156 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



July, 1909 



eo-operate in all kinds of things for their man was for himself. In years gone by, 



farms. Mr. Raymond in plosing the meet- there was no co-operative educational sys- 



ing, said that co-operation was a mark of tern ; the rich man could hire a tutor but 



civilization. In pre-historic times, every , the poor man's children had to go without. 



NOTES FROM THE PROVINCES 



Western Annapolis Valley^ 



R. J. Messenger 



We have this spring what very rarely 

 happens — a full bloom almost everywhere; 

 well-kept orchards, ill-kept orchards, pas- 

 tures and fence corners, all show a full 

 bloom and this after a year of good yield 

 of clean fruit. More than this, the weather 

 has been ideal for pollination. From the 

 time the earliest blossoms opened, till the 

 present writing (June 16), when the bloom 

 is about off, there has been no rain and 

 fresh winds. 



Apples are setting well and giving pro- 

 mise of a large crop. Very dry weather 

 for some time may destroy this promise 

 and several other contingencies may ans€ 

 but just now prospects are good. 



Looking over the past year, we are struck 

 with the fact that the canker worm and 

 the brown-tail moth have proved blessings 

 to the Annapolis Valley. Someone has said 

 in effect that weeds are the best friends iif 

 the farmer and it is safe to say that insect 

 pests are the best friends of the average 

 orchardist. Never before have we had such 

 an awakening in spraying and general orch- 

 ard management as during the past two 

 years, and its effect was not only shown in 

 the crop of last year in quantity, but also 

 in quality, while this year bids fair to prove 

 the value of the intelligent work aroused. 

 Canker worms are not as numerous as last 

 year and those that still remain are meet- 

 ing with a "Waterloo" that will practically 

 exterminate them. Not so many brown 

 tails have been found as last year. 



The farmers are beginning to see the 

 value of right methods in raising fruit 

 and are practising them. Better than this, 

 they are improving every year in packing 

 and handling methods. Several successful 

 co-operative companies are running, pack- 

 ing and disposing of their fruit to such 

 good advantage that other companies are 

 bound to be formed shortly. 



Our success at the Royal Horticultural 

 Show last year in comparison with other 

 provinces of the Dominion has given the 

 feeling that we can raise as good apples 

 as anywhere under the sun. The future is 

 bright, with promise for Nova Scotia fruit. 



Eastern Annapolis Valley 



Eunice Watts 



At the time of writing the most striking 

 things are the apple blossoms and their 

 perfumes, particularly those of the Graven- 

 at«in, which look like elevated snow drifts; 

 the writer never remembers seeing such a 

 show of blossom before. The Dominion At- 

 lantic Railway is running an excursion train 

 through the Annapolis Valley, so that the 

 outsiders will have a chance of seeing miles 

 of beautiful bloom. 



The apple trees, particularly those in 

 nursery, have been attacked by the bud 

 moth (Tmetocera oceliana). In young 

 trees they are very injurious, destroying 

 buds which will determine lue luture sliape 

 of the tree ; however, Paris green is a match 

 for them. 



Special fruit meetings under the auspices 

 of the Dominion Fruit Division, were ad- 



dressed by Mr. A. McNeill, chief of the 

 Fruit Division, at Berwick, Lawrencetown, 

 Bridgetown and Bear River, in order to 

 interest orchardists in the co-operation of 

 the selling of fruit. Mr. McNeill handled 

 the subject in a masterly manner, and gave 

 as examples of the benefit to be derived 

 from co-operation, the associations of the 

 Southern California citrous fruit growers 

 and of St. Catharines, Ont. 



Fewer potatoes are being planted, but 

 many thousands of tomato plants, bought at 

 $12 and $13 per 1,000, are taking their 

 place. A few cut worms are in evidence 

 around the plants. 



Cape Breton, N. S. 



Rev. D. Macpherson, Glendale 



The model orchard has been set for four 

 years only and as yet its influence is not 

 perceptible. Were a good salesman to come 

 into the locality I believe that the people 

 would respond and place orders much more 

 readily than they would have done here- 

 tofore. When the orchard bears an appre- 

 ciable burden of fruit I feel sure that a les- 

 son will be taught and that many will in- 

 vest in a few trees and look after them 

 properly. 



No one would as yet try to in- 

 cite any man to go into orcharding on any- 

 thing like a large scale but I think all will 

 soon learn that everyone can do a little on 

 the side; a little that will help to keep 

 the pot boiling, the housewife cheery, the 

 children attached to home ; a little that will 

 beautify the homestead and give it a touch 

 of color that is entirely absent from the 

 treeless farm house. 



New Brunswick 



J. C. Gilman 



The New Brunswick Fruit Growers' As- 

 sociation held orchard meetings at different 

 points in the St. John Valley last month 

 to give practical lessons in preparing and 

 applying Bordeaux mixture and other pre- 

 parations that give good results. Many 

 growers are still backward abaut investing 

 in this form of insurance t' get good fruit, 

 but the increasing demand for the best, 

 with corresponding high prices, is the best 

 kind of an argument to convince the intel- 

 ligent man that he must adopt good meth- 

 ods to get good fruit. Good results are 

 looked for from the meetings. The need of 

 lessening insect injury to our orchards is 

 very apparent. 



Many apple trees have been planted this 

 season. The Mcintosh Red, Bethel, Dudley 

 Winter and Wolfe River are varieties much 

 called for by planters. Top-grafting with 

 Yellow Bellflower (Bishop Pippin) is also 

 being practised with good results. 



The apple crop for 1909 is promising. 

 The January thaw that left our fields cov- 

 ered with ice, gave rise to fears for the 

 safety of the strawberry beds. The dam- 

 age, while bad enough, is not so great as 

 at first feared and the plants are setting 

 fruit nicely. 



Gooseberries and currants are also very 

 piomising. The demand for the gooseber- 



ry is greater than the supply and should 

 encourage further plantings of this fruit. 

 Owing to frequent winter killing of 

 Cuthbert raspberry, it is iikely to be re- 

 placed by the Herbert and King, two kinds 

 that have proved hardier than the Cuth- 

 bert, and are also good bearers of fine ber- 

 ries. Present appearances indicate about 

 a half of a crop from Cuthbert and other 

 lialf hardy kinds, with the hardier varieties 

 promising a full yield. Blackberries will 

 be about an average crop. 



Quebec 



Angnste Dnpnis 



Apple trees are in full and abundant 

 bloom north-east of Quebec city. Cherries 

 and plums are setting and promise a fair 

 crop. The Damson and Canadian Reine 

 Claude plums, largely grown in Mon- 

 magny and Kamouraska districts on the 

 shores of the St. Lawrence, have not bloom- 

 ed so heavily as the European varieties. 

 Pears, cultivated only by a few amateurs, 

 have bloomed abundantly, especially Clapp's 

 Favorite, Flemish Beauty and Beurre Bal- 

 tet. Currants, gooseberries, strawberries 

 and raspberries will give fine crops if no ac- 

 cidents happen. 



The season is backward, the bloom be- 

 ing two weeks later than usual, but trees 

 and plants did not suffer any damage by 

 the winter and cold spring. Numerous 

 orchard plantations have been made this 

 spring and are doing very well. 



Manitoba 



Geo. Batho, Winnipeg 



This has been a season of wonderfully 

 rapid growth. When I wrote a month ago, 

 the trees were just opening their buds. 

 To-day many of them show 18 inches of 

 growth, and by June 17th the writer had 

 gathered from his own garden both irises 

 and XJeonies in full bloom. It will be seen 

 by this that, although the opening of spring 

 was very retarded, vegetation has been 

 pushed well forward. About the beginning 

 of June we had a few very liberal rains, but 

 the centre of the month has been very hot 

 with a growing need at time of writing of 

 more frequent showers. June, which is us- 

 ually our month of liberal rainfall, has not 

 been quite as wet as could have been de- 

 sired. However, everything seems so far 

 to be going along well. 



If we get sufficient rain to develop it, the 

 promise is for a very heavy fruit crop on 

 the prairies. Everything in the shape of an 

 apple or crab tree was loaded with bloom, 

 many trees only five or six feet high being 

 a perfect snowbank of blossom. The season 

 of apple bloom was during the first week 

 of June, and Mr. A. P. Stevenson, of Dun- 

 ston, who is the veteran apple grower of 

 Manitoba, told the writer that he counted 

 in his orchard 506 apple and crab trees in 

 bloom at the same time. About one-third 

 of these were crabs and two-thirds of them 

 standard apples. Besides this, he had blos- 

 som on about 350 plum trees, and a good 

 showing of bloom on his Compass cherry 

 and several trees of the Morello type, which 

 have been bearing in the past. At the Bu- 

 chanan Nursery, near this city, there was 

 also a wonderfully fine showing of blos- 

 soms, and, in fact, well throughout the 

 country, so far as I have been able to as- 

 certain. Small fruits and wild fruits prom- 

 ise to yield well. Of the latter, it may be 

 remarked, we have quite a selection, and 

 some of our wild fruit is quite acceptable. 



The prairie market demands great quan- 

 tities of fruit from Ontario and British 

 Columbia. We hope that the crop in the 

 other provinces will be a liberal one. 



