THE CANADIAN H0RTICULTUKI8T. 



81 



FRUIT GROWING IN THE NORTH. 

 THE " WEALTHY " APPLE. 



Mr. Editor, — As you appear to wish 

 that as many of your reader- as pos- 

 sible should give their experiences in 

 fruit culture. I will endeavour as well 

 as I can to gratify that desire; although 

 I feel that from the short time I have 

 been in this part of the country these 

 experiences will have but little value. 



Although fully of opinion that any- 

 one who plants ap])le trees for mar diet- 

 ing pvirposes would act wisely in con- 

 fining himself to very few varieties, I 

 felt tliat before I could place my depend- 

 ance on any one kind I must first know 

 whether that kind would suit the soil 

 and the climate in which they were to 

 grow ; and as I found it im])ossible 

 without experience to satisfy myself o.i 

 that point, it was wiser I thought to 

 have three or four leading kinds, so that 

 if one failed the rest might succeed ; I 

 therefore selected four leading varieties 

 and in doing so I made four mistakes, 

 these were : Northern Sj^y, Baldwin, 

 Greening and Rox Russets, four kinds 

 that will be found in every list as I'e- 

 commended by our own fruit growers 

 as well as those in most of the United 

 States ; and what could I do knowing 

 but little practically myself, but follow 

 the advice of others. These men, no 

 doubt embodied in their recommenda- 

 tions such fruits as would be the best 

 in their own localities, but none of them 

 lived as far north as the Oounty of 

 Simcoe ; and I did not pay as much re- 

 gard as I should do now to the nature 

 of the climate, fram which such recom- 

 mendations came. I have called the N. 

 Spy a mistake, the fault is that it is too 

 long in coming into bearing ; l)ut the 

 other three are too tendei- for this la i- 

 tude. I think my soil is all right, it is 

 part sandy, and part gravelly loam, 

 with sand and gravel for subsoil ; so 

 that the trees cannot complain of having 

 wet feet ; but still the Eox Russets 



and Greenings are dying off at the rate 

 of three or four every year ; out of an 

 original fifty of each, fully half of them 

 being gone, and replaced by others in- 

 side of five years ; the Baldwin does a 

 little better, but is far from satisfactory ; 

 several of them look scrubby : wounds 

 appear in the bark and dead wood in 

 places ; and these affected in any way 

 never get better. They are just begin- 

 ning to bear, and I expect the effort of 

 ripening fruit will be too much for a 

 great many of them, and yet, strange to 

 say some of them are fine healthy look- 

 ing trees; and a few of the (xreenings 

 and Rox Russets are looking fairly well. 

 I have seen very fine Greening api)les 

 grown in this neighbourhood when top- 

 grafted on seedlings, but would not re- 

 commend anyone to grow them on their 

 own roots, or perhajjs I ought to .say on 

 their own trunks. 1 have a few Rib- 

 stone Pippins, but they are not doing 

 so well as to encourage me to plant any 

 more, they grow sprawling and do not 

 look healthy, they blossom profusely 

 but bear little fruit. The Wealthy, 

 Red Astx-acau, Hastings and St. 

 Lawrence are growing finely and look 

 healthy, as also the Duchess and Gra- 

 venstein ; the Ontario received from 

 the F. G. A. is a fine tree and has 

 borne fruit the two last years, the fruit 

 is of good size and hangs well on the 

 tree, and I am inclined to think it may 

 prove valuable in the north as well as 

 elsewhere. 



In later plantings I have endeavoured 

 to avoid the mistake I first fell into by 

 growing ixothiug but Ironclads, such as 

 Wagners, Ben Davis, St. Lawi-ence and 

 Duche.ss, I planted thirty Wagners last 

 spring, and having occasion to I'emove 

 some of them in the fall, I was sur- 

 piised at the large bunches of small 

 fibrous roots they had formed, I could 

 compare them to nothing Init the roots 

 of a black currant. I look upon this as 

 an indication that the soil suits them. 



