264 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



The quantity of early apples is about suffi- 

 cient for home consumption, and it is doubt- 

 ful whether large plantations of such varie- 

 ties as Duchess, Red Astrachan, or even 

 such good fall varieties as the Gravensteni 

 and Yellow Bellflower should be made. 

 The European market at present is the only 

 one that can be said to be unlimited, hence 

 only such varieties as will carry successfully 

 can be recommended for large plantations 

 of commercial fruit. In the northern dis- 

 tricts there is still room for experiments in 

 the matter of winter varieties. Although 

 many of these have been planted, the results 

 as reported by the growers are somewhat 

 conflicting. The care, however, given to 

 orchards varies so much that it renders any 

 conclusion impossible. It is therefore high- 

 ly desirable that experimental orchards, not 

 necessarily large, should be planted in dif- 

 ferent sections of the country, under condi- 

 tions as uniform as possible. Such orchards 

 would not only be an example of the best 

 methods in orcharding, but would give re- 

 liable data with reference to varieties. Al- 

 though I am not in a position to speak abso- 

 lutely upon the subject, I am of the opinion 

 that the varieties most in demand in the 

 European markets can be grown in this dis- 

 trict, though it would be no doubt better to 

 top-graft on some such stock as McMahon's 

 White or Tallman Sweet. It may be taken 

 for granted that with ordinary precautions 

 all the commercial varieties can be grown in 

 the southern district. 



The orchardists of New Brunswick are 

 making one or two serious mistakes in or- 

 chard practice. In most of the orchards 

 the trees are planted from 12 to 16 feet 

 apart. This is altogether too close ; much 

 better results could be obtained even with 

 the Duchess, a small growing tree, if it were 

 planted 25 to 30 feet apart. Large grow- 

 ing varieties, such as the Rhode Island 

 Greening and Northern Spy, should not be 

 planted closer than 35 or 40 feet apart. The 



saving in close planting is only in the rent 

 of the land ; there is a serious loss in the dif- 

 ficulties of performing all orchard opera- 

 tions. The rent on the land occupied by a 

 tree, even at the greatest distance, should 

 not be more than ten cents per tree, a sum 

 that is soon gained by the ease with which 

 spraying, pruning and gathering of the fruit 

 may be done. 



This close planting practically leads to let- 

 ting the orchard run to sod, and to this fact 

 I feel sure we can attribute much of the 

 want of success that has been reported in 

 individual cases. I take it for granted in 

 recommending orchards in any place, that 

 clean culture is to be the rule. We visited, 

 in Fredericton, the orchard of Mr. Gillman, 

 where we saw a splendid example of com- 

 paratively wide planting and clean culture. 

 The vigor of his trees was so much greater 

 than that of the orchards in the neighbor- 

 hood, grown in sod, that all who have care- 

 fully studied the conditions must agree that 

 clean culture must be the general rule for 

 orchards. In nearly every orchard visited 

 we found the trees badly infested with oys- 

 ter-shell bark-louse, and Sun-scald was 

 quite prevalent. For the former it was re- 

 commended that when the trees were dor- 

 mant they should be sprayed with a lime 

 whitewash made just as it would be made ':o 

 use with a brush, strained carefully and ap- 

 plied with a spray pump. In addition, 

 spray carefully with a kerosene emulsion 

 when the bark lice are moving in June. For 

 sun-scald it was pointed out that if the tree 

 were leaned a little toward the southwest, so 

 that the limbs would shade the trunk, and if 

 the pruning were not too severe, this injury 

 might be prevented. There appears to be 

 some difficulty in getting suitable nursery 

 stock, though it is likely that the Department 

 of Agriculture, working through the Agri- 

 cultural Societies, will make an improve- 

 ment in this matter. 



The necessity for thoroughly under drain- 



