TKe Fruit Blossoms and WKat TKey Tell 



FRUIT blossoms were from two to three 

 weeks late in making their appearance this 

 spring. Cold weather retarded the swell- 

 ing of the buds. Everything is behind 

 time. Nevertheless, the show of bloom on most 

 kinds of trees indicates a fair to good crop. 

 There is reason to be cenfident in the prospects 

 for an abundant harvest. The conditions in 

 various districts is mentioned in reports from 

 the crop correspondents of The Canadian 

 Horticulturist, as follows: 



MONTREAL DISTRICT 



Westmount. — The season is three weeks late 

 but the prospect is good for apples, pears, plums, 

 cherries, strawberries and raspberries. — R. 

 Brodie. 



TWO MOUNTAINS, QUE. 



La Trapjie. — Season is late. Fruit buds are 

 just developing; notwithstanding, we believe 

 apples will be abundant, and the pear, plum, 

 cherry and small fruit crop fair, even good. 

 The buds do not seem to have been affected 

 by the severe winter or late frosts. — Prof. G. 

 Reynaud. 



ROUVILLE COUNTY, QUE. 



Abbotsford. — All varieties of fruit trees and 

 small fruits came through the winter with very 

 little injury. Present indications are for a 

 full crop, but late frosts may change the situ- 

 ation. — J. M. Fisk. 



PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY, ONT. 



Rednersville. — Prospects for apples are fav- 

 orable. Trees came through in good condition. 

 Plums, pears and cherries also promise a crop. 

 The cold weather made fruit trees backward 

 in blooming. — Harry Dempsey. 



DURHAM COUNTY 



Newcastle. — Blossom buds are abundant, 

 and apparently uninjured by the late frosts. 

 Prospects for fruit crop are good. Ben Davis 

 and Baldwins, which bore heavily last year, 

 will have a lighter crop this season, but Russets, 

 Spys and Stark are promising a full crop. Pears, 

 cherries and plums have plenty of blossoms. 

 A large acreage of young apple trees was plant- 

 ed this spring, and more spraying will be done 

 than ever t)efore. There are four power spray- 

 ers in this locality within a mile and many 

 hand pumps. — W. H. Gibson. 



DUNDAS COUNTY 



Irena. — Fruit trees and bushes came through 

 in good condition. Apples promise a good 

 crop. Cherries, plums and jjcars are not grown 

 commercially here, but the few grown show- 

 indications of yielding well. Currants, goose- 

 berries and respberries are looking fine. — A. 

 D. Harkness. 



ONTARIO COUNTY 



Oshawa. — Prospects are favorable for a good 

 crop of apples; the blossoms promise well. 

 Pears are blooming heavily. — Elmer Lick. 



PEEL COUNTY 

 Clarkson. — The outlook is favorable for a 

 good crop of strawberries. Old raspberry 

 patches are more or less winter killed and in- 

 jured considerably by the snowy tree cricket ; 

 younger patches are looking fine. Tree fruits 

 give indications of a good crop. — W. G. Home. 



HALTON COUNTY 



Oakville. — The prospects for apples, cher- 

 ries and plums are good ; pears fairly good. 

 Rasptierries were badly winter killed. Black- 

 Iierries will be fair; currants, good; strawber- 

 ries, fair.— W. H. McNeill. 



WENTW'ORTH COUNTY 



Hamilton. — Present indications jKiint to a 

 good fruit crop. Peaches promise only a light 

 yield, while plums, pears and gra[)es will be 

 heavy. Strawberries may be about two weeks 

 late ewing to the backward weather, and the 



crop will not be heavy. The raspberry crop 

 will be rather light. Growers expect high 

 prices for all fruit. During the last few years, 

 strawberry plants have been scarce, and the 

 acreage has not increased, while the demand 

 for the fruit has; the result is that buyers are 

 compelled to pay higher prices. Raspberries 

 are being contracted for by canners at $2 a 

 crate of 24 boxes. There is a noticeable in- 

 crease in the acreage of grapes. — Jas. H. 

 Stephens. 



Fruitland. — Fruit trees in general appear to 

 have pasAd the winter exceedingly well and 

 promise a good crop. Present indications are 

 encouraging, but there is still time for damage 

 by late frosts. Currant and berry bushes are 

 looking well. It is too early to say much 

 about grapes. — C. C. Pettit. 



LINCOLN COUNTY 



Grimsby. — Judging from the showing of 

 fruit buds, this will be a favorable year for 

 fruit growers. Cherry blossoms are abundant 

 on both sweet and sour varieties; on the latter 

 kinds, black knot is more abundant than for 

 many years, and unless cut out at once will 

 soon spread and destroy many orchards. Peaches 

 came through the winter in good condition; 

 there is promise of a fairly good crop. Much 

 spraying with lime and sulphur was done this 

 spring, although we are still free from scale; 

 we hope in this way not to have it. Pears 

 promise well, especially Bartletts, where the 

 trees survived the blight of last year. Not for 

 years has this disease shown itself so badly as 

 in 190(i. Old trees did not suffer much, losing 

 only the young wood, but trees from 5 to 10 

 years planted are largely ruined, and are being 

 cut out. This should make the price of Bart- 

 letts unusually high this year. Apples show 

 well, even Roxbury Russett being full, and 

 these have not borne a crop for several years 

 in some orchards It is too early to say much 

 about small fruits and grapes, but in some 

 plantations, raspberry canes were badly win- 

 ter killed. — Linus Woolverton. 



Beamsville. — Raspberries and blackberries 

 promise a fine crop. Strawberries suffered 

 severely from the open winter and the want 

 of being protected by snow. Plants for set- 

 ting are scarce and high, selling at $4 a hundred. 

 The crop will fall short of last year. Early 

 cherries are now in bloom and prospects for 

 a full crop of all varieties are good. Peaches 

 came through the winter all right, but in some 

 quarters, not far distant from here, they are 

 reported badly frozen. Plums promise a full 

 crop. Pears and apples are also in good con- 

 dition for an abundant yield. Fruit growers 

 gradually are awakening to the all-important 

 matter of spraying and spraying thoroughly. — 

 W. B. Rittenhouse. 



Jordan Station. — Strawberries that were pro- 

 tected will yield a good crop. Black and red 

 raspberries and l^lackberries will give a good 

 crop on young bushes, but old bushes were 

 frozen back. Nearly all varieties of peaches 

 promise a good crop; also jjears, plums, espe- 

 cially Japanese cherries, grapes and currants. 

 Apple prospects are fair. — W. A. Hunsberry. 



Port Dalhousie — Fruit prospects are good 

 except for strawberries. Fruit trees appear 

 to have passed the winter very well notwith- 

 standing the want of snow protection. The 

 fruit buds and blossoms promise a luscious 

 crop of fruit of all kinds. The dry season last 

 year was not favorable to the growth of straw- 

 berries, and the open winter and hard frosts 

 of spring make a short crop probable, especially 

 from tmprotected patches. Raspberries came 

 through fairly well, but as there is not as good 

 a growth of cane as last year, the crop will be 

 rather light. — A. M. Smith. 



St. Catharines. — The long, cold si)ell seems to 

 be broken. Trees are bursting into leaf and 



bloom with great rapidity. The country is 

 a mass of blossoms. Nearly all kinds of trees 

 apparently came through the winter in good 

 shape. Raspberry canes are not looking so 

 well. From present prospects, it would seem 

 that we can expect a fair crop of fruit in general. 

 Cherries and plums promise full crops; pears, 

 medium. Prices will rule high as canning 

 factories are paying good prices for the berry 

 crops yet to be gathered. Looking at the 

 largely increased acreage that is being planted 

 this season of pears, plums, and especially of 

 peaches and grapes, one cannot help wonder- 

 ing how many of the new growers will have 

 the backbone and the stick-to-itiveness to 

 prune, cultivate and spray the trees they are 

 planting. If they do not, their labor will be 

 for little or nothing. A large percentage of 

 the planting, however, is being done by the 

 growers who have already learned that only 

 by taking care of their trees can they be made 

 to pay, and the better cared for, the better 

 will they pay. — Robt. Thompson. 



KENT COUNTY 



Chatham. — The prospects for apples are 

 good, except for fall varieties, which will be 

 light. Pears will be fair. Peach bloom is 

 all killed, and many of the trees ' Small fruits 

 promise well. Japan plums seem to have suf- 

 fered with peaches; other plums show consid- 

 erable bloom; cherries also. Among apples, 

 Baldwin, Spy and King are the most promis- 

 ing. Kieffer pears will be light. — W; D. A. 

 Ross. 



ESSEX COUNTY 



Leamington. — Fruit growers were much sur- 

 prised this spring to find that a large number 

 of peach and other trees were dead. As the 

 winter had been mild, no one had expected 

 injury. The general opinion is that the harm 

 was not done during the winter, but that it 

 was the result of the severe frosts that came 

 when the trees were in full leaf last October. 

 Trees that were old enough to bear and voung 

 trees that were well ripened in wood, did not 

 sustain much injury. Uninjured peach trees 

 promise a good crop. Spraying has been prac- 

 tised generally and thoroughly. It is to be 

 hoped that the dreaded scale will not spread 

 so rapidly this season as last. — 1. L. Hilborn. 



Leamington. — Fruit prospects are not any 

 too favorable. A large quantity of peach buds 

 have been killed; many trees appear to be 

 dead, still there is prospect for some jjeaches, 

 perhaps a fair average crop. Cherries, both 

 sweet and sour, show well. Apples promise 

 to give a crop; later on, conditions may show 

 otherwise. Strawberries are badly quite killed 

 put; also, some raspterries. Plums differ in 

 fjloom; Abundance, full; Burbank, almost none; 

 Lombard and some others, full. Pears show 

 well. — E. E. Adams. 



LAMBTON COUNTY 



Forest. — The prospect is good for an abun- 

 dant crop of fall and winter apples. Early 

 plums and peaches are damaged to some ex- 

 tent by late frosts, but later varieties have 

 come through all right. — A. Lawrie. 



BRUCE COUNTY 



Walkerton. — All varieties of tree fruits ap- 

 pear to have wintered well. Bush fruits look 

 fairly well except raspberries, which seem to 

 have been damaged by late frosts. The apple 

 bloom gives promise of a fair crop; pears, good; 

 plums, medium; cherries, good.— A. E. Sher- 

 rington. 



GREY COUNTY 



Meaford. — Raspl)erries and strawberries are 

 in condition for a good crop, except those on 

 wet ground. Cherries, plums, and pears prom- 

 ise lots of bloom. Most varieties of apples will 

 bloom well. Spys will be shy as they gave a 

 full crop last year. — A. Gifford. 



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