248 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



FRUIT-GROWING IN NOVA SCOTIA. 



RAVELLING directly from Western Ontario to the Annapolis Valley 

 of Nova Scotia, one is impressed with many features which seem 

 peculiar to the district — the equable climate, fertile soil, artificial 

 dykes, great stores of natural fertilizers, rich in organic matter, sup- 

 1 plied by every rise of the Bay of Fundy tides ; and lastly, the 

 longevity of the apple trees, as evidenced by the number of hale old 

 veterans now standing, which were no doubt large trees at the time 

 of the expulsion of the Arcadians in 1755. That the trees have attained this 

 great age and continue to bear annual crops, substantiates the assertion that 

 this region of Nova Scotia is perfectly adapted to the apple, and is in many 

 respects its natural home. In the older fruitgrowing sections of Quebec and 

 Ontario — the Island of Montreal and Grimsby, Ontario, for instance — apple 

 trees over 100 years of age are exceedingly rare, and when such are found they 

 are invariably seedlings. But in the vicinity of Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and 

 Grand Pr£, of Evangeline fame, many orchards of grafted varieties have passed 

 their centennial, to say nothing of the hoary old monarchs which have braved 

 the storms of a century and a half. One of the most serious enemies to the 

 apple tree in the Annapolis Valley, is the canker worm. This, with the black 

 spot, are foes against whose inroads a determined stand must be taken each 

 year, and it is to the credit of the fruit growers of this region that a progressive 

 spirit is exhibited by them in testing the best means to exterminate these pests, 

 with the result that spraying with diluted Bordeaux mixture and Paris green 

 combined is now quite the universal practice. Growers are divided in opinion 

 as to the best remedy for the canker worm. It is said by some that Paris green 

 sufficiently strong to kill the canker worm will seriously injure the foliage. The 

 growers who hold this view protect their trees by tacking around the stem or. 

 trunk bands of tarred paper which is smeared with printer's ink, for the purpose 

 of trapping the female moths as they crawl up in the autumn to deposit their 

 eggs. When this banding and smearing is carefully attended to in the autumn, 

 and again in the spring, little injury is sustained from the canker worm. Other 

 growers find that if spraying is resorted to before the larvae have attained 

 maturity they are easily destroyed. 



President J. W. Bigelow, of the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers' Association, 

 has recently secured the actual results for the last ten years of ten average 

 orchards situated in the Annapolis Valley. As a result of his investigations, he 

 shows that a profit of $52,065 has been made from seventy-seven acres of apple 

 orchard in ten years from an investment of $7,820, and permanent value remain- 

 ing in orchard worth $42,400. To prove the cost of producing a young orchard, 

 Mr. Bigelow obtained facts from the owners of four young orchards planted five 

 years ago, selecting those who paid the highest and the lowest prices for the 

 land. From this tabular statement it is shown that from an outlay of $5,285 in. 



