72 Ac;KI CULTURE OK MAINE. 



EXPERIMENTAL WORK IN NOVA SCOTIA, 

 RELATING TO APPLE SCAB CONTROL. 



Prof. W. Saxby Blair, Kentville, N. S. 



Mr. Cliairnian, Ladies and Gentlciucn: 



It gives me great pleasure to have this opportunity of meet- 

 ing with the Maine fruit growers. I have heard about the pro- 

 gress that is being made in Maine in the development of the 

 fruit industry, and certainly it is a pleasure to come here and 

 see the excellent fruit you are putting up. We in Nova Scotia 

 feel that you have a good fruit country, for we come in com- 

 petition with your fruit in our exports to the old country, and 

 we know right well that you know how to put up a good class 

 of product. Like ourselves, you are pushing ahead and trying to 

 develop the very best quality of fruit that you possibly can, and 

 no doubt you feel that you cannot get too much help from out- 

 side sections in order that you may make a still greater success 

 of the fruit business. 



In connection with our experimental work in Nova Scotia, 

 the Dominion Government a few years ago decided that a fruit 

 station in the Annapolis Valley would be a good thing for the 

 fruit growers. The fruit area of Nova Scotia, as many of you 

 know, is confined to the three counties which are located be- 

 tween the North and the South mountains. These mountains 

 give a certain protection to the valley between, and in this 

 region the bulk of the fruit is grown. Large orchards have 

 been planted and the orchard area extended until at the present 

 time we export annually about a million barrels of apples. 

 These apples we think are of exceptionally good quality. In 

 connection, then, with the development of this industry, this 

 fruit station was established at Kentville, N. S., as part of the 

 Dominion experimental farm's line of experiment stations, and 

 I am in control of the work there. As this is a new station 

 and no mature orchards are available on it for experimental 

 work, authority was given that we should carry on a certain 

 number of experiments in a section of each of the counties, 

 Kings, Hants and Annapolis. We have, therefore, for two 

 years, been experimenting to determine if possible what are the 

 best sprays for the control of apple scab, what time the sprays 



