APPLES IN NORTH WESTERN ONTARIO. 



Duchess Apple Tree. 



r T would appear that our visit to 

 Sault Ste. Marie did not reach the 

 extreme northern limit of the 

 apple. At a meeting of the 

 Western Horticultural Society in Winni- 

 peg, in February last, a photograph was 

 passed around showing a Duchess of 

 Oldenburg apple tree, growing in the 

 garden of Mr. W. L. Lyall, of Portage 

 la Prairie, which had on it forty-five fine 

 apples, and we are glad to be able to 

 show our readers an engraving of the 

 photograph. Mr. A. P. Stevenson, of 

 Nelson, Manitoba, read a paper before 

 the Society on " What the past year has 



taught us, : ' from which we 

 take the following regarding 

 apples. 



" Our most prolific crop is the 

 Transcendant, one tree alone 

 yielding fully two barrels of 

 apples. This is the first variety 

 to bl< om in spring ; on that ac- 

 count there is some danger in 

 certain localities of injury to 

 the blossom by frost. 



Mulching around the roots of 

 the trees with half rotted straw, 

 above the snow during winter, 

 has been tried to retard in early 

 blooming, but without any ap- 

 parent advantage. 



Sweet Busnett is the name 

 of another variety deserving of 

 special mention on account of 

 its fair cooking qualities, very 

 little crab flavor being notice- 

 able. Ten varieties of Russian 

 apple trees carried fruit to ma- 

 turity last summer. Blushed 

 Calville, a summer variety, 

 bore rather better than a bushel 

 of apples of good size and of fair 

 dessert quality, and were ripe 

 on the 25th August. A weak- 

 ness of this variety, more notice- 

 able than in previous years, was 

 its tendency to drop its fiuit 

 with every high wind. 



The following fall varieties 

 also carried full crops of large 

 to extia large apples, suitable 

 for cooking purposes : — Lieby, 

 Ostrekoff, Silken Leaf, and 

 Russian Oravenstein. The lat- 

 ter variety is, in quality, size, 

 coloiing and appearance, sec- 

 ond to none of our eastern 

 grown apples. One of the lessens learned 

 among the apple trees the past summer is 

 from the tlat headed apple tree borer. Their 

 work was first noticed last fall, when they 

 worked considerable damage. They are de- 

 tected by the borings or sawdust-like castings 

 found at the root of the tree. When this is 

 noticed the parts should be cut into with a 

 knife until the borer is found. 



Three years ago the first attempt at top- 

 working the large apple on the crabapple was 

 tried. So far as noted it has been a success. 

 A number of the scions first inserted bearing 

 heavily the past summer. The benefit of this 

 work consists in the fact that top-working a 

 half hardy scion on a hardy stock increases 

 the hardiness of the scion. Such varieties of 

 crabapple • trees as Transcendant, Hyslop, 

 Sweet Russet and Virginia, are congenial 

 stocks, and make a firm union with the large 

 apple. 



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