DIVISION OF HORTICULTURE 501 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



■ The fluctuation in percentage of injury of March 10 and 25 is due, of course, to 

 a probable error. In no case was it more than 2 per cent. 



From this it would appear that in order of hardiness these varieties would stand 

 as follows : — 



Quite hardy — 



1. Orel 24. 



2. Griotte d'Ostheim. 

 '6. Cerise d'Ostlieim. 



Only moderately hardy — 



4. Amaralle Boquet. 



5. Brusseler Braun. 



6. Montmorency Ordinaire. 



Not very hardy — 



7. Vladimir. 



8. Minnesota d'Ostheim. 



Unless further injury takes place, we bid fair to have a moderately good crop of 

 cherries, even on those varieties with 78 per cent of buds injure 1, for the remaining 

 22 per cent are sufficient, if all develop, to load the trees, there having been a very 

 large number of fruit buds formed last year. 



"dehorning" of old apple trees. 



On March 10, a visit was made to the Niagara district in order to investigate some 

 of the orchards which had been dehorned or vigorously headed back. A summary of 

 the advantages and outcome of such treatment may not.be out of place in this report. 



Dehorning or heading-back of old trees has been advocated by many in the past 

 as a means of rejuvenating an old and neglected orchard. There are many old 

 orchards throughout the country where the trees are so high as to make it practically 

 impossible to properly spray and prune them, . hence the almost impossible task of 

 attempting to control insect pests such as the San Jose scale. " To overcome this diffi- 

 culty, some growers cut their trees back about 8 to 10 feet, bringing them down to a 

 height of 18 to 20 feet, where they could be properly cared for. To do this with such 

 large trees meant, of course, the removal of some very large limbs, which gave rise to 

 a doubt as to whether or not the trees could survive such treatment for any length of 



time. 



The results obtained from, two orchards in the Niagara district are veiy interest- 

 ing indeed. One of the two orchards is that of Mr. Jos. Tweddle, at Sioney Creek, Ont. 

 Here were found Baldwins, Greenings, and Spys, all dehorned. They had been 

 dehorned for two years and to date show no signs of rotting at the cuts except in one 

 or two instances where the cuts were carelessly made by the pruner. In some cases 

 Mr. Tweddle had painted the wounds, and in other cases he had not. Although no rot 

 was apparent in the unpainted cuts, yet it seems advisable to paint all wounds to keep 

 out the weather and any possible infection from fungous diseases. 



In the case of the Spys, some 8 to 10 feet had been removed, and the results 

 attained were very satisfactory. Mr. Tweddle plans to dehorn during the year when 

 he expects a full crop so that the trees will not be inclined to put out too much sucker 

 growth. In the Spys, the sucker growth was not overabundant, but yet sufficient 

 to give a large amount of new wood to select a new frame from. 



Probably the most interesting was his Baldwin orchard. Here are to be found 

 trees which two years ago had very little brush on them, and what they did have was 



Ottawa. 



