The Canadian Horticulturi^ 



Vol. XXXIV 



AUGUST, i9£i 



No. 8 



The Apple Orchard During August 



August is a month during' whicli little 

 orchard work can be done to advantage 

 by the apple grower. The time for clean 

 cultivation, spraying and summer prun- 

 ing is past, the thinning season is about 

 over, except where trees of winter varie- 

 ties are heavily laden, and neither should 

 cover crops be sown this month where 

 orchards are carrying fruit. 



This breathing spell, however, affords 

 the orchardist an opportunity to do one 

 or two things that are generally, and I 

 may say sometimes unwisely overlooked 

 in orchard practice. Suckers that have 

 grown from around the root crowns of 

 the trees should be removed and branches 

 diseased with the blight should be cut 

 and destroyed. The handiest tools for 

 accomplishing the former work, are a 

 mallet, a two-inch chisel and a spade. 

 Roots that are sources of suckers are 

 bared with the spade and the suckers are 

 removed close to the roots with the 

 chisel. 



In August blighted portions of the 

 trees are readily discernible. The dis- 

 eased leaves and branches have a wilted 

 and fire-fanged appearance and in some 

 cases the branches are devoid of leaves. 

 Also, the bark appears shrivelled and 

 cracked, and is darker in color than 

 healthy stock. 



If removed now these infectious por- 

 tions will not act as a source of con- 

 tamination to the rest of the orchard next 

 spring, nor during the winter pruning 

 operations. There is always danger of 

 carrying the disease germs in the saw, 

 consequently it is furthermore advisable 

 to disinfect the saw each time it cuts a 

 diseased branch. A ten per cent, form- 

 alin solution gives satisfaction and does 

 not corrode nor in any way injure the 

 tools. This disinfecting material is most 

 readily carried in a bottle. A swab is 

 made by pushing a wire through the cork 

 into the bottle and cotton wrapped around 

 the wire. 



HOW TO OPERATE. 



In every case the incision should be 

 made at least from six to twelve inches 

 below the diseased parts of the branch, 

 so as to insure the removal of it all. All 

 these prunings should be destroyed at 

 once by burning. If allowed to lie around 

 the orchard, borers, especially the shot- 

 hole borer, will work in them and con- 

 sequently carry the disease to the trees 



Grant S. Peart, Burlington, Ont. 



again. Thus it is very important that 

 the prunings be burned. 



When cultivation is discontinuied at 

 the beginning of August, the result is 

 greater maturity, both in young wood 

 and the fruit. The trees suffer less win- 

 ter injury from frosts and a more highly 



A Yard of Louth Clinton Peaches 



colored, better quality of fruit is obtain- 

 ed. Scientists develop this still further 

 by maintaining that it checks the hiber- 

 nation of plant food. This, they claim, 

 becomes available to plants indirectly as 

 a result of cultivation. It is soluble in 

 water and thus washes away rapidly with 

 rain when the trees are not in a condi- 

 tion to utilize it. In short, August and 



Five Baskets of Louth Clinton Peaches 



fall cultivation of the orchard and sum- 

 mer-fallowing the land for winter wheat 

 are considered at par as practices that 

 impoverish a soil. 



THIN WHERE NEEDED 



There is still time to thin apples on 

 trees of winter varieties, where they are 

 carrying a heavy set of fruit. They have 

 before them yet quite a lapse of time in 

 which to mature so that the remaining 

 apples, if the apples are thinned now, 

 will have an opportunity to develop into 

 number ones. If thinning is done, it is 

 advisable to remove all sun-blistered 

 fruit — the result of excessive July heat. 

 These apples can never hope to be any- 



181 



thing better than culls or number threes, 

 and thus will be worth but little. These 

 sun-injured apples are located chiefly at 

 the western quarter of the tree, and in 

 exposed positions and can be readily 

 recognized. 



DO NOT sow COVER CROPS 



Cover crops should not be sown in 

 orchards bearing apples during August. 

 This statement is the result of experi- 

 ence among apple growers. Legumin- 

 ous crops, such as clovers, vetphes and 

 so forth, if sown this late cannot get 

 growth enough to be of any material ad- 

 vantage to the orchard, while it is con- 

 ceded out of the question to sow cer- 

 eals, including rye, wheat, and so forth, 

 and also field peas, during August. They 

 attain too much growth, and thus act as 

 a veritable nuisance during the apple 

 harvest, while moving about the orchard 

 with the ladders and other appliances. 



Louth-Clinton Peaches 



The peaches shown in the accompany- 

 ing illustrations were found in the No. i 

 and "Fancy" grades being packed by 

 their grower, Mr. S. H. Rittenhouse, of 

 Jordan Harbor, in the Louth-Clinton 

 peach area, Ontario. They show Elber- 

 tas among which few No. 2s were found. 

 The three-feet-of-peach samples were 

 taken from the center one of the five 

 baskets of Louth-Clinton peaches. 



Mr. Rittenhouse practises severe head- 

 ing-in of young trees until they begm to 

 bear fruit when this is not so necessary 

 excepting after a season during which a 

 greater portion of the strength of the 

 tree may have gone to wood because of 

 a light fruit crop. The proper amount 

 of fruit for each tree to mature is con- 

 trolled chiefly by judicious pruning, 

 hand thinning being resorted to only 

 when conditions demand it on varieties 

 which commonly set too heavily. 



LIBERAL FERTILIZATION 



Mr. Rittenhouse is a firm believer in 

 the old, reliable barnyard manure for a 

 general feeder and uses it liberally. 

 Hairy vetch and red-top clover are used 

 for cover crops and to augment the sup- 

 ply of nitrogenous matter and commer- 

 cial fertilizers when necessary to furnish 

 a greater amount of nitrogen, phosphic 

 acid and potash, all of these being dis- 

 covered by a close study of the requis- 



