Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1883-02-21
Notes from a Canada Orchard.

Mr.. r. W. Shepherd, Jr, of Como, on the
who has an extensive nursery and orchard,
favors us with the following notes, which
will doubtless interest many of our fruit
growing readers:
Wealthy in the nursery last winter proved
tn be wonderfully hardy as compared with
Fameuse. did not lose two per cent of
Wealthy and quite, if not more than, fifty
per cent of Fameuse. Utter completely
killed out, also Yellow Bell flower, Grimes
Golden and LAWYER. Alexander about
twenty five per cent killed. Duchess did
not pull through quite as well as Wealthy
Ben Davis and Tetofsky quite as hardy as
Wealthy. The above mentioned stock was
all two years old The winter of 1882
was terribly severe to nurseries like mine
situated on an elevation and unprotected
True, there was not much snow to stay, but
throughout the winter the ground was CON-
pletely bare of snow, just where these trees
were. The trees in orchard seemed to stand
the winter pretty well, and cannot remem-
Der of losing any in consequence of the Sc
verify of the winter, and want of snow pro-
lection. But my orchards are protected,
and, with one exception, in sod. How do
you account for the spotting on the Fa-
meuse apples In the vicinity of Montreal
the spottiDg was terribly bad not one quar-
ter of the crop was fit for A barrels. 1t
was worse on old trees. The spotting was
not bad with me because my trees are
| all comparatively young, about seven to
eight years planted, but fully fifty per cent
of fruit was unfit for sale. Wealthy bore a
full crop and did not spot. | have few
specimens of the fruit Low and in fine con-
dition. l doubt if the apple can be kept
much longer than the Fameuse, but it re-
tains its high flavor when Fameuse is taste
less. Fameuse is really uDpalatable, in my
opinion, under most favorable circumstances
after the middle of January.
Canada Baldwin yielded fair crop last
season. The fruit was A l, no second
quality. | sold my crop of Canada Bald
win at "a 80 per barrel-all went to Eng
land. Exporters say it is just the size and
color for the English market.
Winter Laurence also was very fine, with
scarcely any waste. | exported some bar
rels, on my own account They proved too
soft an apple to export in barrels.
"Scohs Winter / like immensely. have
about bushel of them now, and think them
about the incest winter table apple have.
81 sold most OF my Duchess to the Cana
dian Fruit Export Company for shipment to
Z gland in Cochrane's patent cases--each
case held bushel. They furnished the
package free and paid me Sl5O per case.
Cochrane told me that the cases were sold
in London at twenty-one shillings sterling,
and that the company netted profit of ten
per cent, or 81 80 per case-pretty good
this. He said the Montreal peach, for
which they paid the same price as the
Duchess, sold in London at ten shillings
only, and they will not export that variety
another year. The company, believe, was
successful also in their expectation of TO-
matoes."
The expectation of so perishable a fall
apple as the Duchess of Oldenburgh, and
the high price at which they sold equal tc
S5 busheD, is very surprising. These
"patent cases" ought to be worth testing
by our own exporters of choice fruit