FRUIT REPORTS. 
217 
also do pears, plums and cherries. Peaches are uncertain, as a crop can 
only occasionally be secured. 
2. Soil — In the “grape belt” tree fruits are grown equally well in any loca- 
tion and on any kind of soil, but further south they seem to do best on 
elevated land. Grapes (of which there are four thousand acres in North East 
township alone) succeed in any soil except muck, there they are a failure, 
but from the heaviest clay to the lightest sand they do equally well. Good 
clean farm land is worth in the “belt” from $50 to $100 per acre, including 
buildings. South it is valued at from $10 to $30 with improvements. 
4.. Very few orchards are cultivated; some farmers attempt to grow hay, 
oats and wheat in them. 
5. A few use crimson clover, some rye— mostly in vineyards; considerable 
improvement can be noticed where used. 
6. But little attention has been paid to fertilizers, except on grapes; there 
muriate of potash has been used with marked improvement; barnyard manure 
is also used, but too much of it is worse than none. 
8. The rose bug is very destructive in the western part of Erie county 
and closer to the lake in the eastern part, nothing can be done with them, 
except jarring and catching by hand. They do not seem to increase. 
9. I think nothing of the kind has been attempted. 
10. In “the belt” a total of about 30 per cent of all the land is in fruits, 
mostly grapes. South and in the other counties I should put it at from 1 to 
iy 2 per cent of total acreage in orchards. 
11. Nothing to amount to anything is done in this line. 
12. Anything in the fruit line that succeeds well in the northern states 
does well here. By far the largest fruit industry in this section is the grape 
business; the variety is Concord, to the extent of 95 per cent of the whole. 
The crop was never known to fail since the introduction of Concord. 
About 800 carloads are shipped from North East township alone each year. 
The belt extends from Harbor Creek, Pa., to Silvercreek, N. Y., and is esti- 
mated to contain 25,000 acres of bearing vineyards. 
QUEBEC, 
BY B. BRODIE, VICTORIA AVE., WESTMOUNT, CHAIRMAN. 
1. The portions of the Province of Quebec adapted for fruit culture are 
the Island of Montreal, Huntingdon, which is one of the largest apple grow- 
ing counties in the Province, the Ottawa V-alley, and the plum, growing 
regions of the Island of Orleans, L’lslet and Kamouraska counties, 75 miles 
below Quebec, famed for the Quebec damsons. 
2. The soils are mostly of a limestone nature, although there are fairly 
good orchards on clay loam. 
3. Varieties: Apples— Yellow Transparent, Red Astrachan**, Oldenburg 
for summer; Alexander*, St. Lawrence** and Louisef for autumn; Fame- 
use*, McIntosh**, Wealthy*, Ben Davis*, Golden Russet**, for winter. 
Pears— Flemish Beauty**, Anjou*. Bessemiankai*. Of the latter variety the 
tree I procured from the late Charles Gibb is totally different and super- 
ior to the Bessemianka procured from Prof. J. L. Budd. In plums the Euro- 
pean varieties do very well on the Island of Montreal and below Quebec 
city in L’lslet county. The American sorts give better crops and are hardier 
where they are grown. Of Japan plums, Burbank has come to stay; it has 
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