GROWURS' VIEWS OF FRUIT PROSPECTS 



Our peach trees were thought at first to be 

 frozen, but good luck saved them. They are 

 not so bad as first indications led us to believe. 

 Have been through 10 or 15 orchards and find 

 them all the same. The mice did a lot of dam- 

 age to young trees. I lost 100 out of 4,000 

 trees. Some are very bad. — (J. E. Hambley, 

 Kent Co., Ont. 



Peach trees are killed at the ground, but are 

 showing blossoms. Those on sandy ground are 

 all killed; those on clay loam only a few killed, 

 except those by mice. — (Harry Forbes, Kent 

 Co., Ont. 



The spring has been so unfavorable for the 

 trees that it is difficult to determine the true 

 condition of the trees as to injury done by the 

 winter. — (M. G. Bruner, Essex Co., Ont. 



I find strawberries are very badly injured by 

 the winter, except where heavily mulched. — (G. 

 A. Heath, Norfolk Co., Ont. 



Very few strawberries in our county. I tried 

 them for three or four years; they would have 

 many blossoms, but very few berries, so plowed 

 them under. — (J. W. Harum, Hastings Co., Ont. 



otrawberries look fine. Peaches are all dead, 

 and some plum trees. The fruit crop looks 

 favorable. The first cry was that the buds 

 were all killed, but they are coming out all 

 right and everything is growing fast — (R. Mor- 

 ton, Durham Co., Ont. 



Red raspberries here have been badly winter 

 killed. Blacks have come through better. — 

 (H. M. Casselman, Lambton Co., Ont. 



Strawberries are in very poor condition. 

 About half the most extensive growers are 

 plowing their iberries up. In quite a few cases 

 there are not enough plants to set out a new 

 bed. The ice in the spring killed the strawber- 

 ries, I think. Fall mulched plants are injured 

 as bad as those not mulched. — (J. W. Munroe, 

 Welland Co., Ont. 



We have not been troubled to any extent with 

 borers or oyster shell bark louse. We give 

 clean cultivation and stop working about August 

 1st. We tltin the fruit to about six inches 

 apart on the limbs and find it pays well to do 

 so. If we allow our trees to overbear one year 

 we are almost sure to have no crop the next. 

 The loss of trees in this section has been very 

 heavy the past winter, in some cases almost 90 

 per cent. My own loss by actual count has 

 been 34 per cent. — (A. Dawson, Brant Co., Ont. 



The strawberries that were not mulched or 

 covered with snow during the winter were near- 

 ly all killed. I lost about 25 acres. Straw- 

 berries in this section are nearly all killed. 

 Raspberries are also damaged very much. 

 Blackberries came through all right. — (A. Rail- 

 ton, Welland Co., Ont. 



Strawberry plants are badly injured. On 

 three acres I will not have enough to fill a crate, 

 and what plants appear alive have not strength 

 enough to throw out a blossom. Some peach 



trees around Leamington appear to be as badly 

 killed as they were five years ago, but here I 

 believe the orchards will show a good per cent, 

 of uninjured trees, probably 75 to 85 per cent. 

 They are now full of bloom and foliage, except- 

 ing a couple of spots; my orchard never looked 

 better. — (J. O. Duke, Essex Co., Ont. 



Strawberry plants are looking pretty well, but 

 are backward. The few blossoms that are out 

 are black with frost. — (John Mead, Halton Co., 

 Ont. 



Strawberry plants in poor condition and over 

 two-thirds winter killed. A large percentage 

 of the peach trees that are showing buds now 

 I think will die. As a rule, if one bud in ten 

 matures a peach it makes a large crop. The 

 few buds that are out now look very pale, which 

 is not a good sign, as they generally drop off. — 

 (F. G. Stewart, Lincoln Co., Ont. 



Plum trees bore so heavy last season they 

 were in poor condition to stand the winter. — (G. 

 Gott, Lambton Co., Ont. 



Vineyards are being pulled up on account of 

 dry and grey rot ; poor prospects for this year's 

 grape crop. — (J. Dougal, Essex Co., Ont. 



In Glenleg township little spraying is done. 

 Japanese plums promise a good yield and have 

 wintered all right. Lice are common on apple 

 trees. Pruning has been well done. — (R. T. 

 Edwards, Grey Co., Ont. 



Little can be said with certainty yet about 

 the mice and winter frost. A great deal of dam- 

 age was done. I lost one large Abundance, one 

 large Burbank, and a lot of smaller trees. — (S. 

 Spillett, Simcoe Co., Ont. 



The prevailing wet weather during May will 

 make apple scab very prevalent, where trees 

 are not sprayed, and curl leaf on peaches. — (Jos. 

 Tweddle, Wentworth Co., Ont. 



Strawberries are not much good owing to Ihe 

 last two seasons being wet. The plots have all 

 gone out of repair and grown up into grass, and 

 many of them will have to be plowed up. — (J. J. 

 Coyle, Lambton Co., Ont. 



Old trees are hurt to a great extent, perhaps 

 50 per cent ; 4 to 6 year old trees about 5 per 

 cent., and 1 to 2 year trees are strong and heal- 

 thy. One man had 800 trees, fully 700 of which 

 are killed. Very few fruit buds seen as yet. I 

 have ten acres of fruit, and not one tree girdled 

 by mice. Out of an orchard of 1,500 peach 

 trees only 25 are killed. Strawberries very 

 badly killed. — (James Ellis, Wentworth Co., Ont. 



Peach trees show about 30 per cent, of the 

 usual bloom in some cases and less in others. 

 Winter killing of peach buds has been unusually 

 severe, partly because many orchards are in a 

 weak condition on account of San Jose scale 

 infestation. Orchards that have been treated 

 for this enemy have wintered well and buds 

 show for a fair crop. One grower near Queens- 

 ton Heights lost 300 fine peach trees and others 

 more or less.— (Mr. Armstrong, Niagara Co. 



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