262 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



Moral Edition. 



Ill one orchard near Grimsby the 

 fruit in 1914 was so scaibby that the 

 owner could not sell it to packers. The 

 crop had to be sold for cider making. 

 ]n 1915 Prof. Cajsar, in conjunction 

 .with the Provincial Inspectors, took 

 over this orchard and by thorough 

 pruning and spraying put it in good 

 shape. The immediate result of this 

 work in the spring of 1915 was that the 

 apples that fall sold for $1,000. Spray- 

 ing was continued this year and a very 

 nice crop of apples was harvested. The 

 owner estimates that he will sell his 

 1916 crop for $3,500. Money talks. 



This has been a very bad year for 

 scab on account of tlie wet season. This 

 disease is protoalbly more general 

 throughout the province this year than 

 ever before. A significant fact is seen 

 in the contract between the United 

 Fruit GroweTs of Ontario and the 

 Grain GroAvers' Grain Co., where the 

 Ontario fruit growei-s only guaranteed 

 to supply 10 per cent, of No. 1 fruit. 

 The great discrimination in prices be- 

 tween No. 1 and No. 2 grades of fruit 

 should be an object lesson to farmers 

 who thought to save money by neglect- 

 ing their spraying last spring. Apples 

 of good quality are selling at high 

 prices this year. On the Hamilton 

 market a few days since, good apples 

 were selling at a higher rate per basket 

 than peaches. 



The San Jose Scale is being largely 

 controlled in the Niagara district. It 

 has been a life and death struggle with 

 the fruit growers. It is only when 

 fruit growers realize the necessity foi- 

 drastic measures that such a disease 

 can be successifully dealt with. In 

 counties where the scale has not been 

 fought against by some of the fruit 

 growers it is gaining rapidly. This is 

 especially true of some of the districts 

 along the shore of Lake Erie. In one 

 county over 1,400 acres of orchard 

 have been destroyed fby scale. The 

 proportion which this menace 'has as- 

 sumed in this district is probably due 

 to the fact that there are no pest in- 

 spectors there such as there are in the 

 Niagara District. Eadh man does what 

 he thinks best. 



The people have protection against 

 these diseases entirely within their own 

 grasp. Where twenty-five ratepayers 

 in a township want inspection the 

 township must appoint a fruit pests 

 inspector. This inspector will have 

 authority to compel every man in the 

 township to spray his orchard. Where 

 a man neglects spraying the inspector 

 Avill be empowered to have the spray- 

 ing done, and to have the cost of it col- 

 lected along with the man's taxes. This 

 prevents the spread of disease by the 

 non-spraying of orchards by careless 

 lessees. The Niagara District is per- 

 haps the best supplied Avith inspectors 



of any district in Canada. Every town- 

 ship there lias from one to thi'ee in- 

 spectors. There has been no damage 

 of importance done by the scale north 

 of the commercial peach belt, or in 

 other word.s, of a line running from To- 

 ronto to Sarnia. 



Gratifying Results. 

 Little peach and peach yellows 

 are now well under control. Three 

 years ago over 60,000 trees were 

 taken out of the Niagara and 

 Fonthill districts because of these dis- 

 eases. Last year not more than one dis- 

 eased tree was found on an average in 

 each orchard by the inspectors. The 



The "Uizzie" stands find their best place in 

 receiving and storing small lots of heteregeneous 

 l<inds and grades of fruits. They hold sixteen 

 eleven-quart baskets. Note article on page 263. 



only method for the control of these 

 diseases is to take out the diseased 

 tree and burn it. 



The inspectors are doing splendid 

 work in eradicating scale and other dis- 

 eases of the orchard. This year is a 

 particularly good year for them to im- 

 press on the fruit grower the absolute 

 necessity for constant attention to his 

 trees if he expects to reap any profits 

 from them. 



Oyster Shell Bark Louse can be best 

 controlled by waiting until it hatches 

 out, when a couple of applications of 

 Lime sulphur or Kerosene Emulsion 

 should be given. 



Growth of Pruned and Un- 

 pruned Trees 



THE pruning of fruit trees during 

 the season of planting is advo- 

 cated by some authorities, whilst 

 others advise its postponement until 

 after a season's growth. Both methods 

 are claimed to be successful. The re- 

 sults of a series of experiments con- 

 ducted to determine the relative value 

 of both methods are reported in the 

 Journal of the Roj'a.l Horticultural So- 

 ciety. The experiments were planned 

 with a view to making comparative 

 measurements of the growth of trees 

 pruned at the different periods, and to 

 determining whether the results varied 

 with the variety of tree or stock upon 

 which a given variety was grafted. 



Eighty trees were used in the experi- 

 ment, comprising five varieties grafted 

 on the Paradise stock and five varieties 

 on the Crab stock. They were planted 

 in five rows ten feet apart each way. 

 After growth had ceased in the autumn 

 of each of the three years following 

 planting, the length of each branch and 

 twig produced during the previous 

 growing season was measured. After 

 the measurements had been completed 

 each season all the trees were pruned 

 in order to give them the form desired 

 and to admit light to the centre of the 

 trees. 



Before the first general pruning in 

 February, 1913, it was evident that the 

 trees which had not been pruned after 

 planting had far more flower-buds upon 

 them than those which had been 

 pruned. This effect was so marked that 

 it was in most cases difficult to find 

 shoot-buds to which to prune, and con- 

 sequently pruning had to be done into 

 the two-year-old wood of 1911, instead 

 of the one-year-old wood. This was the 

 case with every variety, so that al- 

 though in every case the amount of 

 growth made in 1912 was greater in the 

 pruned than in the unpruned trees, the 

 amount of wood removed at pruning 

 time was greater in every case in the 

 unpruned than in the pruned trees. 



The results of the measurements dur- 

 ing the three seasons 1912-14 lead to 

 the conclusion that all varieties of 

 apples grmv better in the first season if 

 they are pruned in the season of plant- 

 ing than if left unpruned, and that the 

 check imposed by neglect of pruning 

 is felt by trees on Paradise stock for at 

 least three yeara after planting, while 

 trees on Crab stock appear to recover 

 more quickly and perhaps even to gain 

 slightly in their second or third years. 

 The difference in behavior of the trees 

 on different stocks gives a probable ex- 

 planation of the difference which has 

 arisen in practice. Since, however, in 

 all cases the first year's growth is very 

 important, the practice of pruning dur- 

 ing the season of planting is preferable. 



