DlVISIOy OF nORTICULTVRE 575 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



EXPERIMENTAL STATION, KENTVILLE, N.S. 



REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT, W. SAXBY BLAIR. 



This, is the second annual report of some of the work done in horticulture at this 

 Station. It will be seen that progress has been made during the past season in 

 extending the orchards, grading and planting the lawns, conducting trial tests with 

 vegetables and flowers, and in starting a series of orchard experiments with fertil- 

 izers. In addition to this, orchard spraying experiments have been conducted at 

 Berwick, Kings county; Falmouth, Hants county; and Bridgetown, Annapolis county. 

 The results of some of the experiments conducted are given herewith. 



The season was decidedly favourable for the development of scab, and on all 

 unsprayed trees the percentage of diseased apples was very large. This was no doubt 

 due to the trees coming into leaf early, followed by a long, cool, damp, period before 

 blossoms were fully opened, which favoured the formation of scab on the foliage before 

 the usual first spray before the blossoms were open, was applied; all sprays applied 

 early, for this season at least, gave the best results. 



WEATHER. 



April was dull, with frequent warm spells. On the 26th, 82° is recorded. Rain 

 occurred on fifteen, and light snows on seven days. The temperature averaged 3° 

 above normal. 



May was cool, with few bright days. Rain is. recorded on nineteen days; the 

 total precipitation was not, however, above the average. The temperature averaged 3° 

 below normal. 



The main average temperature from April 15 to May 1 was 47-93° ; May 1 to May 

 16, 44.73° ; May 16 to Jime 1, 47.97°. It will be seen that the latter half of April was 

 slightly warmer than the latter half of May, and that the first half of May was three 

 degrees, on the mean average, lower than the latter half of April. Thus the warm 

 April forced the trees into foliage but, owing to the low temperature early in May, the 

 growth was very slow until after the middle of the month. There was frost on the 

 16th, 17th, and 18th, when the thermometer registered 27°, 28°, and 28° respectively. 

 This did considerable damage in some places to the varieties such as the Gravenstein, 

 which blossom early, and were just commencing to open. 



June was cool and cloudy, with very slight precipitation. The temperature aver- 

 aged slightly below normal. 



July was generally cool and cloudy, with the highest temperature during the first 

 week. The precipitation was normal. The temperature averaged 1° below normal. 



August was dry and warm. Rain is recorded on seven days, with total precipita- 

 tion very light. The temperature averaged 1° below normal. 



September was a seasonable month throughout. Rain fell on eleven days, but the 

 total precipitation was less than the average. The temperature averaged 2° below 

 normal. 



October was an unusually wet month, rain was recorded on twenty days, with 

 nearly 9.60 inches as the aggregate, or 20 per cent greater than normal. The tem- 

 perature was unusually high, and averaged 9° above normal. 



The first fall frost of 1° was recorded on October 1. The only other frost 

 recorded for the month was on the 23rd, when the temperature fell to 32°. During the 



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