30 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



February, 1911 



An Ontario Orchird with a Mile of Apple Trees 



But few people have a true conception of the extent of the apple orchaj-ds in the leading 

 fruit diBtrict« of Ontario. The orchard here shown is owned by W. H. Gibson, of Newcastle, 

 Durham County, and comprises some seventy-five acres. There are thousands of acres of fine 

 orchard land in this district that should be properly axivertised and thus settlers be attracted. 

 The National Apple Show in Ontario next year will help to do this. 

 Let all Ontario take hold. 



while the trees are dormant. The insects 

 that live over winter are those of the last 

 brood, which are born just before the 

 leaves drop in the fall. At first their scaly 

 covering is very thin and is not firmly at- 

 tached to the bark. From this it would 

 .seem that the insect is more susceptible 

 to treatment in the fall. However, so far 

 as killing the insect is concerned, equally 

 good results have followed spring appli- 

 cation. It is evident that badly infected 

 trees suffer from the presence of the 



scale during the winter months, at least 

 during the fall and early in the spring be- 

 fore the spraying is commenced. In view 

 of this fact and because of its greater 

 convenience fall spraying is recom- 

 mended. It must not be understood, how- 

 ever, that this is the only time, for it may 

 be successfully done any day from the 

 ^time the leaves drop in the fall until the 

 buds commence to swell in the spring, 

 providing the temperature is above the 

 freezing point. 



Fertilizers for Fruit Growers* 



Prof. R. Harcourt, O. 



ARTIFICL-VL fertilizers will give 

 their best results only when used 

 along with farmyard manure. We 

 should never think of entirely replacing 

 stable manures with fertilizers ; rather, 

 they should be used in conjunction with 

 it. Furthermore, the full results of fer- 

 tilizers can be obtained only when they 

 are used in conjunction with the very best 

 of cultivation ; consequently, the presence 

 of humus and thorough cultivation 

 should always be associated with the use 

 of fertilizers. 



So far as I am aware, very few con- 

 tinued experiments with fertilizers have 

 been carried out on the fruit crops in this 

 country. Numerous experiments have 

 been conducted in the United States and 

 in Germany. The German investigators 

 seem to have fairly well established the 

 fact that the mineral constituents re- 



•Extract from an address delivered at the an. 

 nual convention in November of the Ontario Fruit 

 Growers' Associatino 



A. C, Guelph, Ont. 



quired per acre for the full development 

 of fruit trees do not materially differ from 

 that required for root and vegetable 

 crops. Repeated extensive experiments 

 have also proven that hoed crops, such as 

 potatoes and sugar beets, make a better 

 use of farmyard manure than fruits. 

 Experiments carried out at the Diemitz 

 Experiment Station and at .Stassfurt in 

 Germany seem to clearly indicate that in 

 the case of core fruits, and especially with 

 apples, that fertilizers containing the 

 three essential mineral constituents, nit- 

 rogen, potash and phosphoric acid, can 

 be used with profit, and that potash aff- 

 ects the results more than any other one 

 constituent, nitrogen being assigned the 

 .second place and phosphoric acid the 

 third. 



It has been repeatedly noticed that 

 when potash was not supplied, even 

 though light dressings of stable manure 

 were made every three or four years, the 



trees assumed an appearance of those 

 grown under adverse conditions on poo. 

 soil; i.e., the growth of wood is arrest- 

 ed and the leaves are small and have an 

 unhealthy color and are covered with yel- 

 low spots. After the fruit is matured, 

 there is some growth of wood, and the 

 next spring there is put forth an abund- 

 ance of blossom, of which, however, few 

 develop, owing to the lack of proper 

 nourishment. 



In spite of the fact that there is an 

 abundance of phosphoric acid and nitro- 

 gen in the soil, most of the fruit falls 

 off during the summer, and, in conse- 

 quence, the yield when potash is not sup- 

 plied will be very little greater than when 

 no fertilizer is used. However, these con- 

 ditions are not general ; some varieties 

 show a marked ability to thrive under un- 

 favorable conditions, particularly in the 

 fact that they are able to throw off the 

 superfluous fruit which the tree is not 

 capable of fully ripening. Lack of nitro- 

 gen in the soil has been shown to have 

 a somewhat similar effect upon the de- 

 velopment of the fruit, although not so 

 pronounced, while the absence of phos- 

 phoric acid is even less noticeable. At 

 .Stassfurt, in Germany, in an experiment 

 in which we are given the yields for ele- 

 ven consecutive years from an orchard, 

 we find that the total fertilizers u.sed on 

 the complete fertilizer plot during this 

 period were worth vSi66.fio. The increase 

 due to the use of these fertilizers was 

 worth $1,190.50, leaving a handsome 

 profit for the use of the fertilizers. 



Where the potash was omitted the re- 

 sults were very much decreased. Ger- 

 man experiments have al.so fully demon- 

 strated that the use of fertilizers has a 

 very marked influence upon the yield of 

 plums. Their results in general .seemed 

 to indicate that the yield of stone fruits 

 is more influenced by phosphatic nitro- 

 genous manures than the core fruits. It 

 is possible that this is due to the fact that 

 "-tone fruits have a larger kernal which is 

 rich in phosphoric acid, and as the pro- 

 portion of kernal to fruit is much larger 

 in stone fruits than in core fruits, the 

 former have the greater need for phos- 

 phoric acid. These results have been fully 

 confirmed by fertilizer experiments on 

 peaches reported from the New Jersey 

 Experiment Station. 



Spraving Pays. — Last season sprayed 

 orchards in nearly every case had very 

 much better fruit than those that had 

 not been • sprayed. The cultivated or- 

 chards also had more and better fruit 

 than those in sod. We find the growers 

 who have large orchards, and make it 

 their business to look after the fruit, are 

 getting it. Those who simply sell what 

 the trees produce without any care or at- 

 tention, will soon have to market their 

 apples at the evaporator. — R. J. Graham, 

 Belleville, Ont. 



