NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



399 



Such a method would be ruinous on a Cana- 

 dian farm. 



The Sun notices ]\Ir. E. Morden's 

 method at Niagara Falls South, by which 

 he avoids hand labor almost entirely. He 

 is a most thorough cultivator, and keeps his 

 whole place under the densest cultvation 

 with the least possible expenditure. fo 

 quote from the Sun: 



Mr. Morden practices this through system of cul- 

 tivation, not only in his jjeach orchard, but in his 

 other plantation as well. In order to facilitate this 

 work, as applied to grape culture, he has adopted a 

 system that I have found applied onlj' on his place. 

 J'or the support of his grapes, he uses only one wire. 

 This wire is not nailed to the side of the supporting 

 posts, but on top of them. This top nailing adds to 

 the strength of the support and facilitates removal 

 of the wire when necessary. The trunks ai-e kept 

 clear to the height of the wire and the vines are fes- 

 tooned over the wire. They thus, in a measure, be- 

 come like trees. You can pass under the wires at 

 any point and can work about the trnnks as freely as 

 about the trunks of peach trees. With the aid of 

 extension machinery, practically the whole work of 

 cultivation can thus be done by horse power. 



" That simple devise," said Mr. Morden, " has re- 

 duced the labor of cultivating my vineyard to one- 

 fifth what it was when I had four or fiv^e wires." 



The same system is applied in his raspberr}' plan- 

 tation. Although Mr. Moi-den grows the varieties 

 of raspberries that propagate by suckers, he does not 

 permit the plants to grow in solid rows. In plant- 

 ing, he sets the plants foui- feet apart with a space 

 six to eight feet between the rows. Then he culti- 

 votes both ways. 



PACKING APPLES. 



VAN DYKE, of Grimsby, who pur- 

 chased an apple orchard just when 

 the original owners had become discouraged 

 waiting returns, has just come in for a full 

 crop of apples, probably 3,000 barrels of 

 Baldwins and Greenings, and with the high 

 prices of apples now prevailing he may 

 nearly clear off the purchase price. Apples 

 are now one of the most satisfactory of or- 

 chard fruits. VanDyke has made six sort- 

 ing tables, on which the fruit is emptied by 

 the pickers, instead of upon the ground, as 

 is usual. These tables are made to fold, 

 and have canvas tops to hold the fruit. 

 They are about twelve feet long, and will 

 hold about two barrels of apples at a time. 



On these iht fruit is emptied by the pick- 

 ers in the orchard, while the packers sort 

 them, barreling the ordinary stock and 

 sending the extras to the packing house for 

 boxing. 



At Maplehurst we use a wooden table, 

 which slopes toward the packer, so that the 

 fruit will roll toward the barrel, while the 

 extra grade is taken out for boxes. We 

 are doing the whole of our packing in the 

 orchard this year as fast as the apples are 

 picked. 



WEEKLY EXPORT SHIPMENT OF BART- 

 LETT PEARS. 



WE have been shipping a car a week 

 of Bartlett pears in cold storage 

 to Glasgow, and find the orchard packing 

 the only place for quick handling. We 

 did not wrap them, but packed in half cases 

 5 X 12 X 18, with layers of excelsior. The 

 pickers emptied their baskets in the pack- 

 ing table, and the packer, with one assist- 

 ant, put up about two hundred cases a day. 

 Every night these were sent to the re- 

 frigerator car, which at the end of each 

 week was re-iced and forwarded to the 

 ocean steamship for Glasgow, Scotland. 

 In the car the temperature would average 

 about 45 degrees, but in the ocean storage 

 about 35. In our judgment this is too high 

 for the best results, and 33 degrees would 

 be much to be preferred. 



We give this much detail of our private 

 business because all gruit growers have a' 

 common interest in the results of these 

 shipments, which will in time be made 

 public. 



APPLE PACKING. 



1"^ HIS work also we are doing in the or- 

 chard this season, for the labor of 

 drawing the fruit to the packing house, 

 which we have been following other years, 

 is an item worth saving. We take our 

 packing table into the orchard and move 

 the outfit from place to place upon a light 



