September, 1916. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



217 



f. 



Apple Orcharding Should Be a Main Line 



p. W. Hodgetts, Provincial Horticulturist, Toronto, Ont. 



ONTARIO, the premier province iu 

 the Dominion of Canada, boasts 

 of more apple trees than all the 

 other provinces combined. In 1911 she 

 was credited with 6,710,033 bearing 

 and 2,073,576 non-bearing trees, a total 

 of 8,783,609 trees out of 15,217,176 

 trees in Canada. Her production in a 

 normal season is more than twice as 

 ji-eat as that of all the others com- 

 1 lined owing to the fact that three- 

 (|uarters of her acreage consists of full- 

 grown heavy bearing trees. In British 

 Columbia on the other hand, only about 

 lie-third of the trees are in bearing, 

 \ hile even her bearing orchards are 

 still young and not j^et up to the 

 iiaximum yield. The figures given 

 nve always created great pride in our 

 standing as a fruit producing country. 

 A careful analysis, however, will 

 prove that while we make a good show- 

 ing in the census reports and are still 

 by long odds the greatest factor in the 

 apple business, great improvements are 

 •imperatively necessary if we are to re- 

 gain our position. Our supremacy in 

 ; he growing of grapes and peaches is, 

 and will continue to be, beyond ques- 

 tion. Costly experience has taught us 

 the necessity of growing fewer 

 varieties, in larger quantities, in those 

 districts only that are best suited to 

 such fruits. With the apple, on the 

 ■other hand, Ave have planted far too 

 many varieties, on all kinds of soils, 

 and without particular regard to the 

 suitability of the section for the pur- 

 pose. For these past mistakes we 

 should be forgiven. Most of the 

 orchards were set out over thirty years 

 •ago when reliable advice was hard to 

 secure, or in fact, did not exist. Mar- 

 kets were limited and more or less 

 local ; a succession of varieties was 

 needed to supply customers throughout 

 he season ; no experimental work with 

 the varieties • as to their hardiness, 

 quality or bearing habits had yet been 

 dertaken. Yet it was with these and 

 ny other handicaps that our fathers 

 of necessity to start orcharding, 

 at wonder then that mistakes were 

 de ! Fancy what nerve those men 

 who planted the larger of the 

 any orchards that have made a name 

 'or Ontario as an apple country. 



One noticeable feature of the in- 

 dustry which applies particularly to 

 parts of Western Ontario is the large 

 number of small orchards of one or two 

 acres in extent. Take Middlesex as an 

 example, having, according to the la.st 

 census, some 364,793 trees and rating, 

 therefore, as an important apple grow- 

 ing county, yet we find that the aver- 

 age size of the orchard is less than two 



■acres. Never intended to supply ap- 

 ples for other than home use, with a 

 surplus for friends and neighbors, the, 

 aggregate of the trees has been so great 

 ■that in years of good crops, thousands 

 of barrels are available for shipment 

 to points outside the county. Only, 

 however, through the agency of the 

 small (local associations has this be- 

 come possible, and at thalt, the 'task of 

 gathering, sorting and selling the fruit 

 from scores of varieties is a serious and 

 expensive operation. Then in years of 

 light crop these associations cannot 

 secure enoug-h fruit to make it profit- 

 able to ship in carlots, resulting in loss 

 of customers and inconvenience gener- 

 ally to the trade. 



One serious feature of the small 

 orchard on the average farm is that in 

 times of labor stress, especially in the 

 spring and early summer, the apple 

 trees are neglected that the land may 

 be cultivated and the seeding done. 

 Spraying, one of the most important 

 faetore in producing good fruit, comes 

 on during this busy season, and is al- 

 most sure to be set aside in favor of 

 the more important — to the average 

 farmer — ^\vork on the grain crops. Even 

 if in favorable seasons the 100 odd 

 trees in the orchard bring in more 

 money than many of the best and big- 

 gest fieilds on the farm, the temptation 

 ■is always strong to take care of the 

 grain and the roots, as the apple trees 

 will still bring in some return no mat- 



ter what attention they do or do not 

 receive. 



. In another way, the general farmer 

 too often favors his fields at the ex- 

 pense of the orchard. His stock only 

 produces a certain amount of manure 

 during the year, and his rotation ol 

 crops is so arranged that this is all 

 used to advantage on the fields. His 

 trees are deep-rooted and despite the 

 lack of applied fertility still bear fair 

 crops at least semi-annually — so why 

 worry! Yet, ten tons of this manure 

 applied annually to every acre of the 

 orchard would give returns double 

 that received from the land, but the 

 broad expanse of wheat and oats, 

 barley and corn and potatoes is his 

 first love and last, and who can blame 

 him anyway, for he has been brought 

 np to believe in these crops as his sal- 

 vation? 



So we come naturally to the con- 

 clusion that apple orcharding may not, 

 and usually does not, succeed best as a 

 side line. Now do not think that I be- 

 lieve the apple orchard should consti- 

 tute the sole source of income from the 

 farm. Far from it, as lean years are 

 bound to come as well as the good. It 

 is better not to have all your eggs in 

 one basket! Yet we should have enough 

 eggs in that one basket to lead us to 

 handle it carefully. In plain words, 

 let us have sufficient acreage in apples 

 to make it worth our Avhile putting on 

 it the necessary labor at the proper 

 time, believing that we will secure bet- 

 ter returns for that labor than if spent 

 elsewhere on the farm. Let us go into 

 it determined to secure from our 



A good picking of Buirbank and Ajbundajice plums rojidy for market as g^athered in the orchard 

 of F. Bell & Sons, Burlington, Ont. 



