ENRICHING THE ORCHARD. 



63 



other districts of the interior are destined 

 to become famous throughout Canada for 

 their fruit products. Difficulties incidental 

 to the settlement of a new country are being 

 gradually overcome, and experience is be- 

 ing accumulated from day to day as to the 

 best methods of cultivation. We venture 

 to prophesy that it will not be many years 

 before an annual provincial exhibition of 

 fruit will be one of the leading and regular 

 incidents in the history of British Columbia. 



KRUIT MARKS ACT ENDORSED. 



The good' effects of the continued enforce- 

 ment of the Dominion Fruit Marks Act are 

 very noticeable. Still large quantities of 

 inferior fruit are put on the market, and be- 

 ing marked No. 3 escape the penalties which 

 they justly deserve. I would suggest that 

 the association ask the department to specify 

 what constitutes No. 2 and No. 3 apples. 

 My own opinion is that No. 3 apples should 

 never leave the farm. 



THE MANURING OF FRUIT TREES 



PROF. A. WAGNER. 



-^I^HE notion is still very prevalent 

 1 amongst agriculturists that it is un- 

 necessary to manure fruit trees. This idea 

 is principally due to the fact that many fruit 

 trees, even without any special manuring, 

 occasionally give good yields. Further, an 

 impression has gained ground that a fruit 

 tree which has borne well one year cannot 

 give any yield the next or even the follow- 

 ing year, because it needs rest. 



Neither of these opinions is correct. The 

 fruit tree is subject to the same natural 

 laws, as regards nourishment, as any other 

 plant. When the nutriments which are 

 present to a limited extent in the soil have 

 been used they must be restored, or in other 

 words the soil must be manured. The rea- 

 son a tree which has yielded well one year 

 generally bears little or not at all the next 

 yea^r, is capable of a simple explanation; 

 the necessary assimilated plant food is no 

 longer available in the soil and the tree can- 

 not again form fruit until the soil is ren- 

 dered able to supply this food. 



If a tree which has yielded well is cor- 

 rectly manured at the right time there is no 

 reason why it should not bear fruit year by 

 year. Plenty of examples can be given 

 where trees thus manured have given good 

 crops for many years in succession, any 

 failure being attributable to some other 



cause, such as unfavorable weather at the 

 time of blossoming, birds, insects, fungi, 

 etc. There has been an improvement of 

 late years, and there are already farmers 

 and fruit growers who, when manuring, do 

 not forget the fruit orchard, but there is 

 still a great deal wanting in this respect. 



In order to grow and thrive, the fruit tree 

 requires, like every other plant, warmth, 

 sunlight, and moistuire, as well as a number 

 of other substances, which are taken partly 

 from the air through the medium of the 

 leaves, and partly from the soil by means of 

 the roots. The latter substances are called 

 nutrients, and include carbon, hydrogen, 

 oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, pot- 

 ash, lime, magnesia and iron. All these 

 substances are indispensable to the pros- 

 perity of the fruit crop, as if any one of 

 them is wanting the tree cannot develop. If 

 one or several of these substances are pres- 

 ent to only a limited extent the tree cannot 

 take up the remaining nutrients — even if 

 these are present in excess — in quantities 

 sufficient for its complete developn^ent. 

 The yielding capabilities of a tree atre there- 

 fore regulated by that nutrient which is 

 least available in the soil. 



SHOULD SUPPLY FOUR SUBSTANCES. 



Fortunately, most of the substances 

 named are so largely present in the soil or 



