used to a large extent, an occasional seed- 
ing of rye and lately crimson clover being the chief covers. 
6. Fertilizer's are quite largely used, chiefly bone meal, analyzing from 
16 per cent to 22 per cent phosphoric acid; muriate of potash, and one or two 
mixed fertilizers. Wood ashes are also far more highly valued than they 
were some years ago. 
8. Diseases and Insects.— Pears: Blight, no great amount of difference on 
cultivated and uncultivated ground. Souvenir dn Congress , Clapp and Bart- 
lett are most subject to blight. Plums: Monilia is the worst disease of the 
