REPORT OF THE HORTICULTURIST. 101 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



APPLES. 



The trees in the apple orchard contiBue to make good growth, on the whole. 

 Every year, however, some of them die, and the proportion of deaths is greatest among 

 the oldest trees, which have now been planted twelve years. The varieties which 

 suffer most are those of Russian ori.i^in, Diichess of Oldenburg, especially, being one of 

 the number. The trees are usually blown down by storms, and on examination it is 

 found that most of the roots, and nearly all the wood in the trunk, is rotten. Duchess 

 of Oldenburg is considered one of the hardiest varieties of apples grown, but the trees 

 are probably weakened by overbearing. Some of the Russian apples are growing in 

 soil which has not been hitherto thoroughly drained, and this may be one of the 

 causes of their early death. The Duchess trees however, are growing in the best soil 

 in the orchard. Another cause of death may be that the roots, having nearly all been 

 killed by winter in some previous year, did not supply sufficient sap to the tree, and 

 hence it died or blew down because there were not enoujih roots to hold it in place. 

 There is considerable evidence to show that this is one of the principal causes of 

 death. In former years some of the trees were badly affected with blight, many large 

 branches having been removed. It is possible that this disease remained in parts of 

 the trees and caused decay to set in. There has not been very much blight (until this 

 year), and very little root-killing since 1896, and the trees planted since that time are 

 doing well. It very often happens, however, ihat trees which are quite healthy when 

 young, soon die when they begin to bear hoavily. 



There was practically no root-killing of apple trees last winter, as there was a 

 good covering of snow during the latter part of the winter, and an excellent cover crop 

 of red clover in the orchards, and in some parts. Alfalfa clover. As has been the 

 custom during the past three seasons, the clover was cut and let lie on the ground to 

 rot. Owing to other pressing work, it was not possible to cut it the first time just 

 as the flower heads were beginning to show, and it was in full bloom before it was 

 mown, the result being that the plants were considerably weakened, and only four 

 good crops were cut instead of five, which has been the case in the past. If then this 

 system is adopted, the clover should be cut before the floAvers are developed, if the best 

 results are to be obtained. 



A large number of trees bloomed well this year, but a smaller proportion of fruit 

 set than is usual from the same amount of bloom. On examining some flower buds 

 after the severe frosts of May 10 and 11, it was found that the pistils of those which 

 were most advanced were, in many cases, destroyed, hence the frost had something to 

 do with the fruit not setting as well as usual. The result, however, of the crop being 

 thus lessened was that the apples were of much better size than if the trees had been 

 heavily loaded. There have been 645 variefles of apples grown in the orchards and 

 nurseries, and 193 varieties fruited this year. 



The trees were thoroughly sprayed with Bordeaux -mixture and Paris green as 

 usual ; the early varieties receiving four applications, and the later ones five appli- 

 cations. There was no scab, and comparatively little fruit was injured by codling 

 moth. It is now Believed that the oyster-shell bark-louse can be kept well under con- 

 trol by spraying ihe trees with Hme and warter. The conclusions reached thus far 

 being that two applications are sufficient. The best mixture has been found 1k) be 2 

 pounds of lime to 1 g^allon of water. Fuller directions for the use of this mixture 

 will be found elsewhere. There were very few cat'erpillars this year, and no diffi- 

 culty was found in killing what few there were. 



The greatest in-jury to the trees was caused by fire blight. This began in the 

 secoHd week of June and continued throughout the summer. Ver.y few trees, however, 

 were badly injuj-ed, as in most cases only the smaller branches were affected, these 

 beirg killed back from one to three feet, as a rule. In the Russian orchard, where 

 most of the Russian varieties are, and where the blight made such ravages in 1895, 

 the injury Tvas comparatively small. In the standard orchard, hewever, wh«re some of 



