i6o 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



July, 1911 



distance from the ground, cut them 

 back. If not, trim to a whip Avoid 

 crotches when possible . In trimming 

 the year after planting, cut out wood 

 that is growing perpendicular from the 

 centre of the tree and thin the tree thor- 

 oughly. Cut back one-third of the new 

 growth on the side, and one-half on the 

 top. As the trees grow older, cut less. 



One of my neighbors has taken out 

 trees that would have yielded 5,000 

 baskets of fruit. He tells me one-fourth 

 of them had the Yellows, the remainder 

 what I call the new disease. 



Tree Before Pruning, No. 1. 



The tree here shown is in the orchard of Mr. 

 H. W. Bumstead, Meatord. Ont., and shows how 

 it looked before pruning for a demonstration 

 meeting held in the orchard under the direction 

 of J. F. Metcalf. the district representative of 

 the Ontario Department of Agriculture, at Ool- 

 lingwood. 



Be sure to keep the centre open and the 

 tops shortened every year. 



Cultivate as one would for a good 

 crop of corn, well and often. 



Fertilizing is very necessary. In 

 the past, I have been using ashes and 

 stable manure, light dressings and often, 

 rather than heavy, which stimulates to 

 rapid growth. I have used crimson 

 clover and hairy vetch for cover crops. 

 Crimson clover is rather uncertain, as 

 it winter kills too frequently. 



DISEASES 



Yellows, no cure ; dig out and burn 

 as soon as possible. 



Little Peaches, the same treatment. 



Curled Leaf, sulphur and lime. 



Our fruit inspectors have marked a 

 great many trees for Yellows. I claim 

 that not one in ten that they have mark- 

 ed has the Yellows. The fruit on the 

 trees with Yellows will color from ten 

 days to two weeks before they should 

 if they are not diseased. 



This other disease, if it is a disease, 

 is ten days to two weeks later than the 

 same variety on healthy trees. I have 

 been called to some orchards to ex- 

 amine the trees and found them yellow. 

 Peaches, small, well colored, sweet, and 

 firm, without spots. Water s(prouts 

 have not the appearance of Yellows. 



How to Grow Grapes 



Wb. Waraock, Goderich 



. I approve of the horizontal system of 

 pruning vines, that is to plant ten feet 

 apart in the row and cultivate until it 

 produces two strong canes which ought 

 to be made the second year from plant- 

 ing. These are to be cut off at pruning 

 time five feet from stump, which should 

 be low enough so that the canes will tie 

 easily on wires ten inches from the 

 ground. At this height it is very easy 

 to let them down to the ground every 

 fall for winter covering, and as the fruit 

 is always near the ground it has the 

 benefit of more heat than if it were 

 higher, which is of great advantage in 

 ripening grapes. I use four wires for 

 trellis, fastened on posts put half way 

 between plants, and the spaces between 

 wires dommencing at the bottom are 

 twelve to fourteen and sixteen inches. 

 The first year the vines are tied to wires 

 a cane grows up from each joint. Each 

 one of these canes will bear three or 

 more bunches of grapes. I prune off all 

 but two, leaving the best or two lowest 

 and pinch off the top of cane three leaves 

 above the upper bunch ; also keep all 

 laterals pinched off. 



ptJLTIVATION 



We must give particular attention to 

 cultivation and the keeping up of the 

 fertility of the soil. If the vines are 

 making a satisfactory growth of wood 

 they need only a light dressing of good 

 wood ashes every fall. For instance, 

 my land is very gravelly and porous and 

 I give a good coat of stable manure 

 every three years, and the other years 

 I apply a light dressing of ashes — about 

 four shovelsful to the vine, evenly scat- 

 tered over the whole surface between 

 vines. I also use dissolved bone with 

 my ashes every third year, and cultivate 

 thoroue'hly up to the 15th of August, 

 when I stop so as to allow the new wood 

 to ripen better, and by these methods of 

 pruning, fertilizing, and cultivating I 

 grow as fine grapes as are produced any- 

 where in the Northern States or Canada. 



A little girl was greatly interested 

 watching the men in her grandfather's 

 orchard putting bands around the fruit 

 trees, and asked a great many questions. 

 Some weeks later, when in the city with 

 her mother, she noticed a gentleman with 

 a mourning band around his left sleeve. 

 "Mamma," she asked, "what's to keep 

 them from crawling up his other arm?" 



Oats are our preference as a cover 

 'crop, as they die down in the winter and 

 are easily cut up with a disk harrow in 

 the spring. — J. W. Smith & Sons, 

 Winona. 



Perliiizing Fruit Trees 



Very little attention has been paid as 

 yet in the majority of fruit districts to 

 the fertilization of fruit trees. Too many 

 growers are satisfied to take a crop 

 year after year without returning to the 

 land, except perhaps a small amount 

 of stable manure every three or four 

 years. 



With the present system of plowing 

 leguminous cover crops we are wasting 

 valuable nitrogen when we apply man- 

 ure to an orchard'. Though, if no clover 

 or vetch cover crop has been grown for 

 years it is well to give a good applica- 

 tion of stable manure at first. 



What is known as a 10-8 fertilizer 

 is largely used in New York State. 

 This means a mixture containing ten 

 per cent, of phosphoric acid and eight 

 per cent, of potash, but this brand is 

 rather lacking in potash. Many good 

 growers are using equal parts of acid 

 phosphate, bone meal and muriate of 

 potash. In Nova Scotia their regular 

 yearly application is three hundred 

 pounds of bone meal and two hundred 

 pounds of muriate of potash. Liberal 

 feeding not only increases the vigor of 

 the tree, but increases the yield and 

 lessens the tendency for the orchard to 

 have off years in bearing. In addition, 

 the potash in the fertilizer improves the 

 quality of the fruit and deepens the 

 color. Spraying, cultivation, fertiliza- 

 tion, is the secret of successful fruit 

 growing. 



The fruit that is grown in the interior 

 of the tree is not so liable to blow off as 

 if it were allowed to grow on long branch- 

 es, and the tree is more easily sprayed 

 and the fruit more easily picked.— J. O. 

 Duke, Ruthven, Ont. 



Tree After Pruning No. 2. 



The same tree after it hail been pruned. Dem- 

 onstration work of this nature is of great value 

 to the farmers in the districts in which the 

 demonstrations are given. 



