Journal of Agriculture. 



[8 Jan., 1907. 



THE RE-MAKING OF AN ORCHARD. 



A. G. Campbell, Assistant. School of Horticulture, Burnley. 



Apart from all the efforts that are being made to plant and rear new 

 orchards in several parts of the State, it is interesting and instructive to 

 find that science has been able to reclaim and rejuvenate an orchard which 

 was stated on all sides to have seen its best days. The case I wish to 

 refer to is that of the "Strawberry Gardens," Portland, the property of 

 Mr. T. J. Smith, who states that full publicity can be given to all the 

 statements which follow, in order that the public may know what can be done 

 with discarded fruit trees. When he took over the orchard four years 



UNPROFITABLE GROWTH OF A PEAR EQUALLY UNPROFITABLE GROWTH 

 TREE. SECURED BY AN IMMENSE 



AMOUNT OF CUTTING. 



a£ro, it was admittedly in a very bad state — full of tangled and im- 

 poverished growth, harboring untold quantities of codlin moth, mussel scale, 

 and woolly aphis. In fact, its complete destruction was contemplated. 



The Means Used. 

 Mr. Smith writes: — "My orchard, everybody can tell you, was very 

 dirtv four years ago; now it is clean, and this season I harvested 1,600 cases 

 of fruit from 2\ acres of fruit trees." Mr. Smith was quick to see that 

 some of the methods explained bv Mr. Luffmann, when the State demon- 

 stration block at Portland was planted in 1902, would suit his case, and 

 he adopted them. The first year he thinned out with the saw, tons of 

 branches, so that light and air could play more freely fn and about the 

 old and diseased trees. The trees were thinned only, especially in the 

 tons, and none of the leaders, or growing points, were cut back at all. 

 By this method the first step was taken towards insuring the growth of fresh 

 fruiting wood throughout the whole length of the branches. Further, 

 the thinning of the old trees allowed access to the spray pump, which 

 was no less an important instrument of succour than the pruning saw. 



