194 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



May, 1907 



TKe Buyers and Growers to Blame 



Ed. The Canadian Horticulturist: Care- 

 taking apple growers feel that their line of busi- 

 ness in Norfolk county will be hurt if Mr. Mc- 

 Neill's letters in the Jan., Feb. and March 

 issues of Thb Canadian Horticulturist are 

 not answered. I do not think that Mr Mc- 

 Neill's intentions were to harm any district in 

 Ont., but to give the facts as he thought them 

 to be. The only answer I can give, is that he 

 was not familiar with this part of District No. 

 1. The whole trouble is the careless grower 

 and the buyer, not the climate nor the varieties 

 of trees planted. 



This District No. 1 is the oldest settled part 

 in Ont. Apple trees were set out here in ad- 

 vance of any other district, and up to the year 

 1900 our orchards, as a whole, bore the very 

 best quality of fruit that could be expected 

 from self-caretaking trees. The older an apple- 

 growing district gets, the more insect enemies 

 and fungous diseases the growers have to fight 

 to protect their trees. In the year 1900 I 

 knew of only one sprayed orchard in this local- 

 ity. All other orchards required very careful 

 sorting in order to put up a good quality of 

 fruit. In 1901 and 1902 the fungous diseases 

 in unsprayed orchards were still worse, and 

 1903 was the worst year ever seen. Orchards 

 not sprayed did not show 5% of clean fniit, 

 while the well-sprayed orchards showed 95% 

 clean. By this time we had a few more grow- 

 ers spraving their orchards. Tlie years 1904 

 and 1905 were repetitions of 1903. In 1906 

 we had a few more spraying outfits in use, and 

 the year was not nearly so favorable for fungous 

 growth as the years mentioned before, owing 

 to our having very little moist weather during 

 the fore part of the apple season. Therefore, 

 the unsprayed orchards were the best they had 

 been since 1900. However, there was certainly 

 a marked difference in favor of the sprayed 

 orchards, and we, this spring, have several 

 more spraying outfits at work. 



-Apple dealers who have had experience with 

 fungous apples, know that they are dangerous 

 to handle, especially if picked and packed in 

 barrels early in the season during warm weather, 

 before the apple is matured. I have seen fun- 

 gous Greenings and Snow apples show rot in 3 

 days' time when picked and packed early in 

 Sept. There are 2 reasons for this early pick- 

 ing. The buyer, after buying his apples by 

 the lump, begins picking long before the apples 

 are matured so as to catch the early markets. 

 He is also very uneasy in anticipating high 

 winds, which would put a large quantity of 

 the fruit to the ground. The quantity of two- 

 thirds grown apples shipped from this district 

 early last season to catch the early European 

 markets was shameful. Our orchards in this 

 county, taken care of by orchardists, have a 

 season too short instead of too long. Careful 

 sprajring and cultivation has lengthened our 

 season considerably, compared with our ne- 

 glected orchards that are infested with fungous 

 diseases and insect enemies. These self-caring 

 orchards are the cause of Mr. McNeill's ideas, 

 and it should not be said it is unfortunate that 

 so many Spys, Baldwins, Russets and other 

 winter varieties of trees were planted in this 

 section. But it is unfortunate that the growers, 

 as a whole, did not take better caje of their 

 orchards, and with our cooperative association 

 we will certainly make a big improvement in 

 our orchards in this county in the near future. 

 My experience is that Greenings, Kings, and 

 Snows should not, in well-cared-for orchards, 

 be picked before Oct. 1 to 10; Russets and 

 Baldwins, Oct. 15 to 20; Spys, Oct. 20 

 to Nov. 1, and in this locality it would be 

 unwise to leave picking later than Nov. 1, 

 as last season .the freeze of Oct. 23 hurt our 

 crop to quite an extent I will admit that all 

 fruit from the diseased orchards, which have 

 been in the majority for the past few years, 

 should 'have gone to the evaporator, canning 

 factories and cider mills instead of being 



packed into barrels and shipped to outside 

 markets, giving us a name for being able to 

 produce only an inferior quality of fruit. 



1 would advise, in other districts in Ont., 

 where apple growing is younger, and only had 

 the fungous diseases for a season or two, that 

 the growers get busy and spray their orchards 

 and not lose their reputation as a fruit-growing 

 district, as, when the fungous disease gets with 

 you, it is there to stay, and with the right 

 weather conditions, will ruin your fruit crop. 

 Spraying with the right solution at the right 

 time, with projjcr care, will insure your crop 

 free from all fungous diseases. The spending 

 of a little money, and the unpleasant work of 

 spraying, is generally accountable for an un- 

 cared orchard. 



In 1900 and 1902 I bought apples in this 

 county; also bought apples in another district 

 of Ontario, with the result that the apples 

 shipped from here sold on an average at $1 a 

 bbl. more than the apples bought in the other 

 district, owing to size and color of fruit. These 

 apples sold from April 1 to July 1 the following 

 years. 



I have shipped apples from this county nearly 

 every year since 1896 with a handsome profit 

 each year. Mr. C. E. Stewart, Cottage Grove, 

 Ore., who was employed by the Govt, to give 

 the fruit growers exhibitions in box packing, 

 visited this locality the last on his list last fall, 

 and he stated when he looked in some of our 

 sprayed orchards, that he had never seen, in 

 all his travels, any better fruit; and he seemed 

 puzzled, when looking at some unsprayed 

 orchards, to find the ground covered with ap- 

 ples, that these careless growers did not follow 

 such an object lesson. 



In 1904, Baldwins grown in Mr. Robt. Wad- 

 dle's orchard near here, were worthy of com- 

 ment throughout the Dominion, as well as 

 the Spys grown in Mr. Charles Challend's 

 orchard in 1905. In 1906 the Norfolk Fruit 

 Growers' Association made 16 entries in com- 

 mercial packages at the Flower, Fruit and 

 Honey Show, Toronto, carrying away 12 

 prizes. Other exhibitors of this county also 

 were favored with many prizes. Well-cared- 

 for orchards are realizing a good dividend on 

 an investment of $1,000 an acre in this county. 

 The lump apple buying has, I consider, 

 damaged the fruit growers of Ont. to a great 

 extent, as, in this locality, uncared, diseased 

 orchards have been bought early with the 

 result that in such orchards the fruit began ti> 

 drop in Sept., and the buyers began to pick 

 and pack this fruit in bbls., all of which should 

 have gone to our canning factory instead of 

 being shipped and branded as prime Cana- 

 dian apples. 



A SUMMARY 



In Ontario I should strongly advise growers 

 to form assns. and to prune, spray, cultivate 

 and fertilize their orchards and ship only good 

 fruit. We have never produced too many 

 good apples any year, but if inferior fruit is 

 shipped early in the season, it blocks the way 

 and forces down the prices of our good fruit. 

 When the consumer, early in the season, gets 

 a few poor lots of apples, he is discouraged 

 and will not buy apples, but buys oranges and 

 bananas instead. 



In Norfolk county the climate is exception- 

 ally favorable for the growing of late fall and 

 winter apples where orchardists have given 

 their orchards proper care, which, in the.se 

 years, is necessary to produce a good ([uality 

 of fruit. I should recommend the planting 

 of Mcintosh Red, Baldwins, Spys, Russets 

 and Greenings. This list should be large 

 enough to choose from for the commercial 

 orchard. Many of us careful growers had 

 Snow apples March 1 this year in nice condi- 

 tion, and our Kings, Spys, Baldwins and Rus- 

 sets are keeping nicely. 



I^t it be known it was not the climate nor 

 the varieties of trees planted, but it was the 



careless grower and lump apple buyers that 

 have been tearing down the reputation won 

 in former years by this county as a producer 

 of excellent quality of winter apples. Our 

 Norfolk Fruit Growers' Assn. has a member- 

 ship now of 43, who have pledged themselves 

 to prune, also spray and make Norfolk apples 

 a high standard of quality, and who are an- 

 xious to get into communication with buyers 

 who are looking for a desirable lot of apples 

 for shipment next fall. — James E. Johnson, 

 Norfolk County. 



A Po-wer Sprayer Device 



Camby Wismer, Jordan, Ont 



That spraying by power is productive of 

 best results and is by far the most economical 

 method of applying spray mixtures, needs no 

 confirmation at this age of advancement in 

 fruit growing. I am an advocate of doing it 

 by what is termed "traction power," because 

 that gives one an ever present supply in abund- 

 ance without a cent of cost other than the 

 purchase of the right kind of machine. 



On our farm there are a number of hillsides 

 and slopes, upon some of which we grow grapes 

 and other fruits. We cannot spray these suc- 

 cessfully with the ordinary "traction power" 

 sprayer that takes its power from the left hind 

 wheel on account of the driver sometimes be- 

 ing on the upper side and constantly sHpping; 

 accordingly, I decided to apply the principle 

 of a counter shaft with ratchets on either end 

 similar to those of a mcjwer, and arranged to 

 take the power from both hind wheels, which 

 would overcome the diflficultv, and also do 

 away with the necessity of midclaws, because 

 of the resistance of the pump being equally 

 divided between the two wheels. It also 

 would make the machine run more smoothly 

 over hard roads. The principle was applied 

 in the following manner: 



I already had an old dump cart on which 

 were 56 inch wheels. These I used for the 

 rear, and put a rim sprocket on each of them. 

 1 also had a pair of good wheels out of a threshing 

 machine truck; these I used for fronts. I made 

 a frame of two by eight inch stuff set on edge 

 and, in this, I hung a half-round tank with the 

 flat side up. I reserved enough room below 

 this to permit of the coiinter shaft being boxed 

 in the lower edges of the frame. I then took 

 the deferential gearing off a Brantford No. 3 

 mower and reinforced its castings and got a 

 pair of new ones made, and machine fitted 

 on a one and a quarter inch bar of steel. I 

 bought an unmounted Wallace power sprayer, 

 took the sprocket off the crank shaft and used 

 it for a pattern to get another one for the 

 counter shaft. When I got this all ready and 

 set up, it was a success. The two rear wheels 

 with a driving chain from each one worked to 

 my entire satisfaction. 



Scale is Spreading 



Ed. The Canadian Horticulturist- The 

 time has come when every person in the fruit 

 business must spray and spray properly. There 

 is lots of scale in the township of North Grims- 

 by. I know of places where scale was very 

 bad last year, and where spraying was done : 

 properly, it is hard to find a live scale now 

 On the other hand, I know of a place tliat was 

 only half sprayed, and now the orchard is 

 about ruined. 



If fruit growers who find scale in their orch- 

 ards would spray regularly and properly, the^ 

 can keep the pest in check. If spraving is 

 not done, the township of North Grimsby will 

 be as bad as that of old Niagara. The major- 

 ity of our growers have awakened to this fact, 

 and spraying is now being carried on exten- 

 sively. — W. H. Book, San Jose Scale Inspector 

 for North Grimsby, Ont. 



Have you a copy of the Steele, Briggs Seed 

 Co.'s handsome catalog for the spring of 1907? 



