Annual report of the Board of agriculture of the State of Ohio

a bushel of fruit this season, even with constant jarring the trees; what I saved from the curculio being destroyed by the rot.

I have tried both dusting with lime, and white-washing the leaves and fruit, without any success, for as much of the fruit was punctured by the curculio after white-washing as before, and the white-wash, though thin and kept some time before application, completely destroyed the fruit of an apricot tree, as after it was put on, the apricots ceased growing, and partly shrivelled on the side where the most wash had been applied. Though very few of the fruit were punctured when the wash was applied, the greater part were afterwards, and nearly all fell off with a worm in them; what few escaped and ripened, were nearly uneatable from the particles of lime adhering to the fruit, giving it a bitter taste; as the whitewash will not adhere to the plum, it is useless for that fruit. Dusting with lime to prevent the rot, I have found also to be useless; two trees that were dusted every day, rotted as much as those not dusted. A few years ago curculio and rot were unknown here, and we could raise the finest crops of plums, apricots and nectarines.

Is there any hope of these scourges passing away? Is any locality where they formerly prevailed, now exempt? Luckily there are still many localities where the curculio is not found, or where they are so few in number as not to injure the general crop, and it is in these places where plums and apricots should be planted to supply less favored localities.

In Eastern Canada all the early and medium ripening varieties succeed admirably.

NECTARINES.

From the same causes, curculio and rot, I have had no fruit for the last two seasons.

PEACH.

This fruit has been little cultivated throughout the greater part of Western Canada, though it would no doubt do well if proper varieties were procured and attention paid to having the trees planted in proper situations.

Here it succeeds admirably, and in ordinary seasons all the varieties ripen well, even the latest, such as Monstrous Pompone, Heath Cling, Druid Hill and La Grange, usually come to perfection; last season being a fortnight later than usual, some of these varieties did not come to perfection, though all ripened their fruit.

The great desideratum, yet to be arrived at, is to raise an early peach, say equal to George 4th, that will ripen about the time of the nutmegs. I think if pits of the first ripe and finest fruit were planted, and the fruit of those that proved earliest and finest planted again, that in a few generations the point would be gained.

Serrated leaved peaches in general cannot be relied upon for a good crop, as some years the mildew effects them badly. The Serrate Early York is the one least subject to mildew, of any of this class, and in general it can be relied upon.

The Early Tillotson fruited with me for the first time this season, or rather it ripened its fruit for the first time, as the two former years the fruit was destroyed by mildew. It is the earliest peach I had this year, and were it not for its liability to mildew, would be valuable.

My only bearing tree of Early Malden was nearly destroyed by the red spider, before I noticed it, and the fruit did not ripen well. I doubt, however, if it will prove much earlier, if any, than the Serrate Early York. The curl in the leaf is bad in this vicinity, but it is only a few years since it commenced here, previous to which no such thing as curl was known here; it therefore, in my opinion, cannot be caused by cold, as we must have had as severe weather formerly as now. I thought last year I had discovered the cause in a very minute insect, but this year I could not find it, or any other insect.

It no doubt is injurious to the crop, causing a large portion of the fruit to drop, and retaridng the growth of the tree, as also the ripening of the fruit.

GRAPE.

The Isabella and Catawba ripen regularly, here, and I am satisfied as good crops of well ripened fruit could be raised here, of the latter, as at Cincinnati.

The Clinton is the only native grape I have proved here, but I expect in another year to have the Diana in fruit. I have fruited a considerable number of seedlings but have not proved them sufficiently to decide. One that fruited last year, appeared to me, to be nearly allied to the Diana. It did not bear this year.

The foreign grapes formerly did well in open air, here, but for the last three years, they have been quite a failure from the ravages of a small insect, I suppose to be the thrips.

PEARS.

Have been very healthy here till this season, and no fire blight has taken place as far as I am aware. A great number of my trees have been attacked this year for the first time, by an insect that is quite new here, it appears to me to be one of the aphis species, but it does not attack the points of the young shoots like the common aphis; its favorite place is around the bud on the young shoots and spurs; and at the base of the petioles, where they are in large quantities, leaving the whole of the bud and shoots covered with a black excrement, of which flies and wasps appear to be fond. It is very injurious to the trees, and those that are of weakly growth, are apparently affected by it in the same way as the fire blight is said

to act.

A few of my bearing trees have been killed this fall by another insect, which I suppose is the insect blight. About the middle of September, the trees were in perfect health apparently, when I took fruit from them to take to the Provincial Fair at Niagara, but on going to the trees on my return to get specimens for this Congress, I found the trees dead. The sap had run out in large quantities at small holes, in general placed just below the first main limb. In cutting into the trée, I found the small holes went straight into the stem about half an inch, and in each one there was a small insect, something like the pea-bug, but smaller; in one tree there were five or six of these little holes in a cluster, each with its insect.

Is the insect the cause of the disease or the effect of it? I have not been able to procure a copy of Professor Harris' work on insects, though I have been endeavoring to get some of the Detroit book-sellers to bring it on for the last three years, and as I am no entomologist, I am not aware if these are well known insects or not.

In East Canada, the culture of the pear has been nearly discontinued, as the young trees nearly all get winter killed. There are, however, some very large old trees in the neighborhood of Montreal, in the gardens of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, of the Summer Bonchretien and other old French varieties, which were planted when the country was first settled, by the priests of the Seminary, and which

45-AG. REP.

are still quite healthy and bear well, though the apple trees planted at the same time, are long since gone, and even the second and third generations of them.

M. Villeneuve, the Vice President of the Montreal Horticultural Society, and the priest who has charge of the gardens of the Seminary, informed my brother, who called upon him to enquire, why it was that the pear succeeded formerly, when it would not stand the winter now? that the only difficulty in the culture of the pear was to protect the young trees till they got the rough bark on, after which they were as hardy as the oak. The method they formerly adopted, and which they still practiced to protect them, was at the commencement of winter to wind a straw rope around the stem, and as far up the branches as possible-this was found to be ample protection. In closing these remarks, I must apologize for the great length to which they have been drawn out.

JAMES DOUGALL. ROSEBANK, near Amherstburgh, C. W., Oct. 1, 1850.

LIST OF PREMIUMS,

AWARDED AT THE OHIO STATE FAIR, HELD AT
CINCINNATI,