794 
a condensed history of the month and the 
prices of farm products should be given here. 
After this monthly synopsis is made out, 
while the events of the year are fresh in your 
mind, write a short history of the season 
under the following heads: First, Family— 
Tell here any events of interest which have 
occurred during the year, such as visits made 
or received, journeys, health, attendance at 
school or college, etc., etc. Next, Farm— 
State how much land you have cultivated in 
each crop, yield per acre, and when and at 
what price sold. If your crops have been poor, 
state the cause, if you know it. If unusually 
good, say whether it was from extra cultiva¬ 
tion or an exceptionally good season. Make 
a general statement of the weather, ns to 
whether it was wet or dry, Summer cool or 
hot; Winter mild or otherwise. Third, make 
a record of any improvements, such as ditch¬ 
ing, repairing of, or putting up new, buildings 
planting fruit or shade trees, building new 
lines of fence, etc., etc. In addition to this 
take an inventory of your live stock, and 
then when the assessor calls on you keep a 
copy of his inventory and enter it here, and 
you will have a very fair history of your 
farm, family and business. 
Perhaps it sounds rather formidable to read 
the directions I have given, but I assure you 
that an average of two minutes a day will 
keep the record, and one rainy afternoon 
or three or four evenings will make out the 
abstract at the end of the year. I hardly ex¬ 
pect to induce a middle aged farmer to begin 
such a work; but perhaps some of them will 
get a son or daughter to do it for them. I do 
hope, however, that many of our young farm¬ 
ers will begin a farm diary the eomiug year, 
and rest assured if they do that they w ill never 
regret it. _ 
pomo lexica l 
NOTES IN A NORTHERN ORCHARD. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
My orchard is on the shores of Lake Mem- 
phremagog, six miles south of the interna¬ 
tional boundary line, in latitude 45 degrees 
north, and is elevated 750 feet above the sea 
level. This territory lies fully open to the 
sweep of polar waves of low temperature, 
and there are no Winters in which our ther¬ 
mometers do not frequently register tempera¬ 
tures lower than minus 30 degrees. Fifteen 
yeans ago, when I began to plant an orchard, 
it was believed to be impossible to gl ow any 
kind of apples except the Siberian crabs in 
this section of Vermont and the adjoining 
parts of Canada. Many thousands of dollars 
had been expended in vain by our people for 
the purchase of fruit trees from Southern 
New England and Central New York. It Lias 
been proved at a heavy cost that the standard 
apples of the great apple regions to the south 
and west of us cannot be grown here. So far 
as I am aware no tree of the Baldwin, Rhode 
Island Greening, or Roxbury Russet ever 
lived to reach bearing age in Northeastern 
Vermont. Even such hardy kinds as West- 
field Seek-no- Further, Blue Pearmain, Tolman 
Sweet, Fa mouse, and Red Astrachan, succeed 
only locally and precariously, so that they 
cannot be grown profitably for market. 
The task which I set myself 15 years ago 
was to test every hardy sort I could hear of 
and obtain, in order to see w hether varieties 
did exist which could be planted here and in 
similar exposed localities wit h security. I have 
accomplished the work, after testing over 250 
varieties, collected from the coldest localities in 
America. The result is that this part of New 
England, from having not a single variety of 
apple (outside of the crabs) w hich the people 
had confidence to plant, is now rapidly be¬ 
coming a region of orchards, unsurpassed in 
any part of the country for vigor or fruitful¬ 
ness. 
The past season our orchards have fruited 
abundantly, and many of the newer sorts 
have shown decidedly, for the first time, what 
they could do. During successive previous 
seasons other kinds have been undergoing test 
and judgment, and I believe a few’ notes on 
some of them will prove useful to fruit-grow¬ 
ers who read the lie KM., and especially to 
the many of them who inhabit the “cold 
belt” which extends from Dakota through 
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northern Ontario, 
Quebec, Northern Vermont, New Hampshire, 
Maine and New Brunswick. 
TOO TENDER. 
In the first place, 1 will give a mere list of 
the varieties which have been utterly “ willed 
out” by Jack Frost. These embrace the 
William’s Favorite, Yellow Bellflower, Black 
Oxford, American Summer Pearmain, Red 
Canada (not a Canada apple, notwithstanding 
its name), Morgan Sweet, McClellan, Grimes’s 
Golden, Gravenstein, Granite Beauty, Fair¬ 
banks, Ramsdell Sweet, Canada Reinette (not 
grown in Lower Canada to any extent > 
Quack, Couch or Quitch Grass.— From Life. 
See 1st page.—Fig. 525. 
Franklin Sweet, Fall Orange, Summer Hag- 
loe, Colvert, Munson Sweet, Golden Sweet, 
Jewett’s Fine Red, Fall Pippin, Moses Wood, 
Minkier,Mamie. Cathead, Cooper’s Market, Yel¬ 
low Ingestrie, Whitney Russet, besides quite a 
number not “in the books.” It will be no¬ 
ticed that there are many sweet apples in this 
list. My experience is that, a? a rule, this 
class of apples is more tender than others. 
There are very few to be found in the Prov¬ 
ince of Quebec, so few, indeed, that the 
people have no taste for them, and they are 
not salable in the markets of the large towns. 
Now come the 
“ ALMOST HARDY,” 
the most vexations of all, because they 
neither thrive nor die. Some of them, in¬ 
deed, do tolerably in favored spots, but none 
will do to plant extensively with a view to 
profit. 
St. Lawrence —Around the city of Mont¬ 
real and on the hills which rise out of the 
flat country between Lake Champlain and the 
St. Lawrence River, this beautiful and excel¬ 
lent Fall apple is productive and profitable. 
It is doubtless a Fameuse seedl.ng (as so many 
of the Lower Canada apples are), haring a 
similar flavor and the same snowy-white 
flesh. Very few of these Fameuse seedlings 
do well in the more elevated country. Both 
parent and progeny develop the vice—inherent 
in them, but little seeu under the more favor¬ 
able conditions—of sj>otting, and to this the 
St. Lawrence adds cracking and shy bearing, 
together with some tenderness of tree. Not 
profitable here. 
Red Astrachan. — Tree tender; fruit 
smaller and less fair than in more favorable 
places. Not profitable. 
Fameuse. —Bears young and well, but the 
fruit is not so large or so fair as at Montreal 
and the Champlain Valley, and the tree is 
plainly tender. Profitable, yet not safe to 
plant extensively. 
Ben Davis.— Tree tender and short-lived; 
fruit hardly “good” elsewhere and no better 
here. Though a free bearer, not profitable. 
Pomme Grise.—T ree tender, fruit small 
and knurly; not profitable, though the quality 
is fine. 
Northern Spy. —In protected spots this 
noble variety sometimes succeeds here as well 
as anywhere in the country. Our Spys took 
the first premium at the State fair this Fall. 
Nevertheless the tree is too tender for us. 
Ribston Pippin.— Living at a poor, dying 
rate, it still bears well and bears fine fruit; 
but after a few years’ struggle gives up the 
ghost. 
Fall Winesap of the West. —A good lit¬ 
tle apple, just now (November) in eating, but 
the tree is not hardier thau Ben Davis, and is 
not productive. 
Saxton Stripe. —A fine-flavored October 
apple; tree productive, but tender, and soon 
falls into a decline ending in death. 
Early Joe. —Struggles along and bears 
some fruit, but survives only in an unhealthy 
state. 
Jonathan. —In the same category with 
Early Joe—the more’s the pity. 
Sops of Wine. —The most successful of those 
not entirely so. The tree suffers from the 
Winter, yet bears good crops and seems to get 
hardier with age. 
Tolman Sweet. —This variety grows thrift¬ 
ily and bears well, and one would not for sev¬ 
eral years suspect it of wonting hardiness; but 
when it comes to full bearing, unless carefully 
propped up, it breaks down all round, and 
the breaks invariably reveal a rotten interior, 
with only a skin of healthy wood. Sorry to 
have to give up this excellent Winter sweet. 
These two lists of complete and partial fail¬ 
ures might be considerably prolonged did 
space permit. I have given only the varieties 
best known and likely to be tried by others 
similarly situated. 
hardy and good. 
The more pleasant list of kinds that have 
proved successful in point of hardiness and 
quality of fruit embraces also a considerable 
number of varieties. From these I select the 
best of those which add productiveness and 
general thrift to the first-named qualities, as 
follows:— 
Tetofsky.— With all the merits this apple 
has the fault of dropping a considerable part 
of its crop before it is ripe. Not recommended 
for market on that account. 
Yellow Transparent. —Of the same sea¬ 
son (August) as Tetofsky,beautiful, very good, 
exceedingly productive, does not drop. Trans¬ 
ports well for a Summer apple. 
Duchess of Oldenburoh.— It is hardly 
necessary to praise this large, early-bearing, 
handsome and heavy-bearing September ap¬ 
ple. Its only moderate q ality is its sole de¬ 
fect, yet no apple of its season is more mar¬ 
ketable or more profitable. It can he grown 
much more cheaply than potatoes, and never 
brings so low a price here. Still it. is possible 
to have too many of an early apple, unless you 
are prepared to evaporate them. 
Wealthy.—T his is the king of all the hardy 
apples. As productive, hardy, early-bearing, 
large and beautiful as the Duchess, it, in this 
region, keeps well until March, and outsells 
Baldwin or any apple brought here from the 
South. 
Magog Red Streak.— If it were not for the 
Wealthy this would stand at the head of om‘ 
Winter apples. It is large, handsome and a 
good keeper until April. The tree is hardy, 
thrifty and a profuse bearer, but the fruit has 
too little red to compete with the splendid 
Wealthy as a market apple, And vet it is 
styled, in the report of the Iowa Horticultural 
Society, “ the beautiful Magog Red Streak,” 
Scott’s Winter.— This is the apple which 
well replaces, for us, the Roxbury Russet of 
a milder climate. It. is of medium size, heav¬ 
ily striped and sometimes covered wit h red. It 
is “ hard as a rock” until April—sour, and only 
useful for cooking. As ibe warmth of Spring 
begins to roach it, it mellows, becomes mild, 
aromatic and far better in quality for dessert 
than the Roxbury Russet.. The tree is a true 
“ irou-elad,” a profuse bearer on alternate 
years, with a good crop in intermediate sea¬ 
sons. In my orchard of 1,400 trees the 
Wealthy and Scott head the list—400 of each. 
The Scott keeps well into July, and not only 
keeps, but keeps fresh and crisp, with almost 
no loss, when properly handled and stored. 
Did not the reasonable limits of such an ar¬ 
ticle forbid, I might enlarge this list, with 
some excellent amateur sorts. But many of 
these have been separately described ami illus¬ 
trated in the columns of the Rural during 
the pust four years, and in time others may be 
added. 
Newport, Vt. 
■ - 
A Plea for the Commercial Union of Canada 
and the United States. 
In the shipping of Fameuse from Canada 
this season there has been a new departure 
consequent on the scarcity of apples through¬ 
out the United States. Dealers have been 
through all the apple sections buying up for 
the markets of the principal Northern cities, 
some being even sent as far south as Balti¬ 
more. Fifty barrels of our own apples were 
sent to New York and brought at wholesale 
four dollars per barrel. Bun the duty is 
heavy and causes shippers to be shy of for¬ 
warding. It is too bad that these two coun¬ 
tries cannot agree toward their mutual good 
iu matters of commerce. The Fameuse is the 
finest table apple the continent produces, and 
would supersede the Lady Apple if it could 
be exported, as nowhere does it grow in tet¬ 
ter quality than in the Province of Quebec, 
where many other apples do not succeed. It 
is in the cities of the Union our market 
should Vie for this fine fruit, and but for the 
duties its superior quality would always en¬ 
sure remunerative prices. Annie L. Jack. 
J^orticvtlturfll, 
I heartily reciprocate Mr. Parnell’s kiud 
wishes. I should be right glad to take him 
by the hand and leave the “ swords ” to those 
who make the beautiful desolate, while we 
seek to make the desolate beautiful and fmit- 
ful, “ which is far better,” 
It does seem a little odd to speak of slate 
and shingles as mulching materials. I will 
explain. Years ago, when the astonishing 
vegetable growth of California was a new 
wonder, she sent us, among other things, some 
large British Queen Strawberries, one of 
which measured inches in circumference, 
which at that time was remarkable, and fur¬ 
nished the press with not a little material for 
comment. The British Queen was at that time 
our “big” strawberry, and was much grown. 
The late Mr. Gustin, Mr. Boyden, myself and 
a few others tried to beat this big Queen. 
Mr. G. reached very nearly I reached 8>*, 
but the size of the others I cannot remember. 
Here is where the slate and shingles come in, 
for I used them to cover my strawberry bed. 
Experience had taught me that uniform moist¬ 
ure was indispensable to the production of 
large strawberries, and it occurred to me that 
slate was just the thing for my purpose, and 
better than litter (perhaps because they hap¬ 
pened to be at hand). I had an opening two 
by four inches cut on one side of each slate, 
which enabled me to push two slates up to 
each plant, with an opening of four by four 
inches in the middle for the plant. This 
answered all the puiqxises of a mulch by keej>- 
iug the soil moist and preventing the growth 
of weeds, besides materially aiding the ripen¬ 
ing of the fruit and keeping it clean. I use 
shingles and tin in the same way. The other 
parties depended upon copious waterings and 
