^38 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



October, 1907 



Out., Mr. VV. G. Home, who is a I'rt 

 quent contributor to the columns of 

 The Canadian Horticulturist, has 

 this to say: "I have used Marchnient's 

 Sure Growth Compost for a number of 

 years. It is hard to beat when proi^erly 

 mixed and composted. The hquid that 

 he uses in mixing with the horse and 

 cattle manure keeps those manures 

 from heating too much, and fang-burn- 

 ing, and probably stops the escape of 

 the. ammonia contained in those manures 

 which is one of our most valuable plant 

 foods. Without question, this manure 

 should be tised broadcast ; in fact , all 

 manures should be used that way. The 

 sooner after being drawn out to field 

 that it is plowed under the better. 



"I have had very Httle experience 

 with commercial fertilizers. The best 

 results I have had from them was from 

 a brand stamped (H) ; it was horse flesh, 

 from the Harris Co., of Toronto. I used 

 it for a melon crop. 



"The ideal way in fertilizing an apple 

 orchard is to cultivate shallow in spring 

 until foliage is well advanced, then 

 mulch with good fresh horse manure. 

 This is one of the best of manures, 

 which when shaded by the trees, does 

 not dry out quickly, and it gives pro- 

 tection for windfall apples." 



CARE AND MANURE PAYS 



A successful fruit grower in the Niag- 

 ara District, Mr. S. H. Rittenhouse, 

 Jordan Harbor, wrote: "My orchard 

 experience is confined almost entirely 



during the early winter months. My 

 ten-year-old orchard has a fair crop this 

 season and the drouth has very little 

 effect on it. This season's crop and re- 

 sults prove to me very conclusively 

 that care and manure pay well in the 

 peach orchard." 



APPLY MANURE IN FALL 



The experience of the well-known 

 nurserymen. Brown Brothers Company, 

 Nurserymen, Limited, is as follows: 

 "We have used very little of the so- 

 called commercial mixtures, but have 

 confined ourselves almost entirely to 

 barnyard manure and have used con- 

 siderable quantities of Marchment's Sure 

 Growth Compost. Our practice, as far 

 as possible, is to plow this under in the 

 fall, so that it is well rotted and incor- 

 porated in the ground when we come to 

 planting in the spring. We use one 

 good-sized car, about twenty tons to the 

 acre. We find this more satisfactory 

 on our soil than any commercial brand. 

 It seems to remain in the soil longer, 

 most of our soil being quite porous." 



BritisH Columbia Inspection 



H. Gordon, Coldstream, Vernon, B.C. 



The suggestion for the establishment 

 of a station at Revelstoke specially for 

 the inspection of nursery stock arriving 

 from the east, has caused much discus- 

 sion. There is no doubt that importers 

 of eastern stock, as well as those who 



Boxes of Pears Wrapped and Packed for the Western Market. 



to peaches. I practise thorough cultiva- 

 tion during May, June and July, use 

 barnyard manure and Marchment's 

 Sure Growth Compost, prune and spray, 

 and have been fairly successful. I have 

 been using some chemical fertilizers, but 

 cannot give any intelligent information 

 in their favor. I use manure sparingly 

 on young orchards, but when the orchard 

 comes in bearing I seed to cover crop 

 about August 1 and apply manure 



take the trouble to introduce new 

 varieties from Europe, suffer consider- 

 able annoyance, and even loss, through 

 the present somewhat clumsy arrange- 

 ments. It might perhaps be fairer, 

 and more patriotic, if all stock for the 

 upper (eastern) part of British Columbia 

 were inspected at some point like Revel- 

 stoke; the suggestion of discrimination 

 in favor of Oregon and Washington 

 stock would thus be dissipated. The 



question is, however, an economic one 

 for the Government. Now that atten- 

 tion has been called to it it is possible 

 that some improved arrangement may 

 be made. 



It must not be forgotten that there is 

 an increasing number of nurseries within 

 the province, and that the importation 

 of stock by fruit growers is likely v, 

 decrease as these nurseries increase. 

 The existing nurseries at the coast and 

 elsewhere are developing rapidly and 

 supplying admirable stock, well adapted 

 to the different districts which they taki 

 care to study. It is probable that in 

 the near future these nurseries will be thi 

 chief, or only, importers of stock — cer 

 tainly they will always be the largest. 

 The subject is Hkely, therefore, to become 

 of less general concern, and the enter- 

 prising nurserymen may be trusted to 

 l(X)k after their own and their clients' 

 interests. 



Use Sand in Transplanting 



It has always been understood by 

 gardeners and planters that, when trans- 

 planting trees, it is necessary that the 

 soil umst be made to fit closely to their 

 roots when in their new position. In 

 later years, much has been said and 

 written of firming the soil about potted 

 plants and transplanted trees, all look- 

 ing to the accomplishing of the same 

 object, the close contact of roots and soil. 



Recently another excellent suggestion 

 has been made, a suggestion made be- 

 cause of noticing what a help it had been 

 already to a great many; it is to use 

 sand for the filling in around the roots 

 of trees until all roots are covered. 

 "Hill There is no question of the sand's 

 \alue ; it does exactly what no other plan 

 will do as well, namely, fill in completely 

 all the air space about the roots, and fill 

 them better than all the tramping, 

 pounding, and watering otherwise found 

 necessary to accomplish the same object. 

 Dry earth is often recommended for 

 filling in about the roots, and well 

 recommended too, because being dry, it 

 crumbles up nicely, better than wet soil 

 will, but dry sand is far better than any- 

 thing else. 



Nurserymen took the hint of the value 

 of sand from noticing its usefulness for 

 heeling in purposes, as a sand heap is 

 known to be a necessary adjunct to aU 

 packing houses, cold storage houses, and 

 every building where plants are to be 

 handled. 



Let florists, landscape gardeners, and 

 all others recognize the value of sand and 

 use it in their operations, and they will 

 have greater success than ever before in 

 their future work. Its use is simply to 

 fill in about the newlj' set tree until the 

 roots are covered, then ordinary soil is 

 used to fill the hole. 



