June, 1916. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



143 



The key to the situation is distribu- 

 tion. In 1904, when I took up the work 

 on small fruits in Toronto, it was the 

 I common practice of commission men to 

 [ at once restamp thousands of baskets of 

 I peaches and reship them to the towns 

 and villages of Ontario. In some cases 

 the fruit was in the first stages of de- 

 cay. We did not take long to arrive at 

 ' the conclusion that this was a faulty 

 method of marketing. I have had an 

 opportunity at times to be at the re- 

 ceiving point when this reshipped fruit 

 '■ reached its destination and the con- 

 i Burners were not always anxious to re- 

 peat their orders. 



I hold no brief for the express com- 

 panies who are not blameless, but I 

 think that they have received all this 

 condemnation that is coming to th ii. 

 While travelling from Brockville to 

 Renfrew not long ago I took the trou- 

 ble to stop off at each station to watch 

 the small shipments being put off at the 

 different stops. In three cases the deal- 

 er to whom the fruit was shipped re- 

 fused to take it off the hands of the ex- 

 press company, and I did not blame 

 them. The baskets were weakly, the 



covers loose, and in many cases fruit 

 had been pilfered. This can be said of 

 thousands of baskets of small fruit in 

 Ontario. 



We have thousands of consumers, in- 

 cluding farmers all over Ontario, who 

 are anxious to have some Canadian 

 peaches if they can secure the fruit in 

 fair condition. Straight shipments 

 direct from the orchards to the towns 

 and villages all over Ontario seems to 

 be the only proper method. Surely re- 

 liable men can be found to look after 

 the local distribution. In order to put 

 the best methods into practice, cooper- 

 ation seems to be the only plan. In 

 the fruit business it looks like the sur- 

 vival of the fittest, and in my judgment 

 the cooperative associations are the fit- 

 test. 



With the increased production and 

 the high priced land that has been 

 taken up by many fruit growers in the 

 peninsula these questions constitute a 

 serious matter for those concerned. 

 Nothing but the closest attention and 

 the employing of the very best methods 

 on the part of the growers will save the 

 day. 



Results from the Skinner Irrigation System* 



O. J. Robb, Horlicultural Experiment Station, Vineland, Ont. 



OUR Skinner Irrigation system 

 covers nearly thi-ee acres of 

 medium soil, some of which is 

 sandy and some heavy. This system 

 has been operated during two seasons. 

 In 1914 we learned that tomatoes were 

 not benefitted by watering if proper 

 cultivation was given them. We had 

 no small fruit under the system in 1915, 

 but we had two plots of strawberries 

 and one of raspberries each with ad- 

 joining check plots. 



Results from the season of 1915 show 

 a decided advantage from watering the 

 strawberries, but with the raspberries 

 the unwatered plot gave the larger 

 yield, which amounted to 33%, in spite 

 of the fact that the watered section had 

 larger and better foliage and appeared 

 much stronger every way. One point 

 noticed here was the condition of the 

 plants early in the spring. The plants 

 that had been watered the previous sea- 

 son were killed back and showed much 

 more injury than the unwatered plants. 

 All the raspberry plants were only two 

 years old this past season. Better re- 

 sults are looked for during the coming 

 season. Three varieties were included 

 in this test and two systems of cultiva- 

 tion were practiced. 



I'he results with the strawberries 

 wore more satisfying and clearly dem- 

 onstrated the value of a good supply of 

 water at the right time. Only once 

 during last season did the berries suffer 

 for lack of rain in our section, but at 



•A pa-per read at the last annual convention 

 or the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association. 



the same time the watered plants came 

 on earlier, bore later, and looked 

 fresher all the time than the unwatered 

 plants. 



One plot contained forty-five variet- 

 ies under test where irrigation gave 

 various results, but with few exceptions 

 all were in favor of irrigation. Only 

 one row of each variety was planted, 

 thus the results from watering are not 

 so reliable as on a larger area. 



Our commercial plot consisted of four 

 varieties planted in duplicate, namely, 

 Michael's Early, Steven's Late, Cham- 



pion, Sample and the Williams. These 

 were planted in rows sixty feet long 

 and made up an area .137 of an acre 

 with an adjoining check plot of similar 

 size. 



The yield on the watered plot 

 amounted to 781.5 boxes, whereas the 

 yield on the unwatered plot amounted 

 to only 605 boxes, a gain of 176.5 boxes 

 on the watered plot. This extra yield 

 for one acre amounts to 1,288 boxes. 

 These, if sold at eight cents a box, 

 would bring in $103.04 as revenue from 

 irrigating. Deducting from this the 

 estimated cost of applying the water as 

 figured out by counting a ten hour day 

 as sufficient time to apply one inch of 

 water over one acre this Avould cost : 

 $1.20 for gasolene. 

 .50 for oil. 

 1.50 for labor. 



.46 for depreciation on invest-, 

 ment. 

 This gives $3.60 as cost of applying 

 one inch of water on one acre. But 

 10.3 inches of water was applied during 

 the season so the actual cost of irrigat- 

 ing this plot of berries per acre was 

 $3.60 X 20.3=$37.08 ; $103,04— $37.08 

 =$65.12 as actual profit per acre from 

 irrigation. In a dry season this would 

 be much more favorable. 



Other crops showing increased yields 

 were asparagus, celery, carrots and 

 beets. A decided loss was observed with 

 the onions. Practically all the irrigat- 

 ing was done during the months of 

 May, June and July. August was a 

 very wet month and no irrigating was 

 done. 



In an ordinary season with good cul- 

 tivation no extra heavy yields may be 

 looked for from irrigating except in 

 growing a crop like celery or aspara- 

 gus. The main advantage of the sys- 

 tem is its use in a dry section, and in 

 seasons where *a fruit crop such as 



Thinning Duchess apples In a Northumberland county or 



■liard, b(>:(l, 



l.al^o Ontario. 



