28 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



February, 1913 



will be desirable for him to use, but no 

 grower can afford to omit the first appli- 

 cation. This siiould be given to every 

 peach tree on the farm even though it 

 be just freshly set out from the nursery, 

 for such trees are subject to leaf curl, 

 and there is also a possibility that once 

 in a long while a live scale may chance 

 to be found in one of them, whether the 

 nursery stock was grown in Ontario or 

 in the United States. 



OTHER THINGS NECESSABY 



The value of spraying any kind of 

 orchard is increased by good pruning, 

 cultivation and fertilizing of the or- 

 chard. The pruning allows the air to 

 circulate more freely and the sunlight to 

 get through the branches better, conse- 

 quently the leaves and fruit dry off 

 rapidly after a rain. This drying off is 

 unfavorable to fungus diseases, most of 

 which thrive best where the air is stag- 

 nant and moisture abundant. The re- 

 moval of all dead and dying branches 

 and trees and burning these along with 

 any brush heap and rubbish there may 

 be nearby before May helps . against 

 several insects and is the best means 

 known to keep orchards free from shot- 

 hole borers. Cultivation if continued up 

 to about August ist, will destroy numer- 

 ous pupae of the plum curculio and leave 

 no good hiding place for the adults over 

 winter. Moreover it, along with fer- 

 tilizers, helps to give vigor to the trees 

 and render them less susceptible to at- 

 tack by either insects or diseases. 



NO CUBES KNOWN 



There is not space to discifss the best 

 methods of combating the different in- 

 sects or diseases that spraying is in- 

 effective against, but it is perhaps de- 

 sirable to utter a word of warning here 

 to growers against placing much faith 

 in the so-called cures of jDeach yellows 

 and little peach. The writer has pro- 

 bably given more careful thought and 

 study to these diseases than any other 

 man in Canada, and would welcome any 

 remedy that would be even partially 

 helpful. He has seen the cases that 

 have been supposed to have been cured 

 and believes that there is not sufficient 

 proof yet that any diseased tree has been 

 cured. It is even doubtful whether the 

 substances used have helped the trees 

 at all ; at any rate, at least another year 

 must elapse before any conclusions can 

 iDe drawn. There is at present only one 

 known way of combating these diseases, 

 namely, to take out the diseased trees 

 promptly, and burn them. 



Fertilizer Discussion Continued 



B. Leslie Emslie, C. 



A portion of the valuable space of The 

 Canadian Horticulturist is again solicit- 

 ed to allow me to comment on Dr. Dan- 

 deno's letter anent "Commercial Fer- 

 tilizers," in the January issue. Dr. Dan- 

 deno repudiates my assertion that he 

 clings to "old and discredited theories" 

 and states that his conclusions are "the 

 result of thirteen years of research work 

 on soils and plants, after eight years of 

 University training for the work." With 

 all due regard for the value of such a 

 training, I still maintain that the old 

 theory of "plant excretion" in its bear- 

 ing on soil fertility, which Dr. Dandeno 

 espouses, was long ago discredited. 

 True, it has lately been revived by one 

 or two chemists, who, it would seem, 

 desired to obtain notoriety from the pro- 

 mulgation of a theory in opposition to 

 the generally accepted one. 



Dr. Dandeno refers to my "defini- 

 tion" of "plant food," but if he will 

 again read my previous letter on the 

 subject, he will find that I refrained from 

 undertaking the definition. It is ob- 

 vious that plants and animals feed diff- 

 erently, since the latter can only utilise 

 elaborated food substances, whereas 

 plants possess the faculty of building 

 up food substances from simple inor- 

 ganic compounds. Since Dr. Dandeno 



D. A., Toronto, Ont. 



likes exactitude in the statements of 

 others, I cannot forbear a criticism of 

 his statement as to the supply of oxygen 

 in the soil; he says, "Now, oxygen will, 

 under these conditions, produce a bet- 

 ter crop, and yet it does not enter the 

 plant at all." This statement is, to 

 say the least, ambiguous. If a plant is 

 deprived of oxygen all vital processes 

 are suspended. Oxygen enters the plant 

 through the stomata of the leaves, in 

 the form of carbon dioxide (a compound 

 of carbon and oxygen), and through the 

 roots in the form of water (a compound 

 of hydrogen and oxygen). These two 

 compounds are manufactured into 

 starches or sugars in the chlorophyll 

 cells of the leaves, the product being 

 then transported to the various parts of 

 the plants. For the sake of exactness, 

 it may be mentioned that the prevailing 

 theory is that formaldehyde is first form- 

 ed from the carbon dioxide and water. 



In his reference to the orchard experi- 

 ments conducted at the Geneva, N.Y., 

 Experiment Station, Dr. Dandeno 

 quotes an isolated case , which has lately 

 received prominence, on account of the 

 fact that the results obtained were in 

 direct contrast to those from other simi- 

 larly conducted experiments at other 

 stations. Dr. Dandeno takes exception 

 to my statement that "the majority of 



Phosphates promote fruitfulness and 

 early ripening. Furthermore phosphate 

 is far more necessary in the garden and 

 orchard than on the average farm, and 

 an application of phosphates every year 

 is a step in the right direction. 



A Well Sprayed Mann'Apple^Treejhat YieldedgLarge Returns 



This tree. In the orchard of B. C- Fowler. Burlington, Out., had a spread of seventy-five feet and 

 Vlfjlded fifteen barrela of No. 1 apples. Two barrels of fruit were blown off by the wind- Only 

 one per cent of the fruit had worms and there was no fungus. It was sprayed with the Niagara 

 Brand lime-eulphur and arsenate of lead. 



