378 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



December, 191 1 



to cover the roots. This latter method 

 is very noticeable in some orchards 

 where they believe that by leaving the 

 trees on the ridge on tihe land they can 

 get suiricient soil and sufiicient drainage 

 to make them thrive. 



Some practical instances of lack of 

 knowledge in pruning are also seen 

 through the country. In some orchards 

 the trees have been planted just as they 

 came from the nursery without being 

 headed back or shortened, and to-day 

 they stand as monuments of some one's 

 folly with trunks from four to six feet 

 in length and with brandhes coming out 

 all along it. Another instance that came 

 under my observation is that of quite a 

 large orchard in which the nurserymen 

 had instructed the grower to cut back 

 all to fourteen inches, and the grower 

 had obeyed him implicitly without the 

 slightest consideration for tthe size of 

 the tree or bud growth on it. The ques- 

 tion of cutting back young stock and 

 heading in severely at one, two and 

 three years will admit of a great deal of 

 discussion. 



In sections like Kent and Elgin and 

 parts of Lambton, heading back too 

 severely does not do, as the growth is 

 too tender to stand the severer winter. 

 In these sections very little cutting back 

 should be practised. In the Niagara 

 peninsula we have the two extremes, 

 that in which Bhe grovk^er does not thin 

 out or cut back his tree until three years 

 of age and that in which the tree is sys- 

 tematically pruned summer and winter 

 to produce a head according to the 

 grower's idea. There is more danger 

 from freezing when the tree is cut back 

 than when it is not, and it requires much 

 more skilful orchard practice to bring a 

 severely pruned ordhard through a. 

 severe winter. Many claim that on an 

 average more fruit is produced on the 

 unpruned tree at three years of age than 

 on the pruned tree. I am not prepaied 

 to say whi(-h is better, but I do say that 



if you are cutting back in any section, 

 except the Niagara peninsula, cease cul- 

 tivation in early July and sow a cover 

 crop to harden and prepare the fruit 

 buds for winter. 



Our best growers differ a great deal 

 in their opinions as to what is the best 

 method of cultivation. A large number 

 plow twice in the year, some plow only 

 in the fall, some only in the spring, and 

 some do not plow at all, and a large 

 number have no regular system. In the 

 eastern townships of the Niagara penin- 



sula to twenty who plow both sprii 

 and fall, fifteen plow in the spring on 

 and seven in the fall only, and thr. 

 do not plow at all, and .seven plow wh> 

 they are ready, not when the trees an.. 

 Tho.se figures are given relatively. I 

 believe thougth that the tendency is to 

 plow less and that the use of extension 

 orchard implements is gaining ground. 

 Three or four of our best growers do 

 not plow their bearing orchards. Thr 

 use the extension disc and the spriut, 

 tooth harrow. 



The Railroad Worm or Apple Maggot* 



W. A. Ross, Bowmanville, Ont. 



THE Railroad Worm or Apple Mag- 

 got is not, as many suppose, a 

 new pest in Ontario. Its occur- 

 rence in Lennox county in eighteen hun- 

 dred and ninety-five was recorded by the 

 late Dr. Fletdher in the Central Farm 

 Report for eighteen hundred and ninety- 

 six. Since then it has extended its 

 range considerably and has gained in 

 notoriety every year. I have now re- 

 cords of it having been found in the fol- 

 lowing counties : Prince Edward, Len- 

 nox, Hastings, Frontenac, Northumber- 

 land, Durham, Ontario, Wentworth, 

 Lincoln, Welland, and Norfolk. 



Fruitgrowers from the eastern coun- 

 ties are all more or less familiar with 

 the work of this destructive pest — it is 

 responsible for what is commonly called 

 "railroaded" or "woody" apples. The 

 flesh of sudh fruit is characterized by 

 the presence of winding^ brownish 

 streaks, which are the burrows or tracks 

 of Railroad Worms or tiny maggots, 

 who lead a parasitic life within the fruit. 

 These maggots or worms are the larvae 

 of a two-winged fly, whose handsome 



*A paper read at the annual convention of the 

 Ontario Fruit Growers' Association, held in 

 Toronto, November. 1911. 



exterior somewhat belies its evil charac- 

 ter. It is somewhat smaller than the 

 house or typhoid fly, is of a general 

 black color, with yellowish head and 

 legs, prominent greenish eyes and bar- 

 red, pictured wings (each wing is cross- 

 ed by four dark bars). In the female 

 there are four, in the male three, white 

 bands across the abdomen. 



LIFE HISTORY 



The insect passes the winter as a 

 pupa in the soil. The pupa somewhat 

 resembles a kernel of wheat. In eastern 

 Ontario adult flies first begin to put in 

 an appearance during the second and 

 t'hird weeks of July, and they continue 

 to emerge from the soil over a period of 

 four or five weeks. The female, by 

 means of a sharp instrument, an ovi- 

 positor, punctures the skin of the apple 

 and makes a minute, cylindrical passage 

 in the flesh, into which the egg is laid. 

 The egg puncture app)ears at first as a 

 minute brown speck, but later it be- 

 comes the centre of a small depression. 

 The egg hatches in about six days' 

 time, and the young maggot, which at 

 tihis stage is not visible to the naked eye, 

 then proceeds to burrow here and there 



A View of the Plate and Boxed Fruit Exhibits at the Recent New Bruncwick Horticultural Exkibition. Notice the Splendid Display of Boxed Fruit. 



