Having performed this operation successfully, and closed its hole, that the jarring of the branch when it falls to the ground may not shake it out, the grub retreats to where it first entered the limb, and goes on eating up through the heart for about six inches or a foot, and this it does both before and after the branch reaches the ground. The object of this amputating process it is difficult for us to understand fully; but the obvious remedy for these singular insects, when they attack fruit or other valuable trees, is to gather up the fallen limbs and burn them before the grub has time to complete his transformation into the perfect state.”
The Glut in the Apple Market.—The year 1878 has not been a prosperous year for the fruit grower in many ways. Cherries failed completely; strawberries fell to a price that scarcely paid for picking and marketing; and now, (Sept. 1st,) fall apples have followed suit. From $6 per barrel apples have fallen to $1.50 in Montreal market, and one shipment of ordinary quality was sold as low as $1.25 per barrel, which, after deducting cost of barrel and expenses, left about fifty cents for the fruit.
Our commission agent in explanation wrote: “We are sorry to have to make such a poor show for apples, but the fact is, our market is so loaded with American fruit, which is selling at from $1 to $1.50, and fine apples they are too, that we cannot do better than follow suit. We think that when good Canadian, hard keeping apples begin to come in, they will command better prices.”
The natural lesson from this is that it will not pay to trust largely to fall apples for market. Good keepers are the only ones with which we are not liable to be overstocked. Still there are two or three varieties of fall apples that have kept up to fancy prices notwithstanding the demoralized state of the markets. The Gravenstein, the Duchess of Oldenburg, and the Cranberry Pippin, coming along in succession with a profusion of beautiful fruit never fail of attracting buyers at high prices. The Fall Pippin has completely lost favor in many sections as a market variety, on account of its spots, which start decay in the apple as soon as it is placed in heaps, or in the barrel.
The commission system we think a good one so long as the connection be made with an honorable house. The writer has shipped in this way for the past five years, with, on the whole, satisfactory results. As a rule however it seems best to choose such houses for consignments as do not mix matters. A commissioner should confine himself to that branch in order to gain confidence, otherwise he may be suspected of putting his own goods to the front, and sacrificing those he has on commission to attract custom; or in a full market he may allow goods on commission to waste, in order that his own may be sold to advantage.
The Yellows.—It appears, as has been shown by a previous writer in these pages, that we are in danger of an invasion from this plague of the peach orchards. Growers here, being unable to get sufficient quantities of home grown trees, have in time past imported largely from the States, without sufficient enquiry about their origin. In this way some trees have been imported in which the Yellows was hereditary, and is now showing itself.
The premature ripening of the fruit, the spotted skin, the deep color about the pit, the appearance on the tree of adventitious shoots, slender, and bearing yellowish leaves, all prove conclusively that we have need to beware of danger, and speedily to destroy every vestige of such trees from our orchards.
At a recent meeting of the peach growers, in the Town Hall, Grimsby, the following resolution was moved by the writer, and carried: “That whereas we are made aware of the presence of the Yellows in one or two peach orchards about Grimsby, therefore Resolved, that we do most strongly advise every grower to carefully watch the first indications of its approach, and at once to uproot every tree affected by it; and further, to use the utmost caution in the selection of trees for planting.”
The following letter will be of interest in this connection.
Newburgh, N.Y., Sept. 11, 1878.