The Canadian Horticulturi^ 



Vol. XXXIV 



MARCH, igii 



No. 3 



The Planting and Care of a Large Orchard 



W. H. Gibson, President Newcastle Co-operative Association 



NEWCASTLE is situated in the 

 heart of one of the greatest apple- 

 producing sections of Canada. It 

 is estimated that in the counties of 

 Northumberland and Durham there are a 

 million trees. Of these 400,000 are in 

 bearing and 600,000 still to come into the 

 production of fruit. Orchards of fifty 

 and one hundred acres are common. The 

 orchards on the farms all through the 

 Lake Ontario apple belt will average at 

 least ten acres in size. 



I have no fear of over-production, as I 

 have already seventy-five acres, and will 

 plant twenty-five acres more in the 

 spring. On my farm can be seen what 

 it will be hard to find even in the bonanza 

 apple ranges of British Columbia, or even 

 the States, that is, apple trees in rows a 

 mile long. 



PEEPERS HIGH HEADED TREES 



Ninety-nine per cent, of the trees in 

 this district are headed high. I see no 

 tendency towards changing to the now 

 popular form of low headed trees. Per- 

 sonally I am not in favor of the system 

 of low heading, as I think it is not prac- 

 tical, and that many men who are plant- 

 ing low headed trees will in a few years 

 regret their action. The hired man in 

 plowing will bark them with the har- 

 ness. The limbs will fly back and hit 

 him in the face, knock off his hat, and 

 cause him to swear, which will not aid 

 harmony on the farm. The limbs will 

 soon bend down with the weight of the 

 fruit, so that they will lie on the ground, 

 but my strongest objection is that in a 

 country where the snow is deep and 

 high drifts form, there is always danger 

 of the snow drifting up over the limbs 

 and breaking them down and destroy- 

 ing the tree. While I believe that a low 

 headed tree might do in a district with a 

 light snowfall, I consider it is a great 

 mistake to plant them in the northern 

 parts of Ontario. We must keep our 

 trees above the snow drifts. 



H:JIL 



A rich, clay loam or a sandy loam 

 make good apple soil. I prefer clay loam 

 myself with an open subsoil, but the ap- 

 ple will do on a variety of soils if it is 

 well drained and given proper culture. 

 There should be no permanent water 

 nearer than eight or ten feet of the sur- 

 face. 



In laying out the licld I have a good 



plowman open out a double furrow thirty- 

 five feet apart across the field. A good 

 man will run these furrows perfectly 

 straight. Then, with a measuring pole, 

 I measure the distance of twenty-six feet 

 apart in the row, and put up stakes, and 

 then take out the kinks by sighting along 

 the stakes. 



I prefer the trees planted in squares 

 thirty-five by twenty-six feet. This gives 

 a wide rov.- for cultivation and I think 

 that in northern districts, where the 

 trees do not grow as large as farther 

 south and west, that they will be far 

 enough apart. In any case they will be 

 far enough apart as long as I have any- 

 thing to do with them, and then some one 



Flowers Won Prizes 



I would not be without your 

 most valuable paper. The Cana- 

 dian Horticulturist, under any 

 circumstances. At the last local 

 fair my flowers took seven prizes 

 and one honorable mention. I lay 

 the credit to the useful informa- 

 tion obtained from The Canadian 

 Horticulturist. — Constance H. 

 Royds, Rosedale, B.C. 



else can cut them out if they want to 

 do so. 



The trees are planted a few inches 

 deeper than they stood in the nursery. The 

 holes are dug a little larger than the size 

 of the roots and filled up with some good 

 surface soil, care being taken to shake 

 the tree, to work the soil around the 

 roots and tramp the soil firmly as the 

 hole is being filled. The filling is fin- 

 ished by turning the furrows back again, 

 when the trees are mulched with a fork- 

 ful of strawy manure to keep in the 

 moisture. I like to get the trees headed 

 at an average of three and one-half to 

 four feet, though many are planted in 

 this district headed at five feet as the 

 farmers feel that they must keep above 

 the snow line. 



PRUNING 



Very little pruning is done to the 

 roots, except to cut off broken ones and 

 straggling roots. In trimming the top I 

 cut out lower limbs and thin out the 

 branches, leaving three or four. These 

 are cut back to about two-lhirds then- 



length. The main stock or leader is not 

 touched as my chief care is to have a 

 good strong leader, and it will start 

 more quickly if it is not cut back. The 

 upright pyramid form with a leader -p 

 the centre will make the strongest tree 

 with no danger of splitting at the crotcn 

 or other ills that open headed trees are 

 likely to have. I have a ten acre orchard, 

 seven years old, trained to this form 

 which gives every indication of fulfilling 

 the above predictions. 



The varieties planted are Ben Davis, 

 .Stark, Baldwins, Spy, Russet and Green- 

 ing. The number of trees of each varie- 

 ty planted and also on my own farm will 

 run in rotation as named above. Also 1 

 believe that the profits obtained will be 'ji 

 the same rotation, the first named being 

 the most profitable, and so down the 

 list. 



EARLY varieties PROFITABLE 



For the past two years I have been 

 planting heavily of early varieties. Ow- 

 ing to the poor market facilities in the 

 early days, very few early varieties were 

 planted, and the few trees that were 

 planted have been grafted to winter vari- 

 eties. The best early varieties for this 

 district are Duchess, Gravenstein, Alex- 

 ander, Wealthy, Blenheim, Mcintosh 

 Red and Snow or Fameuse. The market 

 is improving for early apples, and their 

 growth lengthens the season greatly as 

 we can begin picking the Duchess by 

 August 23rd and continue picking a suc- 

 cession of varieties right through until the 

 winter apples are finished. 



SPRAYING 



I spray three times. Once when the 

 buds are .swelling, with the strong solu- 

 tion of a commercial lime-sulphur ; the 

 next two sprayings are made, one just 

 before the blossoms open, the other im- 

 mediately after they have fallen. I have 

 had good results from using the regular 

 4 — 4 — 40 Bordeaux, with one-third of a 

 pound of Paris green added for the last 

 two sprayings. Last year part of the 

 orchard was sprayed with the dilute com- 

 mercial limo-suiphur, one to thirty-three 

 with three pounds of arsenate of lead 

 to the barrel of the mixture. I am not as 

 satisfied as many others are that lime- 

 sulphur will entirely supplant the Bor- 

 deaux as a summer spray, but will give 

 them both a fair test again the coming 

 season. 



53 



