240 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



P'loral Edition, 



The Merits of the Duchess Apple 



E. H. Wartman, Dominion Fruil Inspector, Montreal 



Picking grapes in the vineyard of J. 

 burn, Winona, Ont. 



S. Cock- 



It is likely that the mixing "of trees, 

 which causes such trouble to fruit 

 gi-owers, is done during the handling of 

 the trees between the time of digging in 

 the fall and of shipping in the spring. 

 If John Jones, a grower, chooses his 

 S'tock at the nursery before it is dug, 

 that stock when dug will be put aside 

 for him. It will not go into the general 

 stock, and will likely be true to name. 



Third. — There will be a greater 

 chance that such stock will arrive in 

 time for planting if it has been chosen 

 and set aside before the rush of orders 

 comes in. 



Of course, it would be foolish for the 

 man who is only planting a few trees 

 to visiit the nursery, but if he is plant- 

 ing say ten or fifteen acres or more, it 

 would be a paying proposition. It 

 must be remembered that the worth of 

 the orchard during its bearing period 

 will depend to quite an extent on the 

 quality and shape of the trees pur- 

 chased. 



A question which often arises during 

 the purchase of nursery stock is 

 whether it is wise to purchase trees 

 from nurseries in the Middle Central 

 States. So far as acclimatization is 

 concerned, there seems to be no objec- 

 tion to this praotiee. The trees are 

 young and have not yet become ac- 

 climatized to any district. Again, the 

 stock upon which the trees are grown 

 is in many cases the same as is i;sed by 

 our Canadian nurseries. The chief ob- 

 jections are freight and their drying 

 out in transit during long trips and 

 while being fumigated at the port of 

 entry. Of course, if thev are well 

 packed they should tmvel all right. 

 However, other things being equal, we 

 should always put Canada first ! 



FRUIT growers will do well to pay 

 more heed to the merits of the 

 Duchess apple. In spite of what 

 has been said against them, year by 

 year their merits are becoming better 

 recognized by many growers. Those 

 growers who have orchards of this 

 variet}', especially where ice is avail- 

 able for shipping purposes, have much 

 for which to be thankful. 



My own experience with this variety 

 dates back many years. On our own 

 home farm we planted fifteen trees. 

 These trees were planted on a rich 

 loam, had natural drainage and good 

 care, and naturally we expected good 

 I'csults. We were not disappointed. 

 When the trees were six years old, 

 while looking over a beautiful healthy 

 well balanced tree full of fruit, I spied 

 one specimen more beautiful than the 

 others. This I picked and laid it on the 

 house scales. It weighed one half 

 pound, which we Avould call to-day a 

 remarkably large specimen. This tree 

 to-day is quite forty years old, and 

 still bearing fine fruit. Many years 

 ago our Ontario fruit experts, while 

 rating our apples, gave the Duchess 

 ten points out of a possible ten for 

 home market, foreign market and 

 cooking, but only two points for des- 

 sert. This gave it thirty-two out of 

 forty points, which should give it a 

 place of great merit. Those who live 

 near a large market, and who can place 

 large quantities in their freshness 

 and bloom without having to pay ex- 

 press or freight, are most favorably 

 situated to make money out of this 

 desirable apple. 



The situation is different with those 

 growers who live two or three hundred 

 miles from their market. These men 

 have had their trials and losses and low 

 prices. I am persuaded, however, that 

 the man who raises from one to sev- 

 eral cars of this apple has not yet done 

 his best in trying to place this variety 

 on the market in a sound condition. 

 The man who lives near a lake, river, 

 or even pond, where he can get a 

 plentiful supply of ice for little cost iii 

 the winter months, when fruit men are 

 not so very busy, should do so. He 

 should look ahead to the cooling of his 

 Duchess in the coming of August. It 

 is presumption for a man in this en- 

 lightened age to pick or pack these 

 early apples in the temperature of 100 

 degrees F. or more, as it was this sea- 

 son in Duchess time, when, in some 

 cases four days elapsed from the start 

 of packing to the landing in Montreal. 

 Under these conditions there was no 

 chance for heat to get out of the bar- 

 rels, but they contimied to generate 

 heat as the fruit ripened. To place in 



cold stoi-age at this stage would be un- 

 profitable, for what the apple had lost 

 nothing could replace. 



I am not an advocate of keeping any 

 fruit long out of its season. Any fruit 

 is at its best for but a short time, and 

 the most tender a very short time. As 

 one writer has said, the peach is at its 

 best for one hour. I do believe it is 

 necessary to land all fruits in sound 

 and hard condition. This can be done 

 by keeping fruit cool by using ice in 

 sufficient . quantities. This has been 

 proved in.any times. We receive cars 

 of California peaches here in perfec 

 order after ten or twelve days in tran 

 sit. The secret is bunkers full of io 

 all the way at a cost of from $75 to $9( 

 a car. Just a little more proof. 



In the year 1902 I received Duchea 

 apples in Cork, Ireland, and Wolver 

 hampton, England, after being fifteei 

 days from the trees, and still the; 

 looked well after being ten days on ex 

 hibition plates. This same year — 190! 

 — one orchard in Ontario bore ove 

 3,000 barrels of Duchess apples, an 

 were sold for sixty cents a barre 

 when I sold the same quantity, thre 

 bushels, for about $7.50 per barre 

 There must have been a screw loose 

 somewhere ! 



A few days ago I heard our auction- 

 eer say, "I can't sell apples. Will Mr. 

 So-and-So come up and try?" I really 

 felt sorry to see such a condition. But 

 there is a remedy which I have named. 

 When apples are gone in quality it is 

 a poor time to try to save them. The 

 Duchess has done wonders in its day. 

 One case I could name where two hun- 

 dred barrels of Duchess apples sold in 

 Montreal for one thousand dollars, or 

 five dollars a barrel. 



I can remember buying the finest 

 Northern Spy apples all picked for 

 fifty cents a barrel, tree run. This was 

 about twenty-eight years ago. Of 

 course, I took all winter apples at the 

 same price. This was the best offer the 

 grower could get. One Mould be led 

 to say from this statement, "How does 

 horticulture pay?" Let the orchard- 

 isf who has a good orchard and is a 

 good salesman count up his sales for 

 twenty years and get the average price 

 per barrel, then the secret is known. 

 Yes, the old Duchess tree should not 

 be rooted up and burned yet. Where 

 is there an apple in our Dominion 

 more free from fungus than the 

 Duchess? If shipping from Montreal 

 had been normal this year I believe one 

 thousand barrels could have been 

 bought within a radius of ^ fifty 

 miles of this city. I also believe there 

 would have been a net return of three 

 dollars a barrel for them. 



