HINTS TO APPLE GEOWEES 



GOOD VARIETIES PAY — FOUR FAVORITES- 

 TOP GRAFTING— INDIVIDUALISM IN FRUIT 

 TREES— THE TALMAN SWEET A STOCK 



BY 



W. H. COARD, LL.D. 



IN THE older parts of Ontario, such 

 as the counties of Middlesex, Perth, 

 Oxford and Brant, as well as por- 

 tions of Huron, where the best apples 

 grew in times gone by, to-day there is a 

 grcit neglect of young tree planting as 

 well as of pruning, and the natural result 

 is a diminution in the quantity of apples 

 grown and a decline in the quality of the 

 fruit produced. Now, in Grey, in the 

 northeastern part of Durham, and in the 

 county of Northumberland, the young or- 

 chards are just about equal to the older 

 ones in number, showing that planting is 

 there going on vigorously. 



In the former cases there is no doubt the 

 trees were planted from some twenty-five 

 to forty years, when there was no exact 

 knowledge of, and, perhaps, but little ex- 

 perience, in varieties — when only apples 



were in demand, when the soil was new, 

 when insect pests and fungous diseases 

 were rare, and when the only skill required 

 was simply to take the fruit. Under these 

 circumstances the business of apple grow- 

 ing was exceedingly profitable ; but there 

 soon came a glut in the earlier varieties. 

 They were not suitable for the export 

 trade, so that as soon as the home market 

 was supplied there was no further call for 

 them. The soil lost something of its vir- 

 gin freshness ; the trees would not grow so 

 well ; and with the increased number of 

 trees there came a quadrupled increase in 

 fungous diseases and insect pests. Not 

 only was there a falling oflf in the demand 

 for the particular variety they were grow- 

 ing, but there was an increased difficulty 

 in growing any variety ; hence farmers got 

 the idea that there was no monev to be 



