It cannot be successfully grown in all parts of Ontario, the severe cold of our higher latitudes being too great for the health of the tree. It is reported as doing well in the counties of Brant, Elgin, Haldimand, Halton, Lambton, Lincoln, Middlesex, Norfolk, Oxford, Peel, Waterloo, Welland, Wentworth, and York, and in parts of Grey, Huron, and Wellington.
The tree is naturally vigorous and productive, coming soon into bearing, and yielding every alternate year large crops of good sized, well-shaped, high colored fruit, which keeps well, and bears handling and carriage in a remarkable degree. In most markets, and especially in the European, high colored apples sell best, hence this variety has a preference over light colored sorts. It is ranked as “very good” in quality, and in this climate is in use from January to May.
We are credibly informed that the part of the farm belonging to Mr. Butters upon which the original Baldwin apple tree grew, subsequently passed into the hands of a gentleman eminent as an agriculturist and horticulturist, who took the pains to erect a suitable monument to the memory of this tree, upon the spot where it stood. And surely it is well thus to mark, that coming generations may remember the birth-place of an apple that has had such a history, that having stood the test of a century, is still a most popular and valuable fruit, that is sought after in the markets of the old world as well as the new, that has contributed so much to the comfort of the human race in so many lands and in so many climes, and that promises to continue its beneficent mission for centuries yet to come, gladdening alike the eye and heart of childhood and age.
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GREEN PEAS.
Good green peas are among the blessings of life to be enjoyed with thankfulness, thankfulness to the Giver of all good, and thankfulness to the man who invented them. From the bottom of the heart they are to be pitied whose only green peas are gathered from the field crop sown by the farmer for his swine, or such as are usually to be found in our markets and on our hotel tables. And he is a benefactor of his race who places it within the power of every owner of a town lot to grow nice, sweet, green peas. In the days when the world was young, and plenty of pea-brush was to be had for the asking, it was matter of little consequence whether our choice marrowfat peas climbed five or fifty feet, but as the world has grown older pea-brush has become scarce, and brushing the peas an operation that requires considerable outlay of time and ingenuity. Indeed so inconvenient has it become that tall growing peas have gone out of cultivation in many places, and men have wished that some good angel of mercy would bring us a wrinkled pea as sweet and rich as the Champion of England, whose aspirations did not reach so far skyward. And because the wish has been gratified, and we have seen with our eyes and tasted with our lips, and the heart has risen up to bless the inventor, we give to our readers the information that a man has been found, not an angel, but what is far better, a man, who by the use of the powers God has given him, has produced a pea which may be grown in any garden without any bushing, fully equalling in its sweetness and richness of flavor any of the tall growing Marrowfats. Not only may we rejoice in the fact that a man, by the exercise of his faculties, has been able to undertake to produce such a pea and succeed, but we have further occasion for rejoicing in the fact that he is one of ourselves, a citizen of our own land, and that this is but one of many benefits that he has conferred upon us and upon his race.
Bliss’ American Wonder is the name of this new pea, which was raised by Mr. Charles Arnold, of Paris, Ontario. With characteristic modesty the raiser allows the achievement to be ushered into the world by a name that gives no clue to the possessor of the genius and skill which produced this result; content, in quiet retirement, to bless mankind with the fruits of his toil, asking from them no meed of praise. We have found this new pea to be very dwarf in its habit of growth, a very abundant cropper, and possessing a sweetness and richness of flavor that we have not found in any other dwarf pea. Blue Peter, considered a very promising sort, is so much inferior to this in quality as to make comparison impossible. In point of height and productiveness there is not much difference. With such a pea to be had, there is no need of giving up their cultivation because it is too troublesome to bush the tall growing sorts, or because the dwarf varieties are deficient in flavor. If our readers will give this variety a trial, we feel confident that they will not willingly be without it ever after.
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