August, 1914. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



191 



could plow five. Along in June and July 

 there come wet days when the teams 

 could do nothing else. He sends a man 

 with a mowing machine into the orchard 

 and another with a scythe to trim around 

 the trees. This fits into a system of 

 farm management that will appeal to 

 many." 



THE OTHER SIDiE 



The other side of the question is given 

 in the Geneva bulletin. The Hitchings 

 method is simplicity itself. The land 

 remains in sod indefinitely, the grass is 

 cut for a mulch once or twice a season, 

 and is left on the ground. Three plats were 

 included : A lies on the floor of a valley 

 and is comparatively level ; B lies on the 

 lower part of a rolling hill ; C is higher 

 up on the hillside. 



In each plat half the land is in tillage 

 and half in sod. All appear to be well 

 supplied with phosphorus, potash and 



nitrogen ; B and C receive the hillside 

 seepage. All parts were given the same 

 treatment except for tillage. All the fac- 

 tors favor the sod mulch method. The 

 tilled plats were plowed early in the 

 spring and cultivated from seven to 

 eleven times, a cover crop, usually 

 clover, following. In the sod plats was 

 a mixture of orchard grass and blue 

 grass. 



Mishaps and slow maturity preventefl 

 crop yields in plat A. The sod trees 

 yielded a little less than four bushels a 

 tree and the tillage bore a little more 

 than three. The difference in favor of 

 the former was due to a greater num- 

 ber of apples and not to increased size. 



The cultivated trees in the valley did 

 better comparatively because there was 

 more moisture on the hillside. The tilled 

 trees always had darker foliage although 

 the amount of growth was about the 

 same. The cost for the tilled plats was 



$16.28 arr acre and for the sod plats 

 seventy-two cents an acre. 



In conclusion while tillage is the best 

 method of caring for the great majority 

 of orchards, yet there are peculiar condi- 

 tions under which the Hitchings' mettiod 

 mr.y be used advantageously : 



First — On steep hillsides, where the 

 land washes badly. 



Second — On land covered with rocks, 

 trees may stand best in sod. 



Third — the Hitchings' method is suit- 

 able only for soils of sufficient depth ; on 

 shallow soils it will usualy prove a fail- 

 ure. 



Fourth — Soil must be retentive of 

 moisture. Tillage is to be preferred for 

 land that suffers from drought. 



Fifth — Since the cost of caring for a 

 mulch orchard is less, a greater acreage 

 many be handled at the same cost and the 

 net returns be as large as in a smaller 

 tilled orchard. 



Fire Blight and How to Fight If 



Prof. W. H. Brittain, Provincial Eatomologist, Nova Scotia 



FIRE blight is a disease that is of 

 bacterial origin. In this respect 

 it is comparable to diseases which 

 affect men and animals, such as cholera, 

 blood poisoning, tuberculosis etc., and 

 it may become epidemic in character. 

 The organism which causes this disease 

 |(Bacillus amylovorus) is extremely min- 

 ute, measuring only one twenty-five 

 thousandth of an inch long, and one- 

 forty-five thousandth of an inch wide. 

 When carried to the blossoms this germ 

 is capable of multiplying rapidly in the 

 nectar of the flower and from thence 

 spreading downward and destroying the 

 spur. When twigs or shoots are pierced 

 by insects bearing infected material the 

 organism grows and multiplies, feeding 

 upon and destroying the tissues of the 

 inner bark and cambium. It does not, 

 however, winter over in the infested 

 shoots, but in so-called "holdover" can- 

 kers upon the limbs or trunk. 



SYMPTOMS. 



The disease first appears as a blight 

 of the blossoms. Shortly after blossom- 

 ing time affected blossoms instead of de- 

 veloping into fruit will be seen to wilt. 

 Gradually the leaves surrounding the fruit 

 cluster also begin to show signs of dis- 

 ease, becoming brown and dead, until 

 the whole fruit spur looks brown and 

 scorched. A careful examination of dis- 

 eased spurs may now show small heads 

 of whitish or yellowish liquid oozing 

 through the bark. This liquid gradually 

 hardens in the air and becomes dark red 

 or brown in color. Microscopic examin- 



•Extract from an address delivered at the re- 

 cent annual meeting of the United Fruit Com- 

 panlea of Nova Scotia. 



ation of this exudate reveals the fact 

 that it is literally swarming with the 

 germs of the blight. This form of the 

 disease in blossoms and fruit spurs is 

 known as "blossom blight." 



Shortly after this form is noticed the 

 disease will begin to appear in the new 

 twigs of the current season's growth. 

 Tips of affected shoots will turn brown, 



the bark will take on a moist, water- 

 soaked appearance, and the leaves will 

 become withered and brown. Where the 

 disease is active, drops of the gummy 

 exudate will be seen oozing from the 

 bark. This form of the disease is known 

 as "twig blight." 



In some cases the disease will not stop 

 here but will spread down affected shoots 



Marketing the Peach Crop. Orchard of D. F. Hamlink,'Huron County, Ont. 



Mr. llamlinli seems to have proved that peaohes can be grown, suocesefuUy in his section of 

 Huron county. He has twenty-five acres of peaohte two and three yeojrs old, as well a« five 

 acres of trees that have been bearing for the last eight or ten years. The trees are doing 

 well. Mr. Hamlink ha« not lost ove*- half a dozen trees by being winter killed. On his three 

 year old trees he will have about twenty per cent of a crop this year. 



