242 



THE CANADIAN H0RTICULTURIS7 



The Cherry Crop 



Iv. w. 



TOWARD the end of June, and before 

 the strawberry harvest is quite com- 

 pleted, growers will be engaged with the 

 early varieties of sweet cherries. The Early 

 Purple will be the first to ripen, and will 

 soon be followed by Governor Wood, Cleve- 

 land, Elton, Knight's Early Black and Black 

 Tartarian. No doubt the severe winter has 

 severely thinned out these tender varieties, 

 even in the more favored districts. In some 

 parts the cherry has become a very import- 

 ant market fruit, and the loss of it by the 

 severe winter will be a serious misfortune. 



As a rule men are the most satisfactory 

 cherry pickers, because the ladders are too 

 heavy to be moved by women and children, 

 and one might better do the work than to be 

 on constant call to move them. Besides 

 women's wages are nearly as high as men's, 

 now, women have invaded nearly every avo- 

 cation in life. A good man cherry picker 

 will gather one hundred quarts a day, in 

 average picking, and do it properly too. By 

 this is meant handling the fruit by the stems 

 and scarcely touching the cherries with the 

 hands. We usually gather the fruit into 

 the half basket, holding about 7 quarts, and 

 if free from rot they will not need turning 

 out on the packing table. Unfortunately 

 the early kinds are often very subject to rot, 

 in which case they must be turned out and 

 repacked. 



A GREAT trouble: WITH CHKRRY GROWERS. 



The rot is one of the greatest evils of 

 cherry growing, for it spreads rapidly and 

 soon destroys a magnificent crop of large 

 fancy cherries. It pays the cherry grower 

 to begin early spraying his sweet cherry 

 trees with Bordeaux, especially such varie- 

 ties as Elton, Black Tartarian and Napoleon 

 Bigarreau, and to continue the treatment 

 until the cherries are well grown, with the 

 ammoniacal copper carbonate and soap, be- 



The Salome Apple — No. 1. 



L. W. 



This is a new western apple which promises to be of great value, 

 especially for the Muskoka and Ottawa sections and parts similarly 

 situated. The hardiness of the tree, the clean, bright color of the 

 fruit and its long keeping quality seem to combine in its favor as a 

 commercial variety. Mr C. L. Stephens, of Orillia, has fruited it 

 in his garden and has kept samples of it until June. 



cause it does not whiten the skin of the fruit. 

 The addition of soap is advised as an im- 

 provement on the old formula, by • the^ 

 Geneva Experiment station in a recent bul- 

 letin, as follows : Copper carbonate, 6 

 ounces ; ammonia, 3 pints ; soap, i pound ; 

 water, 50 gallons. Dissolve the copper 

 carbonate in the ammonia, somewhat diluted 

 with water, using no more ammonia than is 

 necessary barely to dissolve the copper car- 

 bonate. Put this into 40 gallons of wafer. 

 Dissolve the soap and add to the solution of 

 copper carbonate. The solution loses 

 strength on standing in open vessels, but 

 may be kept indefinitely in stoppered bottles. 



If we fruit growers expect to keep in line 

 with other branches of business we must 

 get out of the old rut «nd be alive to our 

 duty. See to it that our trees are doing 

 the most possible for us.— (George A. Gott, 

 Arkona, Ont. 



