1 86 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



August, 1910 



to a special inspector appointed for this 

 purpose, in default of which the inspector 

 should have power to go on and destroy 

 the trees, and the cost should be a special 

 tax upon the lot to be collected by the 

 municipality. I have known of many 

 cases of orchards, rightly condemned for 

 "Yellows," where the trees have been 

 left standing for months, a deadly source 

 of infection to the whole neighbourhood. 

 After all it is the fruit growers them- 

 selves upon whom the whole matter de- 

 pends. The township of Saltfleet, in 

 which I live, is one of the best inspected 

 townships in Ontario. Why? Simply 

 because the fruit growers are fully alive 

 to the importance of the situation, and 

 insist on the municipality making proper 

 provision for the inspection. Several at- 

 tempts have been made to reduce the pay 

 of the inspectors, etc., and they have 

 always been overwhelmed by public 

 opinion. The cost of efficient inspection 

 need not press much on the individual 



taxpayer. Hut the inspectors should be 

 well paid for the work they do. In the 

 township referred to the total amount 

 paid out for inspection for the year 1909 

 was $517.65. Half of this is now paid by 

 the provincial government, leaving only 

 about $260 to be paid by the taxpayers, 

 or considerably under $1.00 each. 



Most of the fruit growers could not 

 possibly inspect their own trees for the 

 money. When they are properly edu- 

 cated, as they are here, they are only 

 too willing to have it done. That is why 

 the inspectors require not only to be men 

 of firmness in doing their duty, but also 

 men of tact and information as well, who 

 can command the confidence and respect 

 of the growers, and educate them up to 

 be willing and eager to have their trees 

 inspected. Where such a class of men 

 are appointed, the present act — its weak- 

 nesses notwithstanding — will work fairly 

 well, and where such men are not se- 

 cured, it will be more or less of a failure. 



Boxes vs. Barrels in the East^ 



Dr. S. W. Fletcher, Director of Virg 



The drift is all towards the use of the 

 box as against the barrel package. This 

 is in keeping with the trend of the times 

 with respect to other commodities. The 

 box package, or at least the smaller type 

 of package, will some time entirely 

 supplant the barrel. The smaller pack- 

 age will not necessarily be made of 

 wood. We can expect the wooden pack- 

 age to be replaced, eventually, by paper, 

 celluloid, or some other cheap material. 

 Even now some very substantial paper 

 boxes are on the market. When speak- 

 ing of the box type of package, there- 

 fore, we refer to the size and shape of 

 package, rather than to the material. 



While the box type of package is the 

 ideal towards' which we are rapidly work- 

 ing, it by no means follows that every 

 eastern fruit grower should begin pack- 

 ing in boxes at once. He should begin 

 only when he is ready ; and nine-tenths of 

 the growers are not ready. To be ready 

 for box packing means that the grower 

 can get good boxes about as cheap as 

 barrels, bushel for bushel ; that he is 

 able to grow a crop of fruit, preferably 

 of high quality varieties, at least 90% of 

 which is fancy or No. i ; that he is able 

 to command skilful and experienced 

 packers ; that he is able to put a large 

 quantity of box fruit on the market, not 

 one year only, but year after year, so 

 as to win a reputation for the brand ; and 

 that he ships his fruit to markets that 

 are already familiar with the box pack 

 and take kindly to it. At the present 

 time not one apple grower out of ten 



• A portion of a paper read at the conference 

 of the American Pomological Society at St. 

 Catharines, Ont., last September. 



inia Agricultural Experiment Station 



in the east is able to meet these con- 

 ditions. 



With respect to the market, the fruit 

 grower must recognize the different de- 

 mands of two entirely different types of 

 markets. One of these, the common or 

 general market, will pay a fair price for 

 good or common stock. The other, the 

 special or fancy market, will pay a fancy 

 price for fancy stock. The box package 

 supplies the special or fancy market 

 almost exclusively, while the barrel 

 package supplies both, but more especi- 

 ally the common or general market. 

 These two classes of markets will always 

 exist, or as long as some people are 

 more successful in accumulating money 

 than others. 



The demand for cheap or common 

 fruit, at a fair price, will continue to be 

 very much greater than the demand for 

 fancy fruit at a high price, because there 

 are many people who are able to pay 

 fancy prices for fruit. The proportion 

 of fruit growers who are able to grow 

 fancy fruit is as small as the proportion 

 of consumers who are able to pay fancy 

 prices. Location, soil, and the varieties 

 best adapted thereto may make it more 

 profitable to grow staple varieties for the 

 common market. This cheap fruit — the 

 main supply of the great middle class of 

 people — will be marketed in barrels to 

 best advantage for many years to come. 



The successful marketing of apples in 

 boxes depends so much upon skilful 

 grading and packing and upon the pos- 

 session of a large quantity of fruit so 

 packed, that it seems likely that very 

 little impetus will be given to box pack- 

 ing in the east except through co-opera- 



tive shipping :iss(xiations. Here and 

 there an exceptional grower may find it 

 profitable to pack his fancy s^rade cf 

 certain varieties in boxes ; but it does not 

 seem probable that box packing will 

 make much headway in the east except 

 through the co-operative shipping asso- 

 ciation, with its trained business manager 

 and its crew of trained packers. 



These conclusions indicate that the 

 eastern fruit grower should be conser- 

 vative on the subject of the box apple 

 package. The drift is towards the 

 smaller package, but for many years to 

 come, apple growers who are so sit- 

 uated that they must produce apples for 

 the general or common markets — which 

 means a majority of the growers^will 

 find the barrel more profitable. 



Training Blackberries 



Tying up blackberry canes makes culti- 

 vation of the berry patch easier, and fa- 

 cilitates all the labor that has to do with 

 the management of a blackberry planta- 

 tion. Instead of using two wires along 

 which to train the canes, Mr. W. H. 

 French, of Ontario County, Ont., uses 

 only one. "I place my posts about six- 

 teen yards apart in the rows of black- 

 berries," said Mr. French to an editor 

 of The Canadian Horticllturist, who 

 visited his plantation, "and between them 

 stretch only one wire, to which the canes 

 are tied with stout cord such as binder 

 twine. I have used other methods vif 

 tying the canes but prefer this one, as it 

 is more quickly performed than staking 

 and requires less labor and work than 

 where two wires are used. I use barb 

 wire so that the twine will not slip. 



BIENNIAL IN HABIT 



Growers should bear in mind that the 

 canes are biennial in habit while the roots 

 are perennial ; that is, the canes grow one 

 year without fruit and bear the following 

 year. They should then be removed to 

 give space for younger wood. 



Mr. John Ferguson, of Sunbury Coun- 

 ty N. B., writes that he removes the old 

 canes as soon as the picking is finished. 

 The canes are cut down close to the 

 ground with a corn knife, or, better still, 

 with a short blade fastened into a two 

 inch handle. Thus the principal canes 

 are shortened to four or five feet, and the 

 laterals to about twenty inches. By 

 pruning in this way, Mr. Ferguson has 

 found that the fruit is larger, and that the 

 setting of more fruit than the plant will 

 bear is prevented. 



The old canes are gathered up immedi- 

 ately after the pruning has been com- 

 pleted and burned immediately. Mr. Fer- 

 guson uses two wires stretched from post 

 to post. The new canes are lifted and 

 supported on these wires. The suckers 

 which come up between the wires are 

 treated as weeds. 



