230 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



October, 19 lo 



trouljle was the growers did not rcali/.c 

 what was possible yet hy thinning. 

 THK QUK8T10N OF KKI{'1'II<IZK11S 



It would take systematic efforts to 

 prove which fertilizer was the best. Mr. 

 Smith's orchard had received unusual 

 treatment in the way of fertilizer, having 

 received potash five years ago and fertili- 

 zer and manure alternately since then, 

 and it has yielded phenomenally. Al- 

 though Mr. Smith had used more ferti- 

 lizer than many other dealers, he had a 

 greater crop than any of them. Proof 

 seemed conclusive that these two things 

 went together. The orchard they had 

 just been through was over fifty years 

 old, and had had only one big crop in the 

 memory of men who had known it for 

 years. That was in i8c)6, when the crops 

 n\\ over Canada were very large, but for 

 fifteen years it had had no crop to speak 

 of. 



Regular pruning was necessary and ad- 

 visable, such as had been done in Mr. 

 Smith's orchard. A feature he had not- 

 iced was that Mr. Smith had not cut off 

 any suckers, but had let them grow to fill 

 in the lower part of the trees, and the re- 

 sult was that the suckers were all bearing 

 fruit. The natural conclusion, based on 

 the results in the Burlington orchard and 

 others, was that the growers were not 

 pruning, fertilizing and cultivating as 

 they might. He estimated that the or- 

 chard contained eighty per cent, of No. 

 one apples, and few had ever seen better 

 than that. 



BIG PEIOES 



Prof. Crow said that he knew of a case 

 this year where a prominent dealer had 

 paid $3.50 and $4 a barrel for No. one 

 apples, and this dealer told him fifty per 

 cent, of that w-as the direct result oi the 

 fruit having- been sprayed. On the North- 

 west markets Ontario dealers were get- 

 ting $2.50 to $2.75 for Duchess apples, 

 per bushel. That figured up to $7 or $8 

 a barrel, a price not dreamed of by nsany 

 dealers, yet it was obtainable for the right 

 quality of fruit. He believed in boxing 

 all first class fruit instead of putting it 

 up in barrels, and also wrapping the best 

 of it. 



THE DEMONSTRATION ORCHARDS 



■ The work that has been done this year 

 in the demonstration orchards in the 

 Georgian Bay district by the Ontario Gov- 

 ernment, was described by W. F. Kydd, 

 of Simcoe, Ont. Mr. Kydd stated that 

 they had selected the six worst orchards 

 in Simcoe, which was the worst district 

 for apples this year in the province. The 

 trees were so high and thick in the or- 

 chards that he and his assistants had to 

 prune their way into them. The trees 

 had been treated with the regular lime 

 and sulphur spray. The yield was sev- 

 enty-five per cent, number one apples, and 

 for years it had been nearer one per cent. 

 From one small orchard twenty barrels 

 of number one apples had been picked, 



Packing Mnik MeloDt on the Farm 



Mr. Hilborn grows six to ten acres of musk 

 styles of packages and has found that the slatted 



two barrels of number two, and one barrel 

 ■of culls. 



THE CODLING MOTH 



Mr. A. W. Peart, of Burlington, said 

 that in Burlington and the lake valley, 

 the codling moth was about as bad as any 

 place else, and, of late years, it has been 

 increasingly prevalent. That Mr. Smith 

 had banished it from his orchard spoke 

 volumes for his methods. Spraying was 

 one of the most important factors in ap- 

 ple production. Mr. Smith had sprayed 

 his orchard at a cost of sixty cents a tree. 

 He had given four sprayings, the trees 

 being mostly large, fifty years old, and 

 bearing a crop of, perhaps, five or six 

 barrels each. That was within the reach 

 of all. 



WHEN TO SPRAY 



Mr. L. Cae-sar, of the O. A. C, Guelph, 

 said that just before the buds opened in 

 the spring was when the first spraying 

 should be done. The second spraying 

 should be applied just before the blossoms 

 burst, and the third just after they fell. A 

 fourth could be given later, but it was not 

 as necessary as the others. He had found 

 that the lime and sulohur mixture was 

 the best and, mixed with arsenate of lead, 

 in the proper proportions, it was efficient 

 for all purposes. Pears and crabappic 

 trees were liable to suffer burning form 

 that mixture, but it would not harm the 

 apple trees in the least. 



THE SPRAY USED 



Upon request, Mr. M. C. Smith, the 

 owner of the orchard, described his spray- 

 ing operations. He had sprayed with Ni- 

 agara Lime-Sulphur and .Arsenate of 

 Lead, and had used from five to fifteen 

 gallons of material to a tree, and it had 

 cost him about sixty cents a tree for the 

 spraying. .As an indication of the value 

 of proper spraying and caring for an or- 

 chard, he stated that there was one just 



of J. L. Hilborn, Lcamin|tM, Ont. 



melons each year. He has tried many different 

 crate, 12 x 12 x 20 inches, gives the best results. 



across the road from his place which had 

 not been sprayed. The trees were young- 

 er and better than his, yet he would defy 

 anybody to get an apple there that was 

 without a worm or a spot of some disease. 

 He used a coarse spray and strong pres- 

 sure, about one hundred and eighty 

 pounds, and sprayed at the rate of 1,500 

 gallons a day. 



THE SPEAKERS 



Other speakers were Fruit Inspector 

 Carey, P. VV. Hodgetts, Toronto; Frank 

 Dempsey, of Prince Fdward County ; VV. 

 H. Bunting, St. Catharines ; R. McKen- 

 nev, E.ssex, and C. Mitchell, of Georgian 

 Bay. 



Pointers on Thin\blcbcrry 

 Culture 



John Wilton, Jr., OakYille, Ont. 



A light, dry, warm soil and plenty of 

 manure are the essentials to success with 

 a crop of thimble berries. On a cold 

 soil, the berries grow small and do not 

 give the yields. A limited district only 

 of the country is adaptable to the cul- 

 ture of thimble berries. .And only a 

 limited area of any one farm ordinarily 

 will produce them to advantage, hence 

 there is always a very fair market for 

 them once the crop is ready to be picked. 

 A fair yield is 3,500 quarts to the acre. 

 Oftentimes the yield is higher. 



Since the lightest, sandiest soil seems 

 to suit the berries best, it follows that 

 this .soil must be liberally supplied with 

 manure . The plantation should be man- 

 ured about every year, at least every 

 other year. I would prefer to give a 

 light application every year if the manure 

 was available. 



As soon as the canes are through bear- 

 ing for the year, even before, if the mar- 

 ket has gone bad, we go through the 



