NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



497 



FACTORIES PAY GOOD PRICES. 



" Now," said Mr. Kick, of Simcoe, " in 

 selling to the factories a few spots are not 

 objectionable, for they are removed with the 

 skin. So, in raising apples for the factory, 

 spraying is not a necessity, and all that ex- 

 pense is saved." 



" But if you had clean fruit would it ot 

 bring you far more money if you were to ex- 

 port it?" we asked. 



" Well, it is a question. The factory 

 pays me 50 cents a hundred pounds, or about 

 25 cents a bushel, and takes every apple, so 

 you see I have no culls to throw out. Then, 

 if I were packing for export I ould have to 

 pick my apples by hand, and that would 

 mean a great expense this year with the 

 present high price of labor ; indeed, I do not 

 believe I could possibly get men enough lo 

 hand pick all the apples in this big orchard. 

 For the factory I can shake them down and 

 so handle my crop quickly, and with very li; - 

 tie expense. Besides this. I have no barrels 

 to buy, and this year, at 50 cents a barrel, 

 they make a large item in the cost of hand- 

 ling the crop. Now the whole cost of hand- 

 ling my apples for the factory is not more 

 than two cents a bushel, for we simply shake 

 them down and carry them in the boxes fur- 

 nished us. The packing, too, is no small 

 item in putting up an apple crop for export, 

 and I am saved that expense also." 



" What varieties have you ?" 



" I have ten acres of Spy, ten of Green- 

 ing and twenty of Baldwin." 



" What quantity do you expect to har- 

 vest?" 



" About 20,000 bushels, which will bring 

 me from the factory about $5,000, with com- 

 paratively little expense harvesting them." 



" Do you consider this light sand about 

 Simcoe well adapted for apple raising?" 



" No, it is not the best soil but by proper 

 fertilizing we can grow fine fruit. When 

 the trees were young I gave them plenty of 



stable manure, and now 1 do not apply stable 

 manure but every year I sow a bushel of 

 wood ashes about each tree. This, I think, 

 helps to give color to the fruit, as well £.s 

 vigor to the tree growth. Then for nitrates I 

 grow clover. Every spring, say about the 

 first of May, i plow under the clover, put- 

 ting a chain on my plow so as to cover it 

 well. Then I cultivate the orchard for 

 about two months and about the first of Au- 

 gust I sow clover again. Each succeeding 

 year the clover seems to catch better, so that 

 this year I had a wonderful crop, as you can 

 see." 



A COMPARISON WOULD BE INTERESTING. 



Now, while there is no question that Mr. 

 Johnson's course of so spraying and prun- 

 ing his trees that they have yielded a crop or 

 beautiful, clean fruit, worth the highest 

 price in the market, is the ideal one for us all 

 to aim at, still it would be interesting to have 

 a comparative report tree per tree, showing 

 the relative profits of the two methods. The 

 one man has been to a very great expense 

 throughout, from spraying to harvesting, 

 while the other has done everything in the 

 cheapest manner. 



Perhaps the best commentary on it all is 

 the determination on the part of Mr. Pick 

 that next year, providing he can get the use 

 of a power sprayer, he will have his orchard 

 thoroughly treated. After reading the fa- 

 vorable reports upon the excellent results 

 obtained in lessening scab with the use of 

 the lime and sulphur mixture, his present in- 

 tention is to give his orchard a thorough 

 whitening with it in early spring. 



We are all agreed in the great possibili- 

 ties which may result from proper spraying, 

 but with a large orchard the undertaking by 

 hand is so enormous that many fruit growers 

 would prefer to take their chances rather 

 than undertake it, especially with the pres- 

 ent high price of labor. 



