282 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIS2 . 



RELATION OF CULTIVATION TO THE GROWTH AND 

 DEVELOPMENT OF APPLE TREES. 



:HITTEN, of Missouri, has been 

 making- some useful experiments 

 on the effect of tillage on the 

 growth and vigor of apple trees. 

 These conditions have long been considered 

 by us at Maplehurst and by many of our 

 best growers, who once thought that an 

 orchard needed no tillage. Almost all have 

 now' become convinced of the necessity of 

 giving their orchards the very best cultiva- 

 tion if an abundance of fine fruit is to be 

 harvested. 



The following are some of Whitten's 

 points as given in Bulletin 49, University of 

 Missouri, Columbia : 



The greatest growth has been made by 

 those orchards that have been cultivated 

 most. Cultivated trees are uniformly 

 healthier, more vigorous, and produce larger 

 fruit than those not cultivated. 



Cultivated trees make more uniform 

 growth than do those not cultivated. The 

 more cultivation the less they are effected 



by drouth. The principal height growth of 

 trees is made early in the season, when 

 moisture supply is ample, so that a drouth 

 later in the season does not affect the height 

 growth of the current season ; its effect is, 

 however, noticeable in the imperfect de- 

 velopment of the fruit, and failure to 

 properly mature and ripen the wood and 

 buds for another season. The evil effects, 

 therefore, will be more noticeable in the 

 year succeeding a drouth than in the same 

 year, when in the case of' uncultivated 

 orchards a generally devitalized condition 

 may be looked for. 



It is commonly thought that cultivation 

 should always cease about August 1st, and 

 no doubt for a wet season this would be 

 wise in order to check the wood growth and 

 allow it to be ripened in good time before 

 winter ; but in a dry summer and autumn 

 the orchard soil should be kept in good tilth 

 until the crop matures, or at least until 

 rains come. 



FRUITS, OLD AND NEW. 



Sir, — I would like to express through the 

 columns of the Canadian Horticulturist, my 

 admiration of the very valuable information 

 and the many pointers contained in that 

 column relating to Horticulture and Arbori 

 culture, especially during the last few years. 

 Having spent nearly 60 years in this country, 

 and being familiarly acquainted with nearly 

 all the counties from Kingston to Goderich 

 north and south, for the last 25 years, I am 

 fully persuaded that we, as Canadians, are 

 not as far advanced in the art of Horticulture 

 as we might be nor as we ought to be. If 

 you take a drive, as I had the opportunity of 

 doing last week, to the county east of us. 



viz., Durham, and also west of us, viz., 

 york, and through our own county, you 

 would be not only surprised but disgusted at 

 the number of nests of tent caterpillars to be 

 seen on the route, and I assume that it is 

 largely due to the neglect of spraying the 

 orchards with the proper mixtures at the 

 proper time, and I am sure it is not for the 

 want of timely warning. As our Ontario 

 Government has given practical lessons and 

 advice which, if carried out, would rid the 

 province in a few years of one of the worst 

 enemies the orchardist has to contend with. 

 I am pleased to be able to note the rapid ad- 

 vance made in the last few years in the way 



A 



