218 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



Floral Edition. 



Ontario liu.s many fine orcliards and also many old ones that are Uie leverso. What is 

 aie a million good trees to replace a million such as those here shown. 



wanttd 



orchards a big part of the revenue that 

 is ("oming for our year's operations and 

 there will then be no thought of skimp- 

 ing the labor or the manure or anything 

 else necessary to make it the success it 

 should be. 



"What acreage should be planted," 

 some may ask, "to accomplish this pur- 

 pose 1 ' ' Ten acres in my opinion Avould 

 be the mininram for economical oper- 

 ation. This would give the grower some 

 350 to 400 permanent trees with an ad- 

 ditional number of fillers should such a 

 system of planting be approved of. One 

 power sprayer could be advantageous- 

 ly used ; and sufficient packages would 

 be required that la>bor could be kept 

 busy in the winter preparing them. A 

 few ordinarily slack weeks in the 

 spring could be profitably put in prun- 

 ing; and the picking, packing and 

 other work would require from the 

 owner sufficient time to make him ap- 

 preciate the importance of giving the 

 orchard the besit management possible 

 expecting good returns. 



Varieties. 



As to varieties much depends on the 

 markets to which one expects to cater. 

 Ben Davis are not wanted on the 

 prairies, while Golden Russets are not 

 rated higher there than Baldwins and 

 Greenings. Spy and Snow are held in 

 high esteem in these western markets 

 and in many cases sell the balance of 

 one's pack. On the other hand, the 

 Russett outsells the Spy in Great 

 Britain and Stark and Ben have made 

 good money for the growers there. 

 South Africa asks for Gano, Wealthy 

 and King while Montreal ^vill pay high- 

 er prices for the Mcintosh and Snow. 

 Of the early apples Duchess are in good 

 demand for both east and west, while 

 AVealthy, if of good size, also sell well. 



For fillers in an orchard it is im- 



perative to plant such as are early 

 bearing, including Duchess, Wealthy, 

 Mcintosh, Gravenstein, Hubbardston 

 and Wagner. The last three mention- 

 ed are not listed above, yet are worthy 

 of a place among the fillers and will sell 

 readily at fair prices. 



Do not plant too many varieties, six 

 at the outside, unless you are near a 

 large local market to which you can 

 ship economically by express in small 

 packages or can haul by wagon or 

 truck in barrels or boxes. Where you 

 expeot to sell through an association 

 or individually in car lots, few varieties 

 and those largely the standard winter 

 kinds will help a great deal in the mar- 

 keting. In the eastern part of Ontario, 

 the season is sometimes so late that 

 varieties like the Spy will not ripen in 

 time to permit of safe shipment to tbe 

 west. Growers there have wised.v made 

 a specialty of those kinds best suited to 

 the export trade or that ripen early 

 enough for shipment to any market 

 that may prove attractive at the time. 

 Early Duchess are in demand for the 

 north and west and a profitable busi- 

 ness in this variety should be worked 

 up in the more southern parts of On- 

 tario. Car lots are required and 

 enoug'h growers at any one shipping 

 point should combine to produce this 

 variety for that trade. For several 

 years there has been a constant demand 

 for Duchess which we have not been 

 able to supply. 



Readers of this article may raise the 

 old question of overplanting. Undoubt- 

 edly we have too many orchards of the 

 type first described, but these are fast 

 passing away. Those that may linger 

 on will be driven out of the running 

 by competition, if not from Ontario 

 then from the orchards of Nova Scotia, 

 British Columbia or the states to the 



south of us. We should not give up the 

 splendid markets that we have secured 

 under such great difficulties when our 

 advjuitages are as great, if not greater, 

 than the other districts named. The 

 jneuibers of the many sniaiU associa- 

 tions in the western counties might 

 well plant cooperatively ten acres or 

 jnore apiece, looking to the future wel- 

 fare of their community. 

 , A bigger vi.s-ion is needed than we 

 have had in the past, such a vision as 

 inspired the splendid orchards in the 

 southern part of Ilalton and the lake 

 townships of Northumberland and Dur- 

 ham, wbere the size and character of 

 the orchards is the feature that at- 

 tracts the best buyers, and where apple 

 orcharding is not the side line it is in 

 so many other sections. Here we find 

 men who give up even a profitable 

 dairy business to give their attention 

 to a still more profitable apple busi- 

 ness. Why should we not have scores 

 more of such men in Ontario ? Then we 

 .could indeed boast not only of the 

 quantity and qtiality of our fruit but 

 also of its permanence. 



Sweet Cherry Difficulties* 



S. H. Rittenhouse, Jordan Harbour 



There are several reasons why sweet 

 cherries are not more commonly grown. 

 These are due mostly to difficulties con- 

 nected Avith their growth. Among 

 these are the following: 



They are hard to transplant success- 

 fully from the nursery. They require a 

 special kind of soil that is not com- 

 mon, and take considerable time to 

 come to bearing. Sweet cherries are 

 fairly susceptible to insect and fung- 

 ous diseases, and their market is much 

 more limited than for grapes and 

 peaches. 



Bro^v^^ rot is the worst disease of the 

 sweet cherry. Sometimes the crop is 

 lost in t-\\enty-four hours after every- 

 thing possible has been done to make 

 it a success. A fairly deep, well drain- 

 ed soil is required for them, more so 

 than for peaches. I oould probably 

 count on the fingers of my hand the 

 successful extensive growers in the 

 Niagara cistrict. I favor planting in 

 the fall ii! care is taken to protect the 

 tree during the first winter. If they 

 can be planted very early in the spring 

 they will do all right, but otherwise 

 they had better not be planted at thai 

 season. Our orchard has good ail 

 drainage, which protects it against 

 frost. 



We must put up our fruit in boxes il 

 we are to hold the western market. — C 

 J. Thornton, M.P. 



• \n answer given at the last convention o 

 the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association to i 

 question asking why sweet cherries are no 

 grown more extensively in Ontario. 



