FRUIT REPORTS FROM OUR DIRECTORS. 



The experimental fruit plot on my own farm 

 affords an ocular demonstration of the success 

 or failure of many varieties of fruit to many 

 visitors during the summer. 



Apple Scab. 



The unusually dry weather that prevailed' 

 during part of April, May, and the first half of 

 June passed the fruit (apples) over the critical 

 part of the season when the most damage is 

 caused by spot, and although we had almost 

 continuous rain since June 16th, the fruit is 

 absolutely clean, even on orchards that were not 

 sprayed at all. This fact gave me an oppor- 

 tunity of pointing out to many the vital im- 

 portance of spraying early and often in seasons 

 of normal rainfall in the spring months, for this 

 season has shown us that if the spot can be 

 kept absolutely in check until the middle of 

 June our crop is absolutely safe. 



In past seasons I have found that trees that I 

 had sprayed every week from the bursting of 

 the bud to the first of June and then stopped 

 were freer from spot than those not sprayed so 

 frequently and continued until the first of 

 August. This point needs further careful 



study, for we must admit that we do not know- 

 all about spraying yet. 



Profitable Apples and Pears. 



Fameuse, Mcintosh, and varieties of that 

 family are the standards for my division, and 

 are the most profitable to grow from a commer- 

 cial standpoint. For a later keeper we have 

 nothing yet more profitable than Scott's Win- 

 ter, Golden Russet, and possibly the Canada 

 Red. Milwaukee gives promise of being pro- 

 fitable, being of large size, but it has a 

 tendency to drop during September gales, al- 

 though not nearly as badly as Pewaukee, which 

 makes that otherwise profitable apple very un- 

 satisfactory to grow. We can grow Spys and 

 Baldwins top grafted, also Kings, but why not 

 leave these varieties to the lake counties, where 

 they excel us every time, and make more and 

 more of a specialty of the Fameuse groups, for 

 we are, in the great apple belt of the St. Law- 

 rence valley, where the fruit grows to perfec- 

 tion and will keep in ordinary cellars until 

 February. 



Among the pears we have Clapp's Favorite, 

 Flemish Beauty, and Ritson, three pears that do 

 well in this division, and are of good quality. 

 Intending planters would do well to stick to 

 these varieties until other pears of good quality 

 are found to grow successfully by the stations, 

 for so many of the so-called " ironclads " are so 

 poor in quality that there is very little use in 

 planting either for home use or market. 



Satisfactory Plums. 



Plums for the domestic class are of very little 

 value in this division. The most successful or 

 promising are Lombard, Gueii, Yellow Egg, 

 Glass Seedling, but even these will only come 

 through the winter without injury to the fruit 

 buds about two years out of five. Japans are 



also proving unsatisfactory, being tender in 

 fruit bud. Red June, Burbank, Ogon and 

 Abundance will bear in seasons that are favor- 

 able for the Lombard. 



The most satisfactory plums are those of the 

 American type, and Wild Goose, Whittaker, Mil- 

 ton, Hammer, Forest Rose, Col. Wilder, Hawk- 

 eye, Cherry, Stoddard being the most successful 

 of this class. These plums are fair for cook- 

 ing but are of very little value where European 

 plums can be grown. However, they will be a 

 boon to those in the eastern counties where 

 grown in gardens for family use. 



Among the cherries the Orel and Ostheim 

 give splendid results, bearing good crops of fair 

 sized cherries. Montmorency is particularly 

 tender in bud, only having a scattered crop. 

 May Duke is tender in bud, also Reine Hortense. 



Hastings, Addington, Lennox and Prince 

 Edward Counties. 



(Division No. 4.) 



Represented by W. H. Dempsey. 



The heavy frost of last December did con- 

 siderable injury to the buds of the more tender 

 varieties of fruit, hence the crop of the more 

 choice varieties of plums and cherries was very 

 light, also some of the apples were injured. 

 The early spring being cool and wet, no cater- 

 pillars showing and seeding time at hand, the 

 farmers took it for an excuse for not spraying 

 as usual. If the season had not been unfavor- 

 able for the development of fungous diseases, 

 the growers would have suffered a great loss. 

 As it was, the fruit was quite free from fun- 

 gous and insects. In some sections a few pear 

 trees suffered from blight. The pear tree 

 Psylla also made its appearance to quite an ex- 

 tent in a few orchards, and the trees were so 

 badly infested that they were noticeable for 

 some distance. 



Apple Growing County. 



The year has been a favorable one for all en- 

 gaged in the fruit, business in this district 

 Fair crops of clean, well colored good sized ap- 

 ples brought fairly good prices in the orchard. 

 Pickers, packers and cooi)ers received high 

 wages for their services, the only drawback in 

 the business was the scarcity of help and of 

 barrels. 



The County of Prince Edward has again 

 proved itself as being one of the best apple pro- 

 ducing counties in the Dominion, producing be- 

 tween two and three hundred thousand barrels 

 of export apples this season, as well as a large 

 quantity of Damson plums. Some of the grow- 

 ers had from 100 to 400 bushels of plums grow- 

 ing, you might say wild, in fence corners, and 

 sold them from 75 cents to $1.00 to the buyers. 



There are not many pears grown in the 

 county, but what trees there were was loaded, 

 especially of the Flemish Beauty variety, which 



