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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



July, 1910 



Lessons from Professor "Nineteen" Ten" 



Reported by "Weary Worm," Winona 



PROFESSOR "Nineteen Ten" is by 

 far the youngest of four Professors, 

 being not yet six months old. 

 Young as he is, however, he is already 

 teaching us lessons with the best of our 

 college men, who, able and clever as 

 they are, at the same age were much 

 more interested in the pure milk question 

 than in either the fungus diseases or 

 insect enemies of fruit. 



The Professor, in his own original way, 

 has just given a most valuable lessoii on 

 the fjuestion of "Curl Leaf" in the peach. 

 This he has done by means of an un- 

 usually early and warm opening of spring, 

 followed by a long spell of cool, wet 

 weather. It is "up to us" to profit by 

 his strong hint. 



It has been demonstrated this season 

 that the only way to control the serious 

 fungus disease of the peach is by early 

 and thorough spraying with a mixture of 

 lime and sulphur, in which the propor- 

 tion of lime must be large. 



This application can hardly be made 

 too early or too thoroughly. A promi- 

 nent grower at Vineland had his trees 

 sprayed while it still froze hard at nights ; 

 result, trees free from "Curl Leaf." 

 Numerous object lessons on this ques- 

 tion have abounded in the Niagara Dis- 

 trict this year for any one with eyes to 

 see. Where the spraying had been done 

 carelessly it was very visible in the 

 orchard ; where branches had been 

 missed the "Curl Leaf" was bad, the 

 rest of the tree being free from it. 



Some growers sprayed their trees from 

 one side only : result, one side of the tree 

 with but little "Curl Leaf," and the 

 other with plenty. Where individual 

 trees at the ends of the rows were only 

 half done, the results wete plainly mani- 

 fest ; and where trees were left unsprayed 

 terrible results followed, amounting in 

 many cases to the total loss of the crop. 



QBOWERS UNPREPARED 



The exceptionally early season caught 

 many growers unprepared. They left 

 the spraying to the usual time with dis- 

 astrous results, which will cost them a 

 large proportion of their crop. 



The lime and sulphur spray for "'Curl 

 Leaf" is purely preventive, and must 

 be applied before the buds come out. 

 If applied later it does little, if any, good. 

 Moreover, it would seem as if it is the 

 lime which chiefly does the work. 



Several interesting experiments have 

 been conducted alpng this line. In the 

 orchard of Mr Newton Cossit, of North 

 Grimsby, trees sprayed early with lime 

 and water only — at a strength of 25 to 

 30 pounds of lime to 40 gallons of water, 

 were free from the disease, and com- 

 pared favorably with other trees in the 

 same orchard sprayed at the same time 

 with lime and sulphur. 



A number of experienced fruit-growers 

 report that the old home-boiled mixture, 

 20 lbs. lime and 15 lbs. sulphur to 40 

 gallons water is preferable to either the 

 home-made concentrated or the com- 

 mercial article for the prevention of 

 this disease. Others report satisfactory 

 results from the commercial article when 

 very thoroughly applied. To be on the 

 safe side it is necessary to add from 15 

 to 20 pounds freshly slaked lime to each 

 40 gallon barrel of home-made concen- 

 trated or commercial preparation pre- 

 vious to putting on the trees. This will 

 ensure success, and indeed Professor 

 Cajsar of the O.A.C., Guelph, has al- 

 ready advised this course. 



LESS SUSCEPTIBLE VARIETIES 



Another lesson taught by Professor 

 "Nineteen Ten" is that Early Craw- 

 ford, Fitzgerald and peaches of that type 

 are less subject to "Curl Leaf" than 

 other varieties, and that Early Rivers, 

 Triumph, and Elberta are peculiarly 

 liable to it. A further lesson is, that in 

 a season like this it is not advisable to 

 cultivate the peach orchards too early, 

 as such action has a tendency to in- 

 crease the disease. 



Out of seeming evil good often comes. 

 It has been demonstrated to a certainty 

 that those who were ready and fore- 

 handed in applying thoroughly the proper 

 lime and sulphur mixture are about to 

 reap a great reward, for these men have 

 the crop and the others have it not. 



Instances there are of orchards con- 

 taining 50 acres and upwards of peaches 

 being practically free from the curl as a 

 result of proper spraying, and of 

 orchards of five acres and less losing 

 their whole crop from neglect of this 

 precaution. 



Those who thus escaped have a large 

 crop ; indeed, one large grower in the 

 Winona neighbourhood already has a 

 gang of women and others employed 

 thinning the crop. 



OTHER LESSONS 



We are being taught, this season, 

 some other things: one is that it is not 

 safe to use Arsenite of Lime or Paris 

 Green in combination with lime and sul- 

 phur, several such attempts having re- 

 sulted in burning the foliage. Arsenite 

 of Lime can be used with Bordeaux 

 safely, at a strength of one quart of the 

 stock solution to 40 gallons water. But 

 if a drenching spray be needed less than 

 a quart must be used. 



Prof. Stewart's formula for making 

 Arsenite of Lime is : 2 lbs. white arsenic, 

 2 lbs. sal soda, and i to i >^ gallons 

 water; boil till thoroughly dissolved, 

 then add 3 to 4 lbs. lime, and boil five 

 or ten minutes longer, adding water to 

 make up 2 gallons. This is the stock 

 solution previously referred to. In actual 



use this spring, however, it was found 

 that where a drenching spray was u.sed 

 on early apples, the foliage was slightly 

 burned, but when the amount of lime 

 added was increased to 5 and 6 lbs. no 

 injury took place. 



Mr E. M. Smith, a well-known grower 

 near Winona, reports that using home- 

 made lime and sulphur of winter strength 

 diluted 1 to 40 as a summer spray on 

 plums, burnt the foliage, but that diluted 

 I to 50 it did not hurt the foliage, and 

 did good work. 



.Another lesson taught by Professor 

 "Nineteen Ten" is, that in a season like 

 this it does not pay to set out tomato 

 plants too early. Those first put out, 

 in most cases, had to be replanted and 

 in other cases were behind those planted 

 later. 



These are a few of the lessons the 

 Professor has already taught us. As 

 he grows older, he probably will have 

 more lessons for us, perhaps of still 

 greater importance. 



Thinning Apples* 



W. H. Frcach, Osbawa 



Three years' experience leads me to 

 believe that thinning apples is fully as 

 important and profitable as either good 

 fertilizing, working, or the spraying of 

 the orchard. Judicious pruning will 

 help, but cannot take the place of thin- 

 ning. 



In the season of 1907, I thinned 100 

 trees. I commenced in a block of ten 

 Snows, ten Wagner and forty Golden 

 Russet, which were well laden. I re- 

 moved one-third of the fruit from all but 

 two trees, leaving these two for compari- 

 son purposes. In another lot of forty 

 Northern Spys there were six trees that 

 were exceptionally heavy laden. I left 

 two of these unthinned ; from two I re- 

 moved one-third of the fruit; from the 

 other two, two-thirds. The remaining 

 thirty-four trees were well filled. I took 

 off one-third from all but two. Part of 

 them I finished at one picking, and part 

 I went over twice. 



THE RESULTS 



Later, when looking over the work of 

 the summer, I found : First, that until 

 one is familiar with the work, it is better, 

 if there is much fruit to remove, to thin 

 twice rather than once. The second 

 thinning should follow about three weeks 

 after the first. It requires about that 

 time for the results of the first work to 

 develop, second, that on my light land, 

 it is not quite enough to only remove one- 

 third of the fruit when the trees are 

 heavily laden, one-half is better; third, 

 that to remove two-thirds of the crop is 

 the extreme limit, as otherwise the fruit 

 is liable to be coarse and overgrown. 



•Extracts from a paper re*d at the Short Course 

 in fruit growing held at the Guelph Agncmtural 

 College. 



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