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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



noral BdilUon. 



The residence of Mr. F. H. Johnson, of Bridget 

 plays an important part in his orchard 



the water was sprayed on with a mist 

 nozzle, five per cent, of the apples were 

 injured by fruit worms ; where water 

 was applied with the drive nozzle 2.25 

 per cent, of the apples were injured, 

 and where the trees were not sprayed, 

 the injury amounted to 4.1 and 4.25 

 per cent, respectively. In six of the 

 seven comparisons that we had in 1915 

 between the drive and the mist nozzles 

 in fruit worm control, the use of the 

 drive resulted in the fewest apples in- 

 jured. In the seventh there was no 

 difference. 



The Codling Moth. 



Turning now to the Codling moth in 

 Nova Scotia: for some reason it is an 

 insect of very minor importance, the 

 greatest infestation recorded for the 

 year being from an unsprayed plot, 

 where 1.7 per cent, of the apples were 

 found to be wormy. As far as we have 

 been able to ascertain, it is single 

 brooded in Nova Scotia. There is only 

 two per cent, second brood in Maine, 

 where the season is both longer and 

 warmer than Nova Scotia. In view, 

 therefore, of the fact that the Codling 

 Moth is of so little importance in Nova 

 Scotia, the first spray after the blos- 

 soms may be advanced or retarded as 

 desired, with little or no injury to the 

 fruit crop on account of Codling Moth. 

 This is supported by the fact that the 

 spray applied immediately before the 

 blossoms controls 71.3 per cent, of the 

 Codling Moth, the spray after the blos- 

 soms alone controls 89.2 per cent., while 

 the spray two weeks after the blos- 

 soms controls 65.6 per cent. This 

 shows that the life history of the Cod- 

 ling Moth is drawn out over an enor- 

 mous period in Nova Scotia and that 

 it feeds extensively on the leaves be- 

 fore entering the fruit, thus minimizing 

 the already small importance of the 

 spray immediately after the blossoms 

 in Codling Moth control. 



These notes on three groups of in- 

 sects, in all something less than 17 



own, N.S., and a portion of the apiary which 

 operations. Note the article on this page. 



species, go to show that the control of 

 certain insects is somewhat different 

 in Nova Scotia from their control in 

 other parts of North America. The 

 relative importance of the three in 

 their relation to one another is also 

 somewhat different. With 1.7 wormy 

 apples, the highest infestation of Cod- 

 ling Moth recorded, we have in Bud- 

 moth a high infestation of 96.4 per 

 cent, of the fruit buds in the spring, 

 which resulted in a 72.3 per cent, re- 



duction in the total set of fruit as well 

 as an average of 40.5 per cent, of the 

 picked fruit from the unsprayed plots 

 in the same orchard injured by bud- 

 moth. In Fruit Worm we have this 

 j'ear a high infestation of seven per 

 cent, of the picked fruit injured, which 

 means 14.4 per cent, of the apples in 

 that plot had dropped during the 

 season as a result of fruit worm injury, 

 or a total injury of some 21.4 per cent, 

 of the total set by fruit worm. 



The Apple Curculio has not, so far 

 as I am aware, been recorded from the 

 province, nor has the Lesser Apple 

 Worm. 



The Falise Tarnished Plant Bug, 

 Lygus invitus, which is being investi- 

 gated by Prof. Brittain, does thou- 

 sands of dollars worth of damage an- 

 nually, but in Ontario Prof. Caesar re- 

 gards it as an unimportant species. 

 The Apple Maggot, while present, has 

 not yet affected the main fruit areas, 

 and the San Jose Scale, thanks to the 

 vigilance of the Provincial Entomolo- 

 gist, is not at present known to exist 

 in the province. I mention these to 

 show how different spraying condi- 

 tions are in Nova Scotia from other 

 apple growing sections, and the im- 

 portance of investigating the problems 

 of each locally. 



A Nova Scotia Grower s Methods 



A description of the methods of 

 orchard practice which have en- 

 abled Mr. F. H. Johnson, of 

 Bridgetown, N.S., to obtain an average 

 profit of one hundred dollars an acre 

 from a reclaimed orchard appeared in 

 the August, 1915, number of The Cana- 

 dian Horticulturist. A further ac- 

 count of Mr. Johnson's methods may 

 prove equally interesting. 



"For a spray, I used to use poisoned 

 Bordeaux," said Mr. Johnson to a 

 representative of The Canadian Horti- 

 culturist some time ago, "but now I 

 use only lime sulphur with arsenate of 

 lead. I boil my own lime-sulphur, using 

 steam for boiling. With a test of 30 

 (Beaume), I dilute one gallon of lime- 

 sulphur to thirty-one gallons of water, 

 and mix five pounds of arsenate of lead 

 to one hundred gallons of spray. The 

 sprayer is kept at a pressure of two 

 hundred pounds. Water is conveyed 

 from a brook with a tank filler run by 

 an engine. 



' ' I spray first in the spring when the 

 leaves are about the size of a ten-cent 

 piece. The second spraying takes place 

 when the blossoms first show pink ; the 

 third when the petals have about ail 

 fallen; the fourth ten days later, and 

 the fifth about a fortnight later. My 

 trees are most thoroughly sprayed un- 

 til every leaf and stem and branch and 



trunk is covered. Drenching with the 

 mixture I use does not harm the trees 

 in the least. I begin to spray the trees 

 as soon as they are set out, as it is a 

 mistake to wait until they begin to 

 bear. The fact that they have no blos- 

 soms makes it possible to spray them a 

 little in advance of, or shortly after, the 

 bearing orchard. They should receive 

 the same number of applications as the 

 older trees. Lime-sulphur is very ef- 

 fective in ridding the apple trees of 

 oyster-shell bark lice. The trees 

 should be scraped to remove the rough 

 bark before applying the spray, to give 

 it a better chance to work on the scales. 



Bees Are Kept. 



"A few colonies of bees are kept for 

 the benefit of the orchard. . They are 

 proving a source of income from the 

 honey, besides the good work they do 

 in the orchard. I often suspect that 

 fruit growers do not always fully re- 

 alize the important part that bees play 

 in distributing the pollen. At all 

 events the increase of bees has not by 

 any means kept pace with the increase 

 in orchards. Growers whose orchards 

 are not situated near an apiary would 

 be well ad^ased to keep a few colonies. 



' ' I buy my stock from local nurseries, 

 thus getting trees fully acclimated. The 

 stock costs about twenty-five dollars 



