The Canadian Horticulturi^ 



Vol. xxxiy 



DECEMBER, 1911I 



'.No. 



12 



Care of the Peach Orchard 



IT is generally considered in Ontario 

 that peaches can be grown only in 

 the Niagara peninsula, in a limited 

 section in Lambton county, and in the 

 Leamington district, but this is not so. 

 Norfolk county is fast showing the pub- 

 lic that it is entitled to a place, and along 

 the sihore and on a number of the gravel 

 ridges through Elgin and Essex coun- 

 ties are to be found to-day some excel- 

 lent orchards. I believe, too, that in the 

 very near future these counties, that is 

 Norfolk, Elgin and Kent, will be com- 

 petitors with the counties in which the 

 industry is already established. In these 

 sections they have no injured reputations 

 to overcome. I do not mean that in lihf 

 established sections they have a poor re- 

 putation, but they have sometimes sent 

 out fruit that is not up to the standard. 

 This year there came to my notice n 

 shipment of fruit from the Niagara pen- 

 insula, that had been soH on order, 

 whidh on being opened caused the dealer 

 to remark: "I do not want any more 

 fruit from there;" and the next orders 

 went to the west, where there had been 

 no hailstorm, instead of to the east. 



SELECT GOOD VARIETIES 



The first essential in the orchard is to 



•Extract from a, paper read at the annual 

 convention of the Ontario Fruit Growers' A^so- 



ciatifiii. lif^ld in Toronto in November. 



F. M. Clcnvcnt, Dutton, Ont. 



have good varieties ; it is very difficult 

 to give a list that is suited to all sec- 

 tions of the province. It is much bet- 

 ter to go to some neighbor, who is mak- 

 ing a success of tihe business, and sec 

 what he is doing. The varieties that are 

 doing best for him will probably do best 

 for you. 



We find growing to-day in large num- 

 bers such varieties as Longhurst, Sneed, 

 Rivers and Alexander. While I do not 

 say that these varieties should not be 

 grown, still they should have no large 

 place in the commercial market. There 

 are many other varieties that ihave no 

 place there also. In every orchard that 

 I visited in the Niagara peninsula two 

 varieties at least are grown, and I did 

 not visit a single orchard in which both 

 varieties were not to be found. These 

 two are Yellow St. John and Elberta. 

 The Smock stands, perhaps, as next 

 choice. 



It is surprising how little a great 

 many prospective growers know of 

 peach culture. Tlhere came under my 

 notice this summer an orchard of about 

 four acres, now three years of age, in 

 which the owner had grown his own 

 trees from pits selected in the neighbor- 

 hood from trees that were producing fruit 

 of fairly good quality. He expected to 



get varieties true to name. When ask- 

 ed why he did not bud them he stated 

 that the trees purchased from the nur- 

 sery usually seemed to contract a dis- 

 ease at the junction of the bud and the 

 root stock. The disease was really the 

 bore working where he stated because 

 he had not planted the trees suificiently 

 deep. 



SOIL REQUIRED 



The kind of soil on which the trees 

 are planted is not so important as the 

 drainage of that soil. There are a large 

 number of orchards doing exceptionally 

 well on a very heavy clay, and some are 

 doing equally well on a light sand, but 

 in every case where they are doing well 

 on the clay it is well underdrained. On 

 a soil, with an impervious subsoil, the 

 roots cannot take their natural course 

 and spread out deep down in the soil . 

 I dug up a number of dead trees on a 

 soil of this nature last summer, and in 

 every case the roots spread out horizon- 

 tally and were very near the surface. 

 They had not in any case entered the 

 cold wet subsoil. 



In a soil to which the trees are adapt- 

 ed naturally tIhe roots go down very 

 deep much the same as the pine or chest- 

 nut ; in a soil to which they are not 

 adapted it is often necessary to bank 

 them up considerably to get enough soil 



An Idea oi the Extent of the Exhibits at the Ontario Horticultural Exhibition, held in Toronto last month may be obtained from this illustration 



277 



