98 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



May, 1909 



tion as to the varieties which I might 

 deem the best for some specific locality. 

 There are also many varieties which do 

 well, but which I should not recommend 

 for planting in a commercial orchard. 

 Some of the varieties of apples which 

 will be regarded as a success and profit- 

 able to the growers of British Columbia 

 in the near future, are the Grime's Gold- 

 en, Mcintosh Red, Wealthy, Cox's Orange 

 Pippin, Yellow Newtown Pippin, Northern 



Peach YdloAvs* 



M. B. Waite, Pathologist in Charge, Investigations of Diseases of Fruits, U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture 



IN the early discussion of peach yellows 

 around Philadelphia mention was fre- 

 quently made of destroying the dis- 

 eased trees. It seemed to have occurred 

 quite frequently to orchardists that this 

 was the proper thing to do. In the out- 

 break at Benton Harbor, Michigan, in 



Strawberry Picking Scene on Farm of Mr Jat. E. Johnson, Simcoe, Ontario 



Spy, Ribston Pippin, Gravenstein, Eso- 

 pus .Spitzenburg and Jonathan. ' The 

 Italian Prune is the one member of the 

 plum family that may be relied upon in 

 any of the fruit growing districts of the 

 province. " 



Mr. W. J. Brandrith, Ladner, secre- 

 tary-treasurer of the British Columbia 

 Fruit Growers' Association, writes as fol- 

 lows : "With regard to standard varie- 

 ties, it is doubtful if two men in a neigh- 

 borhood would agree. After twenty- 

 two years' experience in the Lower 

 Fraser Valley, my choice for commercial 

 purposes would be : Apples, — Yellow 

 Transparent , Duchess, Wealthy, King, 

 Jonathan, Northern Spy and Salome ; 

 pears, — Bartlett, Boussock, Sheldon ; 

 plums, — Bradshaw, Italian Prune ; sweet 

 cherries, — Windsor, Lambert ; sour cher- 

 ries, — Olivet, English Morrello ; raspber- 

 ries, — Cuthbert ; blackberry, — Lawton. 



In the article on "Raspberry Culture" 

 by Mr. N. E. Mallory in the April Cana- 

 dian HoRTiCLLTi'RiST, it was stated that 

 laterals should be cut back in early 

 spring to about three inches. It should 

 have read "fourteen inches." 



The usual distances apart for planting 

 tree fruits are : Apples, 30 to 40 feet each 

 way; apples, dwarf, 10 to 15; pears, 20 

 to 30; pears, dwarf, 10 to 15; plums, 

 16 to 20; peaches, 16 to 20; cherries, 16 

 to 25; apricots, 16 to 20; quinces, 8 to 

 14. Grapes are planted 8 to 12 feet 

 apart each way. 



the early seventies, it was not only dis- 

 cussed but actual eradication was carried 

 out by a number of men. The most de- 

 cided step in the promotion of this meth- 

 od of fighting the disease seems to have 

 been made, however, at South Haven, 

 Michigan. A committee appointed by 

 the South Haven Pomological Society, 

 reporting in 1874, stated that where 

 cases of yellows had been found in cer- 

 tain orchards and promptly removed, two 

 years before, none occurred at the pre- 

 sent time. They also brought out the 

 point that new trees planted in the same 

 place, were growing finely and appeared 

 to be vigorous and healthy. They 

 showed that it was impossible to cut off 

 a single limb affected with' the di.sease and 

 that even where two affected peaches were 

 found on the end of a limb and the limb 

 removed, the yellows still persisted and 

 destroyed the tree. The South Haven 

 Pomological Society seems to have been 

 the first society to persist in advocating 

 and promoting the eradication of the yel- 

 lows. The results were watched with in- 

 terest by the Michigan growers and were 

 in the main satisfactory around South 

 Haven. Other districts in Michigan have 

 followed their example, usually, however, 

 after being hard hit and partially or whol- 

 ly wiped out before they were willing to 

 take up the work. In New York state, 

 a great many of the better class of grow- 

 ers have been eradicating this disease for 

 twenty years or more. I can cite the case 



'The sixth inetalment of a paper read at the 

 convention of the Ontario Frnit Growers' Asso- 

 ciation, held in Toronto last November. 



of Mr. Jesse Lockwood and of Dr. C. A 

 Ring, both of Olcott, New York, as ex- 

 cellent examples, also the orchard of Mr. 

 Willard Hopkins of Youngstown, New 

 York. In these cases, several near-by 

 orchards less carefully handled have had 

 serious destruction from the yellows and 

 little peach. 



ERADICATION TESTS 



.About six years ago, when the writer's 

 investigations led him to the conclusion 

 that little peach belonged to the yellows 

 group, an eradication test was started in 

 a definite area in Saugatuck township, 

 Michigan. This area contained about 

 seven square miles, was thickly planted 

 to peach orchards and had about 140,000 

 peach trees. There were some 4,000 or 

 5,000 trees disea.sed that were found the 

 first season. A small proportion of these, 

 however, were affected with yellows. 

 Three inspections were made and the 

 diseased trees were removed with a fair 

 degree of promptness after each inspec- 

 tion. The next year only between 400 

 and 500 diseased trees were found, being 

 only a small fraction of one per cent. A 

 slight increa.se of somewhat over a thous- 

 and trees were found the third season, 

 evidently due to a local outbreak in the 

 neighborhood, but the total number of 

 diseased trees in this area was less than 

 one per cent. Only about one-fifth of 

 these were affected with yellows, the re- 

 maining four-fifths being little peach. 

 Similar results were obtained by the local 

 yellows commissioners in the fourth sea- 

 son, which was 1906, and the orchards 

 in this area are still standing in good con- 

 dition as far as the yellows and little 

 peach are concerned. 



A similar eradication test was started 

 by the United States Department of Ag- 

 riculture in 1906 in an area of some six 

 or seven square miles around Youngs- 

 town, New York, in co-operation with 

 the Cornell State Experiment Station, 

 through arrangements with Professors 

 Bailey and Craig. In general, it may be 

 stated that from the eradication tests 

 where careful records have been made 

 over a considerable area and from the ex- 

 perience of the best worked orchards, of 

 which there are a large number in Michi- 

 gan and a good many in New York, it is 

 considered that when ordinary conditions 

 obtain, the annual loss from the yellows 

 should be reduced to less than one per 

 cent, per annum where prompt and care- 

 ful eradication is done. 



Produce the best that can be grown. 



The land on which an orchard is to be 

 planted should be in good condition. It 

 should be under cultivation at least two 

 years before setting the trees. 



