The Canadian Horticulturi^ 



Vol. XXXIII 



OCTOBER, 19.0 



No. 10 



Ontario Apple Industry Should Be Revived 



I 



THE statement by Prof. J. W. Crow, 

 of the Guelph Agricultural College, 

 published in the September issue of 

 The Canadian Horticulti kist, that 

 for fifteen years the apple industry In On- 

 tario has be»n declining and that it i:- 

 still on the decline requires serious atten- 

 tion. Coming as it does from an official 

 of the government, it proves the apple in- 

 dustry of the province to be in a critical 

 position. 



This is a discouraging admission after 

 all the time and money that has been ex- 

 pended in building up the business. All 

 who are interested should examine the 

 causes given for this decline and if pos- 

 sible find a remedy, for if the same ratio 

 of decline is maintained for another fif- 

 teen years, there will be no apple indus- 

 try to conserve. 



INSECTS AND DISEASE 



The first reason given is the prevalence 

 of insects and fungous diseases. These 

 are very evident, but we have no more 

 trouble of this kind than our neighbors 

 to the south of the line, who continue to 

 raise profitable crops of fruit by thor- 

 ough spraying, pruning, and cultivation. 

 This being the case, why have not our 

 Canadian farmers been educated to the 

 value of this work? Who is to blame for 

 the fact that in.sects and fungous diseases 

 have been allowed to destroy this trade? 

 Surely the Ontario farmer is not defi- 

 cient in intelligence as compared with the 

 New York farmer. Then his unenlight- 

 ened condition must be due either to the 

 inefficiency of his teachers, lack of money 

 or the neglect of the government to sup- 

 ply a sufficient number of teachers to do 

 the work thoroughly. This is a perti- 

 nent question, for we either want better 

 men or more of them or more money to 

 carry on the work. 



WINTEE INJURY 



The second reason given is winter in- 

 jury, cau.sed by our cold climate. That 

 our climate is severe we all know, but 1 

 doubt that the loss from this cause is as 

 great as supposed, especially if we de- 

 duct the damage done to trees, which are 

 in a weakened condition from fungous and 

 insect injuries by lack of proper care. 

 Here again lack of education is shown, 

 as it is generally the man who thinks that 

 he is taking good (;are of his orchard by 

 stimulating the growth with farm man- 

 ure, a highly nitrogenous fertilizer, thus 

 causing a soft, rank growth, who loses 



G.'P.JMarsh, Clarksburg, Ontario' 



his trees by winter frost. This loss can 

 be charged against lack of knowledge on 

 the part of the farmer which leads him 

 to feed his trees an unbalanced plant food 

 ration. It indicates also a lack of 

 familiarity with the hardiness of the 

 different varieties of trees and their suita- 

 bility for this location. 



We know, of course, that it is impos- 

 sible to buy trees with a guarantee worth 

 the paper it is written on that they are 

 true to name. It has happened not in- 



Pickisg a Ben Davit Apple Tree, TilltoDbarg, Ont. 



Paoking Gang of J. C. llairis, IngersoU. 



frequently that a man, after spending 

 time to learn the most suitable varieties 

 for his locality and buying from a sup- 

 posedly reliable nursery firm, has found 

 after he has cared for them for years, 

 that they are not only worthless varie- 

 ties, but that they are tender as well. 

 By the time these trees commence to bear, 

 they are so injured by frost they are not 

 worth grafting. Under such conditions 

 a man may well lose heart in the apple 

 business. I have an example of this un- 

 scrupulous substitution in our own or- 

 chard, where, after buying what we 

 thought were standard varieties, we 

 found that we had all the varieties of size 

 and color known, and also a large num- 

 ber of unknown varieties. A solution of 



227 



this source of injury to the industry is 

 still needed. 



THE UNSCEUPUI.OUS BUYER 



The third reason given by Prof. Crow 

 for the decline is the unscrupulous buyer. 

 Quite true, but why has not the Ontario 

 government gone after the unscrupulous 

 buyer? If it had expended a small part 

 of the energy in this direction that the 

 Dominion Government has spent looking 

 for the little apples put in the middle of 

 the barrel by the farmer, developing mar- 

 kets and providing apple quotations, the 

 apple industry might tell a different talc. 



Owing to the perishable value of the 

 crop and their inability to make sales, far- 

 mers have to take what they can get at 

 the time for their apples. They cannot 

 hold them for higher prices as they can 

 wheat or oats. The work, therefore, of 

 assisting them to form more cooperative 

 associations should be pressed more 

 vigorously. 



Reliable buyers sometimes have a way 

 of apportioning off certain territory 

 among themselves. One will not bid 

 higher than another. If an outside buyer 

 comes in, he is either paid sutlicient to 

 lead him to get his apples elsewhere or 

 for some other reason he makes up his 

 mind to leave the territory, turning his 

 apples over to the local dealer. Is it any 

 wonder that with these lessons the far- 

 mer decides that it will pay him better 

 in the end to produce staples, such as 

 wheat, oats or butter? Why is it that 

 the government has not stepped in and 

 v/hen the dealers refused to pay proper 

 prices, arranged to have the apples taken 

 off the farmer's hands and dispo.sed of 

 in some such way as the New York Cen- 

 tral Railway has commenced to do? The 

 farmer delivers the fruit to the car and 

 the railway attends to the rest and sees 

 that the apples reach the proper market 

 and that the proceeds are remitted. Why 

 has not the government made it its busi- 

 ness to see that the man with a small 

 quantity of fruit is assisted to dispo.se 

 of his good apples to advantage either 

 through cooperation or by vigorous 

 search for and prosecution of dishonest 

 buyers? 



These are questions that should 

 be answered, and I trust that the 

 readers of Tmk Canadian Horti- 

 cii.TiRisT will see that they are 

 answered by pressing for action which 



