The Canadian Horticulturi^ 



Vol. XXXIV 



NOVEMBER, 1911 



No. II 



Grow^ing Nursery Stock in a Cold Climate' 



W. T. Macoun, Dominion Horticulturist, Ottawa, Ont. 



I 



THE question of nursery stock is one 

 of much importance to the fruit 

 grower. If he does not get the 

 right kind of stock, no matter how 

 closely he follows everything recom- 

 mended, he will not have good success 

 with his orchard. 



It is sometimes unfortunately the case 

 when a man orders trees, that the order 

 is not filled by good stock and he is not 

 able to get redress. There are several 

 advantages, therefore, in ordering nur- 

 sery stock from home nurseries. One 

 advantage is that you can go and see 

 the trees you are going to plant. If 

 the trees are not satisfactory when you 

 get them, you can return them and de- 

 mand redress. This is a much more 

 difficult process, when the man is a thou- 

 sand miles away. If your trees prove 

 to be diseased or are affected by insects 

 it is also easier to get redress. These 

 are some of the advantages of getting 

 stock from a local nursery. On the 

 other hand there are disadvantages. 



The range of the native trees north to 

 south has been determined by probably 

 thousands of years of acclimitization. 

 Our experiments at Ottawa for over 

 twenty years show that native ornamen- 

 al or forest trees from the south might 

 fruit at Ottawa, but some years would 

 be tender and kill back and not be vigor- 

 ous and hardy. It has probably taken 

 thousands of years to acclimatize those 

 tender trees to their present northern 

 I limit. They might be hardy enough to 

 produce seed, but the wood of individual 

 trees keeps killing back. When we 

 J come to such apples as King and Bald- 

 Ewin, Rhode Island Greening, and some 

 ■of the tender varieties, tender for cer- 

 tain parts of the province of New Bruns- 

 wick, we find the same thing happening. 

 These trees originated in a much milder 

 climate than the province of New Bruns- 

 wick. Their range has been determined 

 largely by the relative degree of hardi- 

 ness that is inherent in them, and it has 

 been found by experience that if one in- 

 troduces these trees and tries to grow 

 them in northern nurseries, tries to grow 

 Rhode Island Greening or King or Bald- 

 win or any of these apples that require 

 a long season's growth and are what we 



•Extract from am address delivered before the 

 New Brunswick Fruit Growers' Agaociation, No- 

 vember, 1910. 



call tender, they prove a failure, they 

 kill back, the bark splits. We cannot 

 grow these trees in northern nurseries 

 profitably. A tree that is tender will 

 not be made hardier by growing it in 

 cold districts. 



How is This for Apple Bearing? 



This short stalk contained twenty-one full 

 grown apples when it was taken from the tree. 

 'ITiree were lost on the way to the studio. 

 Grown in the orchard of Hobert Bell, SackviUe, 

 N. B. 



COMPARATIVE HABDINES8 

 You might ask : Will the average 

 apple originated, say, in the province of 

 New Brunswick be necessarily hardier 

 than the apple which is originated, say, 

 in the stale of New York or Rhode 

 Island? No, it might not be hardier if 

 originated there. If I sow the seed of 

 the Wealthy apple in the province of 

 New Brunswick, the seedling of that 



253 



apple is not necessarily hardy. Some 

 may be hardy and some may be tender, 

 and it will require a great number of 

 years before one will find out which 

 seedlings are going to be hardy in New 

 Brunswick. When one has a seedling, 

 • say, the Merrit, which originated in the 

 province of New Brunswick, an apple 

 tree that has been able to withstand the 

 cold climate year after year, you cannot 

 say that variety is hardy because it is 

 able to withstand the cold climate. 

 Seedlings from a hardy tree, however, 

 are much more likely to be hardy than 

 seedlings from a tender tree. We have 

 found that in our experience. 



Which, you may ask, is the better. 

 Northern or United States grown stock, 

 local grown New Brunswick stock or 

 stock grov/n, say, in the province of On- 

 tario? Which is the better stock for us 

 to use? Are there great advantages in 

 growing home-grown stock, or are there 

 not such great advantages? 



CLIMATIC DIPFEEENOES 



In the warmer parts of Canada and 

 the United States they have a much 

 longer growing season than you have 

 here. The result is that they can plant 

 nursery stock on much richer soil than 

 you can and have the trees ripen thor- 

 oughly. If you plant nursery stock in 

 Northern New Brunswick, for instance, 

 on your richest soil, your trees will not 

 be properly ripened and will be almost 

 certain to winter kill. 



There is danger in getting nursery 

 stock, even from a southern district, in 

 getting it not properly ripened because 

 trees are dug which are not thoroughly 

 ripened. For instance, it has been the 

 practice — I won't say it is the practice 

 now — to dig trees in large nurseries 

 while the leaves are still green and strip 

 the leaves off so as to give the tree the 

 appearance of being thoroughly ripened. 

 You can easily see that if such trees are 

 planted in another district they are liable 

 to be too tender for the first winter. 

 So that you see from my standpoint 

 there is not sufficient evidence in regard 

 to the quality of the trees from the 

 southern nurseries and the northern nur- 

 series to warrant the statement which 

 has been made that northern stock is the 

 best stock. For instance, I believe you 

 can get hardy stock properly ripened in 



