The Ottawa valley has never been celebrated for its production of the large fruits. The ceaseless borer and the severity of the climate are the chief enemies of the apple. Of this noble fruit, the early summer varieties appear to be borne on the hardiest trees, and are consequently those that are chiefly grown. Amongst these may be mentioned the Red Astracan, the Duchess of Oldenburg, Talman Sweet, Alexander, and the Fameuse. The Brockville Beauty is being introduced, and the Gatineau Belle, a fine showy apple, ripe end of September, proves quite hardy, and though not of first quality is a great acquisition. The St. Lawrence is also sparingly grown. All the Crabs are hardy, but suffer more or less from blight and borers. Apples here as elsewhere are injured considerably by the Codling Moth larvæ. I regret to say I can make no quotations in pears; a few Flemish Beauties have been raised, but the trees are more ornamental than useful, and do not live to “a good old age.” Of plums, the most successful are the Common Wild Red, which have been a good deal improved by raising seedlings after the Van Mons system. Sometimes a few Blue Plum trees fruit, but these cannot be relied upon for a crop; in fact none of the finer varieties appear to yield very abundantly. Mr. Greenfield, a great enthusiast and one of our members, has a seedling said to be raised from the Magnum Bonum; it is a good sized red plum, and an abundant bearer, so far it appears to be quite hardy, having been fruited three years in succession; it is quite a step in advance of the best red seedlings from the wild sorts, and if in the hands of some skillful propagator, might be disseminated about the colder districts of the Dominion with advantage; it ripens about the 15th August. The black-knot and curculio are unknown here.
The small fruits, with the exception of the blackberry, are all raised in quantities. The raspberries are all more or less tender when there is a short snow fall, as there was last winter, and although the wild ones are exceedingly plentiful, the cultivated ones sell readily at remunerative prices notwithstanding. The Houghton and other improved native gooseberries are being extensively grown, and also the strawberry. Both these fruits are being largely imported, owing to the western and more southern grown being earlier, and parties from a distance can supply the market, when the lack of fresh fruit, owing to the long winter, secures for the earliest berries gilt edged prices.
Each succeeding year appears to awaken more and more interest in the fruit business and fruit culture, and though sometimes we raise all the fruit we consume, still nothing is exported from here; and all our winter apples, and most of the summer ones, are imported from the west and from over the line from the United States. Both citizens and grocers are looking for the time when the Alden, or some other equally successful fruit drying establishment, shall have started business in the more favored parts of this Province. Parties having a good dried article of fruit to ship, may be sure of a large and ready sale in this market. Dried fruits have a considerable advantage over green, the freight is cheaper, and they do not spoil by keeping, if not placed in too damp a situation.
I should have mentioned, that although hardly a vine was seen here ten years ago, grape culture is very rapidly extending. The pure bright air and unclouded sky appears to suit this luscious fruit, and though our hot season is comparatively short, the grape ripens as early here as in more western sections. The Champion has so far proved the earliest variety, and though it has no great excellence of quality, it is highly thought of as the first of the season.
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HORTICULTURAL GOSSIP. IV.
BY L. WOOLVERTON, M. A., GRIMSBY.
The Æsthetic in Horticulture.—We think that in no department of rural life are there so great inducements to the cultivation of a refined taste as in horticulture. The farmer must year by year turn up his soil and plant over, so that no arrangement is permanent; but the grower of fruit plants trees that are to endure for two or three generations. The latter may plan out his roadways throughout his orchards, and decorate them with ornamental trees and shrubbery; he may also remove all those hideous cross-fences which disfigure a grain and stock farm, and if he has means, so arrange his trees and driveways that his grounds shall almost deserve the name of park. We know some would cry out against such waste of valuable ground; we plead for it nevertheless to a greater or less extent, according to circumstances. Is everything to be for the mouth and nothing for the eye? Is the body to have all, and the mind to starve? Was it not a wise hand that gave the purple bloom to the grape, and the blush to the apple? Might not the sun have given us as much comfort, and yet never have tinted the western sky with glorious hues? And who will say that these things are not beyond money value? So also will it be with the home and its surroundings; and while we cultivate our gardens and fruit farms for profit, why shall we not mingle the beautiful with the useful, and so cultivate a refinement of taste that shall be a source of pleasure through life?
The Apple Tree Pruner.—This beetle, whose technical name appears to be Stenocerus Putator (Peck,) is becoming almost too friendly a visitor among our orchards. Twelve years ago, at a meeting of the Fruit Growers’ Association, at St. Catharines, the first specimen noticed in Canada was exhibited by Mr. Arnold, of Paris, as may be seen by consulting the Fruit Growers’ Report for 1870, p. 75. If its pruning were done with an eye to the symmetry of the tree we would not object to its increase, but when we find it only consults its own convenience, and prunes off limbs that are loaded with fruit, we decidedly place it among the enemies of the fruit grower. The larva is but little more than half an inch in length, and has six small legs. Its jaws are peculiarly fitted for boring in hard wood, which it does with wonderful neatness and precision. The infant grub first uses its jaws in boring through the soft young wood of the twig in which it hatches, but soon finds its way to the heart of the larger branch. Before transforming to the pupal state it cuts the branch in which it lives nearly off, but cunningly leaves a few threads that it may creep safely into its burrow before the fall to the ground. The winged beetle appears in the month of June, and belongs to the Cerambycidæ, or family of long-horned beetles, so named from their long recurved antennæ, which are very prominent.
We add the following account of its habits, taken from the report above mentioned. “The parent beetle, with a view to provide soft and easily masticated food for the tender jaws of the infant grub, lays its eggs in the green fresh growth of a twig proceeding from a moderate sized limb. The young worm, immediately upon its exit from the egg, burrows down into the centre of the twig, and consumes all the soft pulpy matter of which it is composed. By the time it reaches the main branch, it has become sufficiently matured to be able to feed upon the strong meat of the hard wood, and accordingly makes its way into the branch, leaving the hollow twig to gradually wither and drop off. It now eats its way downwards a short distance, half an inch in the specimen before us, through the centre of the branch, and proceeds deliberately to cut off its connection with the tree, and make its way to the earth by the shortest possible route. This, however, is a somewhat delicate operation, and requires the exercise of all the insect’s wonderful instinct or skill, for were it to gnaw too much of the wood away the branch would break during the proceeding, and probably crush the workman to death. But with admirable forethought and precision, it leaves the bark and just enough woody fibre untouched to sustain the branch until it has time to make good its retreat into its burrow. ‘But,’ as Dr. Fetch relates, ‘the most astonishing part of this feat remains to be noticed. The limb which he cuts off is sometimes only a foot in length, and is consequently quite light; sometimes ten feet long, laden with leaves, and quite heavy. A man, by carefully inspecting the length of the limb, the size of its branches, and the amount of the foliage growing upon them, could judge how far it should be severed to insure its being afterwards broken by the winds. But this worm is imprisoned in a dark cell only an inch or too long in the interior of the limb. How is it possible for this creature, therefore, to know the weight and length of the limb, and how nearly it should be cut asunder? A man, moreover, on cutting a number of limbs of different lengths so far that they will be broken by the winds, will find that he has often miscalculated, and that several of the limbs do not break off as he designed they should. This little worm however, never makes a mistake of this kind. If the limb be short, it severs all the woody fibres, leaving it hanging only by the bark; if it be larger, a few of the woody fibres on the upper side are left uncut in addition to the bark. If it be very long and heavy, not more than three-fourths of the wood will be severed. With such consummate skill does this philosophical little carpenter vary his proceedings to meet the circumstances of his situation in each particular case.’