184 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



August, 190' 



will ever be to foster a greater love for 

 the noblest of all professions. 



The department of horticulture and 

 forestry will be more particularly inter- 

 ested in the spread of horticultural 

 knowledge than the other departments, 

 which will be interested in the spread 

 of knowledge concerning animal hus- 

 bandry, dairying, field agriculture, and 

 so forth. This information will be given 



out in various ways. The most import- 

 ant phase of the work will be the in- 

 struction given to the students during 

 the college course. The various sub- 

 jects pertaining to horticulture, includ- 

 ing fruit growing, vegetable gardening, 

 landscape gardening and floriculture, 

 will be given due prominence in the 

 college curriculum, while advantage will 

 be taken of opportunities afforded to 

 discuss horticultural problems at farm- 



ers' institute meetings and similar gath 

 erings held throughout the country. A- 

 the country is rapidly developing, thi 

 various departments of the college wil' 

 necessarily develop with corresponding 

 rapidity to meet the demands for mor. 

 instruction in all branches of agricu! 

 tural work, as the people of the wes; 

 demand all that is newest and best i:i 

 every departmen of human endeavor 



Larger OrcKards, Smaller Trees 



A.. McNeill, Chief, Fruit Division, Otta-wa 



ALL orchard practice is relative. 

 Whether we shall plant thirty ap- 

 ple trees or 100 apple trees to the 

 acre, is a question intimately related to 

 varieties to be planted, the skill of the 

 planter and the methods of his orchard 

 practice. Personally I beheve that the 

 practice of the future will be more trees 

 per acre, but the trees will be smaller. 



till his trees yield him little or no profit. 

 The man that has less than five acres of 

 apple orchard is responsible for much of 

 the poor fruit that disgraces the Can- 

 adian apple trade at the present time. 

 With five acres or more of orchard a 

 grower finds it worth while to provide 

 himself with tools suitable for the work 

 in hand. He appreciates the fact that 



A Splendid Display of Apples Grown in British Columbia 



I also believe that the number of acres 

 in one orchard will be increased. The 

 tendency seems to be larger orchards 

 and smaller trees. 



This is the direct result, partly of 

 competition among ourselves and with 

 other apple growing countries, and 

 partly the extraordinary increase in 

 insect and fungus enemies. Competi- 

 tion requires better fruit; insects and 

 fungi make it more difficult to get it. 

 The owner of a small orchard is too busy 

 with other things to acquire the neces- 

 sar}^ skill to grow good fruit. He thinks 

 he cannot afford an expensive outfit for 

 spraying and in any case, other work is 

 pressing when spraying ought to be 

 done. Of course, it is only a few years 



a day spent in spraying may yield him 

 returns ten to twenty times the value of 

 the wages for the time occupied. If he 

 puts the same time on his oat field he 

 can hope for little more than simph' 

 good wages at best. A large orchard 

 stimulates a man to read books and 

 horticultural journals, and attend fruit 

 growers' meetings. The larger orchard 

 yields the profits. 



Smaller trees are also the result of 

 these changed conditions. The ex- 

 penses of an orchard may be roughly 

 divided into two classes: First, the ex- 

 pense of tilling the soil ; this is calculated 

 by the acre; and second, other expenses 

 pertain to the individual tree, such as 

 pruning, spraying, picking, etc., and 



must be calculated at so much per tree 

 but ultimately all expenses should b> 

 reduced to the cost of growing, per bar 

 rel or per box. 



Which yields the greater net revenue 

 the larger tree or the smaller tree? W'l 

 arrive at a conclusion in this way: The 

 ground rent and cultivation is practically 

 the same for either large or small trees, 

 and amounts to somewhere in the neigh- 

 borhood of twelve cents per tree, pre- 

 suming that there are fifty trees per acre. 

 The operations of pruning, spraying and 

 picking, not to speak of thinning and 

 hand-work in either fines, amount to at 

 least twenty cents per tree if properly 

 done. The three operations of spray- 

 ing, pruning and picking are almost 

 twice as expensive on big trees as on 

 small trees yielding the same in the 

 aggregate. In addition to this, the 

 small treee is not so readily affected by 

 the wind. The "drops" are of more 

 value as a waste product and the trunk 

 of the tree is much healthier. On the 

 other hand we might sa\' with reference 

 to spraying of large trees, that not only 

 is it more expensive to do the work, but 

 in many cases it is absolutely' impossible 

 to do it well. The tips of the branches 

 are at such unmanageable distances 

 that they do not receive their share of 

 the spraying liquid. 



I examined an orchard infested with 

 vSan Jose Scale this spring that had been 

 well sprayed with lime and sulphur, ex- 

 cept at the extreme tips of the branches. 

 An examination of these showed that 

 there was a sufficient number of scale 

 left behind nearly every fruit bud to 

 re-infest the fruit if any should set. It 

 is probable that ninety-nine-hundredths 

 of the insects were killed, but the one- 

 hundredth part was left just where it 

 would do the most injury. As far as 

 this season's crop was concerned, the 

 owner, unless he was a careful observer, . 

 would conclude that spraying was a 

 failure; though in all probability it 

 should have been pronounced a great 

 success. 



A small tree requires more skill to 

 train and prune, but the best results 

 cannot be looked for except this skill is 

 acquired. Smaller trees and larger 

 orchards are undoubtedlv in the lead. 



