146 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



June, 1915. 



Spraying: is onv ol tlie ot>ei*aUaii^ LliaL Mr. I'liit^u inriists must not be negieelt-d. Tliis siiows 



his power sprayer at work. 



land is always plowed and harrowed in 

 the fall, amd again in the spring before 

 the trees are planted. 



The trees are set out as early as pos- 

 sible in the spring, as Mr. Pineo has 

 found that early planting allows the 

 roots to develop ahead of the buds, so 

 that later on tJie roots are able to sup- 

 ply the moisiture evaporated from the 

 leaves. He sets ooit the trees thirty feet 

 apart each way and does not use fillers. 

 In digging the hole, the top soil and 

 subsoil are often placed in separate 

 piles. In replacing this material, a 

 shovelful of the surface soil is put in 

 first, the tree placed in position, and 

 the remaining top soil filled in around 

 the roots. The subsoil is placed on top. 

 The earth is worked in well around the 

 tree. As soon as the trees are set, the 

 land is given a most thorough cultiva- 

 tdooi 'by both plowing and harrowing. 

 Until the trees begin to bear, the inter- 

 A'^ning ground is planted to potatoes, 

 corn or roots. When the trees come 

 into bearing, the land is cultivated with 

 the harrow or cultivator every wee)\, 

 and after every rain, until the first of 

 July, when a cover crop consisting of 

 clover or buckwheat is sown. 



"I am cutting out commercial fertil- 

 izers as much as possible," said Mr. 

 Pineo, "and using barnyard manure in- 

 stead. It ihas been my experience that 

 not much money can be made in this 

 country in raising apples if the grower 

 has to depend altogether on commercial 

 mannres. I use siome of the straiglit 

 fertilizers — nitrate of potash, nitrate of 

 soda and bonemeal. I have not found 

 it pi'oifita'ble to use mixed fertilizers. We 

 are told that in countries where arti- 



ficial fertilizers are used in enormous 

 quantities the use of mixed fertilizers 

 has been almost entirely given up. 

 Many groiwers in the Nova Scotia fruit 

 belt, where the greatest quantities o C 

 commercial fertilizers are consaimed^are 

 getting more and more into the way of 

 applying fertilizers, such as acid phos- 

 phaite or muriate of potash, by them- 

 selves, according to the needs of their 

 orchards, or of mixing these together 

 at home when they wish to apply all the 

 elements of plant food. I believe it 

 would 'be well if more farmers would 

 adopt this practice. 



" Conditions vary very much. It 

 would be impossible to describe a fer- 

 tilizer which would be suitable for a 

 certain crop under all conditions, as 

 there are too many factors to be con- 

 sidered. A farmer, to use manures or 

 fertilizers intelligently, must keep in 

 mind the nature of his soil as well as the 

 character of the crop. I keep a large 

 number of live stock and have about 

 eight hundred tons of manure available 

 from that source. In adddtion, I buy 

 yearly about three hundred tons of tlii's 

 fertilizer at from a dollar and a half to 

 two dollaTs a ton, according to the st^ite 

 of preservation. 



"We are told that a ton of barnyard 

 manure well saved is worth in compari- 

 son with commercial fertilizers two dol- 

 lars and ninety -seven cents a ton. I'ut 

 too often under the ordinary farm con- 

 ditions the manure available has de- 

 preciated in value. Farmers are learn- 

 ing, however, that a manure heap may 

 lotse more than half its value in a few 

 months throngli leaching and fermenta- 

 tion. But too many of them do not 



realize that out of a total value of two 

 dollaTB and ninety-seven cents a ton the 

 liquid part is worth two dollars and six 

 c(;n,ts, and the solid jwirt but ninety-one 

 cents. Our provincial Agricultural De- 

 partment is doing excellent work in ad- 

 vising the use of tighter barn floors to 

 l)revent leakage, the use of more straw, 

 earth, muck and other material to ab- 

 sorb the liquids and the storing of 

 manure, whether indoors or oiit, in a 

 place from which drainage is impos- 

 sible. The manure heap should be kept 

 level and as compact as possible. An 

 uneven snirface allows an easy circula- 

 tion of adr and, in consequence, rapid 

 fermentaitaon. The manure from horses, 

 sheep and poultry, being hot, should, if 

 l)08sil)le, be mixed with the manure 

 from the cows and hogs in one common 

 heap. The heap should be thoroughly 

 and frequently tramped down. The ap- 

 plication from time to time of quantities 

 of dry earth is useful, as the earth ab 

 sorbs nitrogen and other organic gases 

 w hioh would otherwise be lost. 



"I do not use more than ten tons of 

 manure to the acre in my orchard. 

 iVIore than this sometimes causes an 

 over-'.s'timulation of wood growth." 

 Pruning Methods. 



Mr. Pineo prunes lightly from the out- 

 .side every June. He prunes the young 

 stock so as to develop symmetrical, 

 welPbalanced trees. Bearing trees are 

 pruned so that the tops are opened up 

 for sunlight and the height kept con- 

 venient for spraying and picking. The 

 only fungicide employed is lime-sul- 

 phur. The proportions used are six gal- 

 lons of oommercial lime-sulphur to two 

 hundred gallons of water. About two 

 pounds of arsenate of lead are ineorpor- 

 aited with every forty gallons of the 

 mixture. Spraying is begun just before 

 the fruit buds burst. The young leaves 

 are well covered with the spray and pro- 

 tected against scab until the second ap 

 plication, just after the blossome fall, 

 can be given. Two and often three ad- 

 ditional sprayings are applied with in- 

 tervals of ten days between. Care is 

 taken that a fine spray is produced. 

 N^evertheless, the trees are very fre- 

 quently drenched. The proportions 

 ised, however, admit of drenching with- 

 out injuring the foliage, and it pays 

 better to waste lime-sulphur than ap- 

 ples. A power sprayer is used at a 

 pressure of two hundred pounds. 

 Sprays Thoroughly. 



"I believe in the gospel of thorough 

 sprajang," said Mr. Pineo. "We mu.st 

 grow clean apples — ^nothing else counts. 

 The orchardist who is content to grow 

 only spotted apples is on the road to the 

 j>oorhouse, and the more apples he 

 grows the sooner he will arrive there. 

 Soalbby apples will not be worth any- 

 thing in the very near future. Apples 

 can be kept clean in the woi"st season 

 if the grower knows his business. Many 



