372 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



game, is the fact that growers often do not 

 like to have it known that they were de- 

 frauded. Rather than make a fuss and 

 have it noised about that they reaHzed but 

 little for their crops, they accept the buyer's 

 'offer of settlement and but little is heard of 

 the matter. The next year these buyers 

 move off into a new district and begin the 

 same game over again. This game is car- 

 ried on to sych an extent that there are few 

 important fruit sections in Canada where 

 there are not some growers who have been 

 defrauded more or less extensively in this 

 way. Within the past few weeks a buyer 

 has been settling with growers in the Nia- 

 gara district in the manner described. A 

 tase which wiH probably be remembered by 

 many is that of the Ontario buyer who two 

 years ago defrauded fruit growers in the 

 Annapolis valley. Nova Scotia, out of 

 $30,000 to $40,000 worth of fruit. These 

 growers took their ,case to law but were un- 

 able to obtain any satisfaction. 

 THE REMEDIES. 

 There are several ways in which the 

 operations of these buyers can be prevented. 



If growers would cooperate in the packing 

 and marketing of their fruit, danger of loss 

 in this way could be avoided. A /coopera- 

 tive growers' association generally has large 

 quantities of fruit to dispose of, which en- 

 ables it to deal direct with responsible firms 

 instead of through local buyers. A co- 

 operative association is able to demand cash 

 for every sale made. 



Where there are no cooperative associa- 

 tions, growers should only sell to well known 

 local buyers who reside and are well known 

 in the section. One of the great troubles 

 ihere, however, is the fact that local grow- 

 ers are often unable to offer as high a price 

 as the sharpers, as they know they will have 

 to pay full value for every barrel of apples 

 they purchase. It is due to the fact that 

 the irresponsible buyer generally offers con- 

 siderably the best price that so many grow- 

 ers are led to deal with him and are finally 

 victimized. It is generally far better for 

 'growers to accept a lower price from a man 

 whom they know thoroughly, than to deal 

 •with a person of whom they know little or 

 ■nothing. 



Good Results from Caustic Soda 



M. G. BRUNER, OUNDA, ONT., LOCAL SAN 

 JOSE SCALE INSPECTOR. 



WHILE at Kings ville not long ago I 

 examined an apple orchard af- 

 fected by the scale, one half of which had 

 been sprayed with caustic soda and the 

 other portion with the lime and sulphur 

 wash. I did not find a live scale on any of 

 the limbs or twigs, although on one tree 

 five or six apples were found on the end of 

 a limb that had a few scale ori them. 



A number of growers in this section who 

 have used the caustic soda wash speak very 

 highly of it, and believe that it is almost a 

 certain cure for the scale, as it cleans the 

 trees of everything. The trees in the or- 

 chard referred to had only been given one 



treatment, as they were not badly affected.^ 

 Growers who have tried both the caustic 

 soda and the lime and sulphur wash con- 

 sider the caustic soda to be the cheapest and 

 that it gives equally as good results. 



Kruit growers who have followed the cus- 

 tom of keeping their orchards in sod, and 

 who decide to cultivate them in future, 

 should be careful not to break up the sod in 

 the autumn, especially in those parts of the 

 country where. the winters are severe. The 

 roots which have not been disturbed, it may 

 be for years, will be near the surface, and 

 are likely to be injured, and perhaps de- 

 stroyed altogether by hard frost. It is bet- 

 ter to plow in the spring. — (W. T». Macoun, 

 Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa. 



