But while the Directors will spare no pains to make the HORTICULTURIST acceptable and profitable, it will nevertheless be, in a very large degree, what the members shall make it. If they shall use it as the medium through which they tell each other of success and of failure with particular fruits, flowers, trees, &c., and in which they ask for information upon doubtful points, then will it become what the Directors hope, a mirror, in which is reflected continually the Horticultural progress and skill of Ontario. They ask therefore that the members will regard it as their publication, put forth in their interests, to help them in whatever way it can, and to be used by them for the promotion of Horticulture in this Canada of ours.
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THE BURNET GRAPE.
As long ago as in the Autumn of 1873, Mr. P. C. Dempsey, Albury, Prince Edward County, exhibited at the Fruit Growers’ meeting a few bunches of a grape that on account of the beauty of its appearance, its earliness of ripening, and delicacy of flavor, attracted much attention and called forth universal praise. In due time a committee was appointed to visit Mr. Dempsey’s grounds and examine the vine and fruit; and such was the character of their report that the Directors requested Mr. Dempsey to propagate it largely, so as to be able to supply the Association with vines sufficient to give one to each member. Since this arrangement was made, the members have become familiar with its general appearance through the colored lithograph which was presented to them in the Report for 1876. Mr. Dempsey has given to this excellent grape the name of our honored President, and henceforth it will be known in the Pomological world as the “Burnet” grape.
This grape was raised by fertilizing the Hartford Prolific with pollen from the Black Hamburgh. The vine seems to possess much resemblance to the Hartford Prolific, is a vigorous grower, of robust and healthy constitution, very productive and hardy. The fruit is very like that of the Black Hamburgh, the bunch is large, slightly shouldered; berries large, sweet, and delicately flavored, having nothing of the foxiness of the Hartford Prolific. The flesh is tender, almost melting, with none of the tough pulpiness of the most of our hardy grapes. It also ripens early, somewhat earlier than the Hartford Prolific, and considerably before the Concord. Our members are to be congratulated on the reception of so valuable a grape—one that gives promise of being held in lasting estimation as a variety of unusual excellence, and adapted to general cultivation in nearly all parts of our Province. It will be sent to all who are members this year as early in the Spring as the season will permit.
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WINTER MEETING.
The regular Winter meeting was held in the City of Hamilton, on Wednesday, the sixth of February. The President, Rev. R. Burnet, took the chair; and after the reading of the Minutes by the Secretary, introduced to the members Mr. Craig, Secretary of the Agricultural and Arts Association, of Ontario, and Mr. J. B. Jones, delegate from the Horticultural Society of Western New York. The gentlemen were most enthusiastically welcomed by the members, and addressed the meeting in a few well-timed words of hearty interest in the object of our Association.
Mr. Chas. Arnold—our accredited delegate to the Winter meeting of the W. N. Y. Horticultural Society—read his Report of what he heard and saw on that occasion. He stated that there was an average attendance during the two days of the meeting, 23rd and 24th of January, of about one hundred and forty intelligent fruit growers from all parts of the State of New York, and adjoining States. The evening session of the 23rd was largely taken up with a discussion upon the best means of destroying the Codlin Moth. One gentleman spoke for nearly two hours, advocating the merits of his patent invention for catching the larvæ of this Moth. (Our cousins are highly gifted in the talking line, and are an exceedingly inventive people.) This invention consisted of a piece of water-proof paper or pasteboard, lined with cotton batting. This was to be placed, in the form of a band of about three inches in width around the trunk of each tree, with the cotton batting next to the tree, and occasionally taken off and the larvæ found therein destroyed. Another man had applied for a patent for substantially the same thing, only in this case the cardboard was punched full of holes, and the cotton batting pressed into the holes. It was fully admitted by all who took part in the discussion, that the Codlin Moth was a very serious pest, and that every owner of a pear or apple tree should wage a war of extermination against it. The larvæ will take refuge under anything that gives them shelter and security, hence any contrivance that offers them a hiding place will be sought by them, and can be used as a trap for catching and killing them.
A very convenient trap has been made by fastening a strip of old carpeting or of cotton flannel around the trunk of the tree, and removing it every week or ten days and passing it through an old clothes-wringer, so as to crush the larvæ that have taken refuge in it, and then putting it back around the tree. Those who desire to inform themselves more fully on the subject of the Codlin Moth, will find much valuable information in the entomological part of the Report for 1870, page 91; for 1872, page 5; for 1874, page 43; and those who have only the Report for 1877, will find the insect figured in all its stages of existence at page 46 of the entomological part.