HORTICULTURAL GOSSIP.
BY LINUS WOOLVERTON, GRIMSBY, ONT.
The Peach.—I do not see why the scientific names of our fruits should not sometimes be used in our horticultural journals. Students of botany and entomology in their journals are very particular to speak of the different species by their scientific names, and it seems to me that if we were occasionally to do the same in practical horticulture it might advance a scientific knowledge among growers of fruit. Had I headed this paragraph Amygdalus Persica, or Persica Vulgaris, I wonder how many would have at once known that the peach was referred to.
In point of hardiness there appears quite a difference among the varieties of the peach. The late unusually mild Winter very much developed the fruit buds, and the cold of March 24th, when the thermometer registered 11° above zero, tried them severely. The most valuable variety seems also to be one of the most tender, viz, the Early Crawford; it has suffered much, at least three-fourths of the fruit buds being frozen. The Early Purple, a peach almost unsaleable in seasons of great abundance, is proving itself valuable for its hardiness, its fruit buds being perfectly intact; nor is this the first time this variety has escaped when the Crawford has succumbed to a Canadian Winter. Next in hardiness comes the Early Beatrice, and after it, perhaps, the Hale’s Early. The old Mixon is quite as tender as the Crawford, and indeed I think more so.
Peach Crates.—The bushel crate usually accepted in Grimsby has the ends 8×14 inches, and the sides 24 inches long; while the three-peck crate is of course 6 inches wide, instead of 8 inches, or just ¾ of the bushel size. Complete uniformity in measure of all fruit packages is very much to be desired. Certainly packages holding short measure never brought permanent profit to the shipper using them, while more frequently they bring him well merited disgrace.
Ladders for Peach Picking.—Of course nothing is so useful in a peach orchard as a good supply of step-ladders, but where these are counted too expensive, a very simple contrivance may prove very serviceable among large trees. It consists of one stout pole morticed into a base made of scantlin, and having rounds for climbing, as is shown in the engraving. A rainy day in Spring-time would suffice for making several of these, and they will prove very light and serviceable when the busy season of picking comes on. They can be used in trees where a two barred ladder would be useless, for the end of the pole will rest in any crotch with perfect safety.
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