November, 1910 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



255 



Fruit Grooving in Norfolk County 



By " Weary Worm," Winona 



THIS is generally supposed to be a 

 light apple year, but there are beau- 

 tiful crops in many of the apple or- 

 chards of Norfolk County, that are affili- 

 ated with the Norfolk Fruit Growers' 

 Association. I have just returned from 

 a visit to these famous orchards, and 

 some account of what I saw should be 

 of interest to readers of The Canadian 

 Horticulturist. 



The orchard of Mr. Joseph Gilbertson, 

 situated about three miles west of Sim- 

 coe, has a nice crop of about 800 barrels 

 of beautiful apples. The trees have been 

 carefully pruned, sprayed, cultival^ed 

 and trimmed, and the crop will run from 

 85 to 90 per cent. No. i. This is the 

 pioneer orchard of the Association. It 

 formerly belonged to Mr. Jas. E. John- 

 son, the manager of the Norfolk Fruit 

 Growers' Association. The Greenings 

 were nearly finished, but the Spys, 

 Kings, Baldwins, Talman Sweets, etc., 

 were there in all their glory. Picking, 

 sorting and barrelling was in full swing, 

 and a number of men were at work. 



PACKING THE FEUIT 



The apples are picked into baskets 

 and emptied on to the sorting tables, 

 where they are separated into ones and 

 twos for barrelling and the culls thrown 

 out in a pile. The packer places two 



papers at the bottom of each barrel — to 

 be the face — and then lays the apples in 

 rows beginning at the outside, and work- 

 ing towards the centre. Those for the 

 face are all stemmed first, then the rest 

 of the apples are carefully emptied from 

 the baskets, and after each basket is put 

 in, the barrel is well shaken. The apples 

 at the top of the barrel are then placed 

 evenly by hand, almost as carefully as 

 those at the bottom. The false head is 

 placed on the barrel, which is well rock- 

 ed, and pressed gently down with a 

 screw press. 



The two hoops are then nailed on, also 

 the head lines, and the barrel is reversed 

 and stencilled with the name of the As- 

 sociation, the variety, the number of the 

 orchard, and the name of the packer. 



GROWEES ARE NUMBERED 



Each member of the Association has 

 a number. The apples are liable to in- 

 spection in the orchard at any time, as 

 the Association has a number of inspec- 

 tors on the road all the time, travelling 

 from orchard to orchard, examining the 

 quality of the pack, and exhorting the 

 men to put nothing in the barrels but the 

 "right stuff." The Association spares 

 no pains to ensure a good pack by its 

 members, and the sorters and packers 

 are warned not to work too fast, that 



they may be sure of doing a good job. 

 By this means the Norfolk County Fruit 

 Growers' Association is building up an 

 excellent reputation. 



The Association this year sold 30,000 

 barrels to Mr. J. G. Anderson, of Luck- 

 now, at $2.75 per barrel f.o.b. for ones 

 and twos. 5,000 or 6,000 barrels are 

 also going to Rockford, Illinois. The 

 total crop will run well on to 40,000 

 barrels. 



The peelers have been sold to the can- 

 ning factory at sixty cents per hundred 

 or about thirty cents per bushel, and the 

 ciders at thirty cents per hundred, so 

 that every apple counts for something. 



A CELEBRATED ORCHARD 



The celebrated Olds orchard, situated 

 about two miles east of Simcoe, has a 

 somewhat light crop this year, not much 

 more than 400 barrels from almost six 

 acres. This orchard has a record as 

 follows: 1906, $150 per acre; 1907, $450 

 per acre; 1908, $100 per acre; 1909, 

 $300 per acre; 1910, $130 (estimated) 

 per acre — thus in five years giving an 

 average of $226 per acre. 



Some other orchards are doing very 

 well, such as the Blaney Bros.' orchard 

 of five acres, containing one hundred 

 and ninety-five trees, running over five 

 barrels to the tree, and yielding almost 

 one thousand barrels. In this orchard, 

 out of two hundred and forty-five barrels 

 of greenings picked from the trees, there 



Ai. Ten-Acre Piach Oiclitid ■■ the Nitftia Dittiicl, Owacd by J W. Smith & Seat *f Winou, Ont. 



This orchard containg 225 trees to the acre. It produced about five baskets to the tree which early in the season Mr. Smith eetimatcd would net him 

 about fifty cents a basket. This is considered only a (air crop. A heavy crop is expected next year. The tree* are mostly early Orawfords. 



