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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



Floral Bdltlon. 



The Skinner Sprinkler System as used in his celery patch by Mr. Buck, of Freeman, Ont. The 

 pipes can be turned to throw water to either side. 



the mulberry in the colder parts of 

 Ontario. 



It raight be noted that this dieback 

 is only a mild form of what occurs 

 normally in many of our perennials, 

 where all the top above ground dies 

 back each fall. 



Bud Killing:: This is very common 

 also. The buds, and especially the 

 flower buds, are frozen and drop off. 

 In many cases only the delicate stamens 

 and pistils are destroyed and the 

 flower opens but remains sterile. 



June Drop: Each year after the 

 fruit has set a large number of fruit.s, 

 especially among peaches, plums and 

 cherries, drop off in June. Sometimes 

 this is only due to a natural pruning 

 which nature gives to a large crop. A 

 weak tree, or one which bore heavily 

 the preceding year, will suffer in this 

 way. In many cases noted in 1915, 

 however, the June Drop was due to a 

 lack of fertilization brought about by 

 very cold weather during the blooming 

 season. 



Spotting of Plums and Cherries: 



This effect of late spring frosts was 

 very noticeable this year. It was fre- 

 quently mistaken for Brown Eot, and 

 while spots were brownish in color 

 they did not increase in size as the 

 fruit . ripened. In many cherries ex- 

 amined the spot on the outside had a 

 small counterpart on the pit directly 

 beneath it. 



Sun Scald: This term is used to 

 denote the long dead areas on the 

 trunks of apple, pear, plum and peach 

 trees. Plums are especially troubled 

 in this way and whole orchards may 

 be seen in which every tree has a dead ' 

 strip on the south or southwest side 

 of the trunk. In this case the trouble 

 seems to be due to sudden changes of 



temperature in March and April. A 

 calm, bright day raises the tempera- 

 ture on this side of the tree and starts 

 a little growth. The sudden fall of the 

 temperature at night is then too much 

 for the tender tissue and a strip on 

 the exposed surface dies. A board 

 loosely nailed on the south side of the 

 tree, a coat of whitewash on the trunk, 

 or a cylinder of building paper loosely 

 wrapped around the trunk have been 

 used to prevent Sun Scald. These, of 

 course, should be put on in the late 

 fall. "When the damage is already done, 

 sun scald areas should be cleaned out 

 and the wood painted to prevent de- 

 cay. 



Crown or Collar Rot: These names 

 are used to denote a killing of the stem 

 of a tree at the ground or below it, 

 and it often involves the roots as well. 

 Very many orchard trees of all ages 

 die annually from this trouble, which 

 is the direct result of freezing of the 

 part below ground. Such trees in 

 spring may put out leaves and flower 

 and then suddenly wilt and die. More 

 frequently, however, the girdling is 

 not complete and the tree lives foi- 

 two or more years after the injury 

 was sustained, the small living connec- 

 tion with the roots sufficing to keep it 

 alive. Such trees are characterized by 

 small and yellowish leaves and many 

 dead twigs. When one side of the 

 trunk only is frozen in this way the 

 branches above it may be unhealthy 

 and the rest of the tree normal. If not 

 too badly injured the tree may recover, 

 but when such freezing takes place at 

 all it is usually bad enough to kill' 

 most of the way around the base of 

 the trunk. One can easily determine 

 how bad the damage is by cutting into 

 the bark of the underground stem. The 



nonnal bark is greenish white, while 

 the dead tissue is quite brown clear to 

 the wood beneath. Collar rot is pre- 

 valent on low, wet soils, especially if 

 these lack humus. It has also been 

 found that a mulch of straw or barn- 

 yard manure or a heap of earth around 

 the trunk helps trees to pass the win- 

 ter without this root freezing, pn- 

 sumably because they tend to prevei" 

 sudden changes of temperature in tlr 

 soil. It may be noted here, also, that 

 where a budded tree is used and the 

 stalk grows faster than the scion, or is 

 imperfectly united to it, the liability 

 to injury of this kind is greater than 

 where the two parts of the tree are 

 uniform in size and there is a perfect 

 union. There is a strong suspicion 

 also that the stock used in certain 

 cases is one that does not possess the 

 hardy qualities that ought to be ex- 

 pected of it. 



Black Heart: One often meets with 

 fruit trees in which the whole of the 

 heart wood has taken on a brown or 

 dark color and to these cases the name 

 Black Heart has been given. They are 

 due to winter injury also, and it is a 

 very unwise proceeding to plant out 

 nursery stock affected in this way. 

 Apple, pear, plum and peach trees are 

 all subject to this form of injury and 

 experience shows that if such trees live 

 at all they make little growth for the 

 first two or three years. When the in- 

 jury occurs on a tree that is estab- 

 lished it may not do much harm unless 

 the injury is very severe, and flourish- 

 ing orchards can be seen Avhieh years 

 ago had their heart wood browned and 

 darkened by some exceptional winter. 

 It is advisable, however, to examine 

 nursery stock and see that it is free 

 from Black Heart, for nothing but dis- 

 satisfaction will come from planting 

 out an orchard with trees affected by 

 this sort of winter injury. 



Strawberry Root Killing: A grent 

 many complaints have been made th 

 summer of the death of plants in strav. - 

 berry beds. They usually looked Avell 

 in spring, and put out leaves and flow- 

 ered in a normal way, but when the 

 soil dried out they shrivelled up and 

 died out singly and in small areas all 

 over the bed." This killing was vari- 

 ously assigned to the use of too strong 

 manures, to the strawberry mildew 

 which was unusually prevalent this 

 season, or to the "white grub" which 

 has recently done considerable damage 

 to strawberry plantations in varions 

 districts. It was not due to these, how- 

 ever, but to the freezing of the stra-w- 

 berry roots, possibly in early spring 

 after growth had begun. In the plants 

 which are beginning to wilt the root 

 s^'stem can be seen to be brown and 

 dead. In older plants the outside or 

 cortical part of the roots brown nor- 

 mallv in winter more or less, but in 



