120 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



Floral Edition. 



A Ruined Family Tree 



By Herbert F. McDoug'al. 



AWOKN codling moth, with spray in his eye, climbed out to the tip 

 of a limb, and wearily took in the damp landscape with a vision 

 constructed and dim, and he mumbled and muttered under his 

 breath, of latter-day happenings dire, when a man with a hose and a 

 nozzle that worked could put out a pest like fire. 



"That old apple tree, where I spent happy hours, will never again be 

 the same, since that modern man with his poisonous spray and his knowl- 

 edge of insects came ; he has broken my home and has poisoned my eye, 

 and the iron has entered my soul, and he s made it so hot for this old 

 codling moth, that the said moth is hunting his hole. 



"Generations my family had lived in that tree, and had thrived on 

 its generous fruit, and the man who evicted us moths from our homes 

 is nothing much short of a brute. He has put a kink in our family line, 

 and has brought to us nothing but woe; for we can't live on dope like 

 he shot in my eye, and I reckon we'll all have to go. 



"It is sad to eonsider the fate of a bug that has had an existence so 

 gay; we were happy so long as men let us alone, but we can't stand this 

 new-fangled spray. It is true that the man with a deed to that tree may 

 think he was well in his right when he cranked up his sprayer and loaded 

 his hose, and put a proud family to flight. 



"But it's certainly hard on a well-meaning bug to have his existence 

 cut short, just in order that apples may grow big and red and be of de- 

 sirable sort. He has shot our traditions all full of rough holes, and he's 

 certainly hard upon me ; and, however it blossoms and bears ruddy fruit, 

 to us it's a bum family tree." — ^Fruit Grower and Farmer. 



We hear considerable about the abil- 

 ity of lime to liberate potash from the 

 soil. Where soils have been fertilized 

 generously with potash in recent years, 

 the USB' of lime will add noticably, for 

 a time, to the quantities of potash which 

 plants can take from the soil. This is 

 due to the fact that lime enters into 

 certain compounds replacing potash, 

 which then passes into solution in the 

 soil water, or is held in the soil in such 

 a physical state as to be more readily 

 available than before. It is obvious 

 that an end to such a possibility will 

 soon be reached, for there will not be 

 sufficient potash remaining in these 

 readily decomposable compounds to be 

 liberated to any practical extent. The 

 most of the potash in soils is present in 

 such combinations that lime will have 

 no practical decomposing effect upon 

 it. It seems to me little can be hoped 

 for in a practical way by attempting to 

 set free potash for crops by liming. 



The fact that large quantities of pot- 

 ash have, in recent years, been used in 

 the Annapolis Valley, will materially 

 help out in our present potash shortage, 

 but the source of our potash supply in 

 the future should be through the clover 

 plant, with its deep feeding root sj^tem, 

 which will do more to liberate potash 

 than will the lime. 



Many of our orchard lands are so de- 

 ficient in humus and plant food that 

 they will not grow cover crops even if 

 lime is used. If such is the case, a sys- 

 *"m should be adopted to give to the 



orchard sufficient stable manure to get 

 a good clover crop started, after which 

 there will be little difficulty in secur- 

 ing a good catch. From five tons of 

 good stable manure to ten tons of 

 poorer grades per acre should be suf- 

 ficient, if properly applied, to give an 

 excellent catch. If necessary, to this 

 soil should be added about from two to 

 four tons of ground limestone per acre. 

 In some cases slag is all that will be re- 

 quired, and this can be applied at the 

 rate of one thousand pounds every three 

 years. It may be that it is best to give 

 a good application at once, rather than 

 spreading .it in small quantities over 

 several years. In other cases it may be 

 that lime only is required. This can be 

 determined by the vigour of growth in 

 the orchard, and quality of the fruit 

 previously produced. 



Pear Blight starts in the spring of 

 the year when the blossoms are open 

 and that is the time it is carried, es- 

 pecially to apples. There is only one 

 thing to do with pear blight, and that 

 is to act quickly and keep on acting. 

 To control it as few twigs as possible 

 should be left for the insects to feed 

 on. Early in the season every affected 

 twig should be cut out. Be sure to 

 disinfect your tools, because if you cut. 

 a diseased part and then cut a healthy 

 part, you are almost sure to give it the 

 disease.— Prof. L. Caesar, 0. A. C, 

 Guelph, Ont. 



Essentials of Success 



Seth J. T. Bush, Morton, N.Y. 



One mistake very often made by per- 

 sons who think they have "heard the 

 call" to go into fruit raising comes 

 through their undertaking a twenty- 

 five or ilfty acre orchard proposition 

 with a five or ten acre capital. You 

 can't sweep back the tide with a broom, 

 and it is much better to operate on a 

 small scale and do it thoroughly than 

 to undertake something beyond your 

 ability or nieans. 



All land is not fruit land, and it is 

 useless to try to grow fruit success- 

 fully unless you have the right kind of 

 soil and other favorable conditions, and 

 with these it is also useless unless you 

 are prepared to spray, cultivate, prune 

 and thin properly. All this costs money, 

 and a great deal of it, and requires 

 much labor, and that is not all the 

 story. When you have done all the 

 needed things to produce a fine crop 

 of fruit, you will still fail of success 

 if you do not properly grade and pack 

 your fruit. 



There never has been a time in the 

 history of fruit growing when the abso- 

 lute necessity for honest, uniform grad- 

 ing and packing w as so apparent. We 

 have got to leave the "culls" out of 

 the package. 



Every package of poor fruit that is 

 allowed to go on the market reduces 

 the price you are able to obtain for 

 your good fruit. It is a mistaken idea 

 for any man to think that when he 

 succeeds in selling his inferior fruit, 

 other than at the cider mill, evaporator 

 or canning factory, that he is "just so 

 much ahead." 



We can and do raise enough high 

 grade fruit in this country every year 

 to supply all the demands, and each 

 year the necessity of more markets and 

 better distribution is more apparent. 

 All infei'ior fruit should go into by- 

 products, and none of it be packed in 

 baskets and barrels, and thus go into 

 consumption to the disgust of many 

 and satisfaction • of but few. 



We are told that the peach contains 

 a far greater percentage of sugar than 

 the beet, and our scientific friends 

 should tell us how to extract this sugar. 

 The very finest material for setting 

 prints in fabrics manufactured abroad 

 is obtained from dried fruits. These 

 matters call for careful investigation. 



The grower must know when his 

 fruit is ready to pick, and it must be 

 picked when it is ready, not before or 

 two or three days after, but just at the 

 right time, or the returns will not be 

 satisfactory, as the fruit will not carrj- 

 properly, snd there are so many 

 peaches grown nowadays that people 

 do not have to buy imperfect fruit. 

 In any case, consumers will not pay 

 fancj- prices for it. 



