ON AGRICULTURE TO CANADA 



159 



alleging that the situation and the climate are such that fruit of the 

 very highest quality can be grown, and that the fruit trees will last 

 much longer than in more trying climates. They believe too that 

 any advantages more favoured parts of Canada may have over them 

 are counterbalanced by the fact that they are nearest to Great 

 Britain, which is the market for much Canadian fruit. The most 

 profitable varieties grown are — the Gravenstein, Ribston, Blenheim, 

 King, Yellow Bellefleur, Fallawater, Baldwin, Northern Spy, Golden 

 Russet, Rhode Island Greening, Nonpareil and Stark. 



It is customary to plant forty apple trees to the acre. As these 

 trees do not begin to bear until they are from live to ten years old. 



ANNAPOLIS VALLEY 



and are not in full bearing till they are from ten to fifteen years old, 

 the fruit-grower utilises the space between the trees for the production 

 of other crops, such as potatoes, corn, roots, and small fruit. When 

 the trees cover the greater part of the ground regular crops are 

 dispensed with, and cover crops take their place. Cover crops are 

 sown in July. Just at that time the fruit trees cease to grow. The 

 vacant ground is then sown down with buckwheat, or clover, or 

 oats, or some similar crop which serves a three-fold purpose. It 

 absorbs the plant-food in the ground, and thus, while feeding itself, 

 it stops the growth of the trees and hastens the ripening process 

 before the frost comes. It lies on the ground all winter, and, 

 holding the snow, it protects the plant-roots from the frost, and 

 being ploughed in during the following spring, it adds humus, and 

 in the case of the leguminous crops, also nitrogen to the soil. With 

 the addition of phosphates and potash, put on in the shape of 



