[The Canadian Horticulturi^ 



^ol. XXXI 



AUGUST, 1908 



No. 8 



Apple Growing North of Lake Ontario 



Alex. McNeill, Chief, Fruit Division, Ottawa 



HE counties from Halton to Hast- 

 ings, bordering- on Lake Ontario, 

 are particularly well situated for 

 the growing of winter apples. The busi- 

 tness has been very profitable for a num- 

 iber of years, and many new orchards are 

 [being planted. Indeed, it is doubtful 

 [■whether any other district of equal size 

 [has so many young orchards. 



Uufortunately, with the multiplication 

 \o{ orchards has come the increase in or- 

 fchard pests. Insects that were unknown, 

 [or that did little damage a few years ago, 

 [have become a serious menace to apple 

 Egrowing. The older orchards have given 

 jsuch good returns, and with so little lab- 

 [or, that apparently the owners did not 

 tneed in former years to take much pains 

 fto combat these enemies. At the present 

 i'time at least fifteen per cent, of the older 

 ftrees are dead or dying from causes 

 [which appear somewhat mysterious to the 

 lowners. Even the young orchards arc 

 liated and are, therefore, stunted, 

 «th little attempt on the part of the 

 iwners to improve conditions. I visited 

 nany of these orchards recently, and 

 {found conditions exceedingly serious. 

 fThe death of the older trees may be at- 

 tributed to three or four causes, usually 

 working in combination, chief of which 

 are winter killing, imperfect drainage, 

 oyster-shell bark louse, collar rot, and 

 other forms of canker. 



WINTER KILLING 



Winter killing was quite common. 

 Many of the older men said this was 

 impossible, as they remembered winters 



(much colder than any we have had lately, 

 and the trees stood it all right ; never- 



itheless, winter killing is doing a great 



tdeal of dam;ige among the orchards of 



fthis district. 



CAUSES OF WINTER KILLING 



That it should be more prevalent now 

 than formerly must be attributed, in part, 

 to the adoption of clean culture, which is 

 only one feature of what is really a much 

 improved system of orchard practice. 

 Formerly, it was extremely rare to sec 

 an orchard not in sod. Recently cultiva- 

 tion has become the fashion, and the sod 

 has been turned down in many an old 

 [-orchard. The result is to dc seen in the 

 large number of winter-killed trees. The 



sod checked the growth early in the sea- 

 son, and thoroughly protected the roots, 

 and thus prevented winter-killing. The 

 clean culture not only exposed the roots, 

 but induced a late and succulent growth 

 of tissue in root and stem, that was more 

 tender than that grown in sod. These 

 orchardists made no mistake in cultivat- 

 ing their orchards. Most of them, how- 

 ever, have made a mistake in beginning 

 the cultivation too late in the season. 

 Many of them did not begin until the 

 first and second week in June to plow 

 their orchards, and these orchards were 

 kept well cultivated through the summer. 

 What should have been done was to 

 work the orchards as early in the spring 

 as possible, and cultivation should be 

 stopped by the end of June, or not later 

 than the middle of July, except in special 



The Best of All 



The Canadian Horticulturist 

 is the best of all the horticultural 

 papers that reach our office. We 

 wish to congratulate you on the 

 way you are developing it from 

 year to year.— Luke Bros., Nur- 

 serymen, Montreal, Que. 



cases. The protection which had been 

 furnished to the roots by sod should be 

 given in the form of a cover crop. In- 

 deed, the two things, clean culture and 

 cover crop, should invariably go togeth- 

 er. Even without the cover crop, and 

 making due allowance for winter killing, 

 clean culture has been a very great ad- 

 vantage. But all the advantages of the 

 sod protection, and the increased vigor 

 induced by cultivation, are secured by 

 uniting the two, clean culture and cover 

 crop. 



UNDERDRAINAGE 



In the management of the soil of the 

 orchard it is regrettable that so little un- 

 derdraining is done. Many orchards are 

 suffering severely for want of drainage, 

 and it is noticeable that an undue pro- 

 portion of the dead trees are to be found 

 in the lowest portions of the orchard. 

 It will take a great deal of missionary 

 work to persuade many of the farmers 

 that the Ijcst investment that they can 



IGI 



make in their orchards is tile draining, 

 except it may be a spray pump. 



SPRAYING 



Many of the farmers have made a 

 commencement of spraying, but very few 

 of them perform the operation intelli- 

 gently. In the younger orchards there 

 are two insects which cause very serious 

 damage, namely, the bud moth and the 

 cigar case bearer. I did not see a single 

 young orchard that had been sprayed so 

 as to destroy these two insects. The 

 poisoned Bordeaux mixture should have 

 been applied as soon as the leaf buds had 

 begun to swell, and show the slightest 

 portion of green, or even before this. In 

 no part of Canada that I have visited 

 did I find the cigar case bearer and the 

 bud moth worse than here. Many of the 

 orchardists were only giving their first 

 spraying on the i8th of June. It is need- 

 less to say that these men will be disap- 

 pointed in their results. It will, indeed, 

 do some good, but the injury from in- 

 sects and fungous diseases will usually 

 be so great that many of the orchardists 

 will be inclined to think that spraying 

 is scarcely worth the trouble. 



OYSTER-SHELL BARK-LOUSE 



The oyster-shell bark-louse is respon- 

 sible for the death of some of the trees, 

 at least. Nevertheless, it is noticeable 

 that the bark-louso is worse upon trees, 

 the vitality of which has been lowered 

 by other causes, such as want of drain- 

 age, winter injuries or canker. It is as- 

 serted by many that the lime treatment 

 alone is not effective. Others have tried 

 a solution of concentrated lye. In no 

 case has it appeared that these treat- 

 ments are sufficient alone. A few have 

 sprayed with kerosene emulsion while 

 the insects were running ; but even this 

 has not proved successful. Many have 

 been experimenting with patent misci- 

 ble oils, also without success. None, 

 however, as far as I can learn, have 

 tried the lime and sulphur mixture, and 

 apparently this is the last resort. 



MISTAKES IN PRUNING 



A large number of the old orchards in 

 this district are rapidly degenerating. 

 Many, as the result of too little pruning, 

 have grown long and straggling, inter- 

 lacing at the tips, and with no bearing 



