THE ONTARIO FRUIT EXPERIMENT STATIONS 



REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR, PROF. H. L. HUTT, O. A. C, GUELPH. 



''I'>HK past year was one of the most try- 

 A ing that Ontario fruit growers have 

 experienced in a long time. The extreme 

 severity of the winter of 1903-4 caused the 

 loss of at least one-third of the fruit trees 

 of the province. This loss was not con- 

 fined to any particular section, but was 

 more or less general throughout Ontario. 

 On the whole, the Niagara district suffered 

 less than most others, the injury being con- 

 fined mostly to the loss of fruit-buds. In 

 the Essex district hundreds of acres of 

 peach orchards were destroyed, while plums, 

 cherries, and even apples, were more or less 

 seriously injured. 



In northern and central Ontario more 

 than half of the plum and pear trees were 

 winter killed, and many varieties of apples 

 proved too tender. In eastern Ontario 

 apples are the principal tree fruits grown, 

 and the most of these are of the hardier 

 varieties, but in many cases even the so- 

 called hardy varieties were winter killed, 

 particularly where the trees had born heav- 

 ily the previous season. This fact was evi- 

 dent in all sections ; that those trees which 

 were over-loaded in 1903 and consequently 

 were somewhat weakened by the heavy 

 drain upon the vitality of the tree, suffered 

 most severely from the severity of the win- 

 ter. An excellent example of this was af- 

 forded in the orchard of Harold Jones, 

 Maitland, where a dozen or more of his 

 Fameuse trees most heavily loaded in 1903 

 died in 1 904, and one tree, which bore heav- 

 ily on one side only, is dead upon that side, 

 and so far quite healthy on the other. 



On account of the great loss of trees 

 throughout the country there will neces- 

 sarily be an extra lot of replanting to Jo 

 next spring. For this reason I have made 

 it a point to get from each of the experi- 

 menters a carefully prepared list of the 



varieties of the different kinds of fruit he 

 would recommend for planting in his sec- 

 tion. These lists, coming as they do from 

 men of wide experience in fruit growing, 

 are of particular value to intending planters. 



THE SOUTHWESTERN STATION. 



This station, which is in charge of Mr. 

 W. W. Hilborn, of Leamington, is in the 

 centre of what has been regarded as the 

 finest peach section in Ontario. Many 

 growers had gone so extensively into peach 

 culture tliat they had 50 to 100 acres of 

 peach trees in bearing. The first great set 

 back came with the severe winter of 1898 

 and 1899, when 90 per cent, of the trees 

 were winter killed. Mr. Hilborn at that 

 time had 100 acres of peach trees just nicely 

 bearing, but lost all but four or five acres. 

 Since then he had been replanting till he had 

 about 80 acres in trees. Last winter, how- 

 ever, killed out nearly every peach tree on 

 his place, and I heard it stated that there 

 was probably not ten acres of healthy peach 

 orchard left in all of that district. Mr. Hil- 

 born is not discouraged, however, but would 

 like to plant again a small orchard of the 

 leading varieties for experimental work. 



The following is a list of the varieties of 

 peaches, plums and cherries whicn Mr. Hil- 

 born recommends for planting in his sec- 

 tion : 



Peaches: Alexander, Yellow St. John, 

 Brigden, Early Crawford, Fitzgerald, New 

 Prolific, Engol Mammoth, Elberta, Crosby, 

 Kalamazoo, Golden Drop, Banner, and 

 Smock. 



Plums: Burbank, Satsuma, Bradshaw, 

 Lombard, Monarch, Imperial Gage, and 

 Reine Claude. 



Cherries: Napoleon Bigarreau, Mer- 

 cer, Schmidt's Bigarreau, Yellow Spanish, 

 Windsor, Montmorency, and Early Rich- 

 mond. 



* This report was presented to the Board of Control of the Fruit Experiment Stations at the time of the Provincial Fruit Flower and 

 Honey Show. 



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