February, 1916. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



>7 



per hundred. The trees are set out as 

 early in the spring as the land is fit to 

 work. The standard trees are planted 

 forty feet apart. In between I plant 

 Wageners as fillers. The Wageners are 

 upright groovers, bear very young, and 

 do not interfere with the development 

 of the standard trees for a number of 

 years. Moreover, the fruit is of good 



quality and appearance. I can recom- 

 mend the Wagener as a filler. 



"In planting, I dig a fairly large 

 hole so as to fit all the roots in with- 

 out any crowding. I put some of the 

 surface soil in the bottom of the cavity 

 and place more over the roots of the 

 trees. The subsoil is placed on top and 

 the ground thoroughly firmed. 



The Right and Wrong way to Care for an Orchard 



W. E. Biggar, Provincial Inspector of Insect Pests, Hamilton 



I 



JN planting a young orchard care 

 should be taken on arriving from 

 the nursery with the trees not to 

 allow the roots to be exposed to the 

 hot sun and drying winds. See that 

 they are well heeled in with moist 

 earth, as soon as possible, preferably 

 in the field where you intend planting 

 them. After the planting is done, the 

 next thought and wish of the planter is 

 tO' secure a thrifty,vigorous growth in 

 the young trees. This can be done by 

 cultivating frequently — say, once or 

 twice a week up till th« last of July 

 or beginning of August — then cease 

 cultivation. It is wrong to continue 

 cultivation throughout the summer, be- 

 cause late cultivation keeps the trees 

 growing, and does not allow the wood 

 to ripen and harden, and then we get 

 winter injury, which often kills from 

 twenty-five to forty per cent, of the 

 trees. I have witnessed a number of 

 cases in different parts of Ontario of 

 winter injury directly traceable to late 

 cultivation. 



In pruning a young orchard which 

 has not yet reached the bearing 

 age, do not prune too severely. 

 Excessive pruning checks the growth 

 of the young tree. A certain amount 

 of pruning is absolutely neces- - 

 sary in order to form a well balanced 

 head on t)ie tree ; but cutting away the 

 top until there are but a few short 

 stubs of branches left, as I have seen 

 in some instances, constitutes excessive 

 pruning. However, when a tree 

 reaches the bearing age then we must 

 prune. 



While the pruning is being done, re- 

 move all the dried fruit found clinging 

 to the branches. Practically all this 

 dried fruit was diseased with brown 

 rot, and contains the spores of the dis- 

 ease, which will start the Brown Rot in 

 the fruit ot the coming season. Also 

 •cut out all branches affected with 

 Black Knot, cutting from four to six 

 inches below where the knot is visible. 

 This will insure removal of all spores 

 which sometimes extend some distance 

 in the bark, below the knots. 



As soon as the pruning is finished, 

 gather the brush and burn it. It is 

 wrong to allow brush heaps to remain 

 from one season to another before 

 burning, because it is a breeding place 

 for Shotholc or Pinhole Borers. This 



insect does considerable damage to 

 peach and cherry trees, especially the 

 young trees, and the -borers are one of 

 the main factors in spreading pear 

 blight. 



Importance of Spraying. 



Years ago people would buy scabby 

 or wormy apples and ask no questions, 

 until they made the discovery that 

 such fruit ^vas nearly half wasted when 

 the diseased and wormy parts had been 

 removed. Now the demand is for clean, 

 perfect fruit. This it is impossible to 

 obtain without spraying. In spraying 

 for San Jose Scale, prune and scrape 

 the trees thoroughly and use concen- 

 trated or commercial lime and sulphur, 

 testing by the hydrometer 1.300 specific 

 gravity. A.dd one gallon to six of water 

 and you have it strong enough to kill 

 scale. 



Where many fail to control the 

 scale it is because Avhen spraying they 

 fail to get the under sides of the 

 branches and the tips of the limbs cov- 

 ered with spray mxture. All parts of 

 the tree must be covered with spray if 

 we expected to control San Jose Scale. 

 It is a mistake and decidedly wrong to 

 expect to keep scale under control in 

 an apple orchard without thorough 

 spraying. 



Spraying should never be done soon 

 after a rain and while the branches are 

 still wet, for it is an absolute waste of 

 time and money, as the spray material 

 will have but little effect 'in killing 



scale if applied while the trees are wet. 

 If it is a peach orchard you are spray- 

 ing, be sure and spray before the ter- 

 minal buds begin to swell, and then 

 you will positively control curl leaf. A 

 peach tree attacked by curl leaf is cer- 

 tainly a sick tree for the one year, and 

 will in all probability cause a loss of 

 that season 's crop of fruit. 



Remove trees affected with Yellows. 

 It seems hard to convince some fruit 

 growers that it is a dangerous practice 

 to leave Yellows or Little Peach dis- 

 eased trees standing in the orchard 

 after being marked by the inspector. 

 By promptly removing the diseased 

 trees, the spread of the disease will be 

 kept well under control, but those who 

 are careless and allow the trees to re- 

 main standing for weeks after being 

 marked, pay dearly for their neglect. 



I want to mention one instance. In 

 1914 an orchard was found with thirty- 

 eight diseased trees in it. Being short 

 of help the owner allowed the trees to 

 stand for some weeks after they were 

 marked. 'J'his past season of 1915 I was 

 requested to go with the local inspector 

 and together we marked three hundred 

 and eighty-seven trees diseased with 

 Yellows and Little Peach in this 

 orchard. When we told the owner the 

 number of trees we had marked he im- 

 mediately .sent a man with the axe and 

 cut them down. It seems to need an 

 experience of this kind to awaken some 

 men to the fact that Yellows and Little 

 Peach are a very dangerous disease to 

 trifle with. 



We now have a staff of well trained 

 and efficient local inspectors, and for 

 the past three years the number of 

 trees diseased, with Yellows and Little 

 Peach has been reduced each year, un- 

 til the loss is but trifling. Sometimes 

 new men are elected in the Township 

 Councils, and a trained experienced in- 

 spector is discharged and an inexperi- 

 enced man is appointed in his place. 

 This practice hinders and obstructs our 

 work and often results disastrously. 



There are numerous larpe plantations of .small fruit In Lambton County. The raspberry plan- 

 tation here shown Is that of Robt. W. Rlggs, of Arkona, Ont. 



