i8o 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST, 



and more constant in strength, is being- used 

 quite extensively by many growers in the 

 following forms: 



1. .Vrsenite of soda, made by boiling four 

 pounds of sal soda crystals in one gallon 

 water with one pound of white arsenic. A 

 pint of this solution is added to the barrel 

 of Bordeaux. 



2. Arsenite of lime, made by boiling one 

 pound of white arsenic in two gallons of 

 water for half an h^ur, then adding tw^o 



pounds of good quick lime. A (juart of this 

 solution is used with a barrel of Bordeaux. 



One application, at least, should be made 

 before the blossoms open, to prevent scab 

 on apple and pear, brown rot on plum, and 

 the ravages of the bud moth and the case 

 bearers. Another application should be 

 made after blossoming to i)revent scab, 

 brown rot, and the codling moth. Two 

 more applications are necessary through the 

 season if fruit free from scab is desired. 



ONTARIO AND NOVA SCOTIA METHODS COMPARED 



G. FKi:i). MARSH. 



AX interesting article by 'Wx. A. Mc- 

 Neill, C'hief of the Fruit Division, 

 appeared in The Horticukurist, in which he 

 says : " The extent to wdiich commercial 

 fertilizers are used in Nova Scotia would 

 seem most extravagant to an Ontario 

 farmer." ]\f r. McNeill also says, " the On- 

 tario grower might well envy the vigor of 

 the Nova Scotian trees," and this vigor he 

 ascribes chiefly to the better care and atten- 

 tion which the trees receive. These will 

 all play their part, but no doubt a consider- 

 able part of it is due to the feed. 



A farmer cannot expect a horse to do 

 good work or a cow give a plentiful supply 

 of milk unless they have the proper food ; 

 neither can a tree bring forth fruit year 

 after year unless it is properly fed. In 

 Nova Scotia a common application to a 

 bearing orchard is 300 pounds of bone meal 

 and 200 pounds of muriate of potash per 

 acre, and when a tree carries a heavy load 

 a further application of nitrate of soda is 

 made in order that the growth of the tree 

 may not be checked and the next year's 

 yield thereby lessened. The effect of this 

 fertilization is seen not only in the yield and 

 quality of fruit but also by the fact that the 

 off year, as it is called, is almost entirely 

 done away with, and the Nova Scotia farmer 

 can count on a crop each year. 



In comparison with this picture the aver- 

 age Ontario orchard grows a number of 



CLARKSBURG, ONT. 



crops of grain and is then seeded down, and 

 is usually suffered to go on producing hay 

 indefinitely. It Avill be fortunate indeed if 

 it gets an application of farmyard manure 

 once in six or seven years, wdiile the ashes 

 which should be used to balance up the 

 farmyard manure are shipped out of the 

 country to help the United States farmer 

 grow fruit. Surely the Nova Scotian apple 

 grower would call this " extravagant prac- 

 tices." 



At any station in Ontario can be seen the 

 dealers screening and grading their ashes 

 ready for shipment. The Ontario fruit 

 grower must be very blind to his own inter- 

 ests when he allows as nnich as a million 

 bushels of ashes to be exported annually 

 from his farms. 



A recent call on one of our fruit growers 

 brought this very prominently before me. 

 This gentleman had drawn out the trim- 

 mings and limbs from the spring pruning 

 and piled them in a loose windrow', after- 

 wards burning them and putting the field m 

 corn. On the spot where the ashes had 

 been plowed in the corn yielded at least twice 

 as much as the rest of the field. When I 

 asked what he would put in the orchard to 

 take the place of the plant food which had 

 been taken from the trees to make corn he 

 was much surprised and did not seem to 

 realize that an apple orchard required to be 

 fed just the same as a corn field. 



