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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



Floral Edition 



Mr. Geo. Johnson, of Peterboro, Ont., in a sec- 

 tion of his raspberry patch. 



Orchard Reminders 



M. B. Davis, B.S.A., Ottawa, Ont. 



Late July and early August, al- 

 though not nearly as busy a time of 

 year for the amateur fruit grower as 

 the spring, still has its duties. The 

 raspberry plants can now be attended 

 to, to good advantage. The fruiting 

 season is over by now, and the wood 

 which bore this year's crop is probably 

 dying and should be removed this early 

 autumn. If your plantation is infested 

 with raspberry cane blight it will be 

 showing now, by the discoloring of the 

 canes, which will just begin to die by 

 wilting at the tips. These discolored 

 canes should at once be removed and 

 burned ; in fact it is a good rule to re- 

 move all dead wood and burn it at 

 once so that in case a disease is present 

 it will not be a further source of in- 

 fection. 



If you have black raspberries grow- 

 ing, cut back the new canes as soon as 

 they have reached the height of two 

 and a half feet to three feet, otherwise 

 they are very difficult to handle. 



In the gooseberry plot preparation 

 should now be made for propagating 

 next year. The best method for propa- 

 gation is layering, and if it is intended 

 to layer next season the bushes should 

 be severely pruned early this autumn, 

 which will induce a strong wood 

 growth next spring. As soon as this 

 growth is practically complete, which 

 will be about next July, earth should 

 be heaped around the bush so as to 

 cover everything excent the voung tips 

 of the new shoots. This soil is packed 

 down and then a mulch of fine soil is 



put on top of this. By autumn the 

 young shoots will probably have rooted 

 wlien the mound can be removed and 

 the rooted shoots separated from the 

 mother plant, and set out in the places 

 intended for the new plantation. 



The strawberry beds should receive 

 attention. If in the old bed you are 

 tron])led with leaf spot or rust, care 



should be exercised to keep it off the 

 new forming foliage of the runners. Iti 

 some cases this may be effected by pick- 

 ing the diseased leaves from the old 

 plants and burning them, while in ca.ses 

 where the disease is bad, frequent 

 sprayings with Bordeaux mixture will 

 be necessary to keep the young foliage 

 free of rust. 



Approved Orchard Methods Again Prove Profitable 



THE possibilities that lie in man>- 

 a neglected orchard have been 

 revealed, among others, bv F. H. 

 Johnson, of Bridgetown, N.S., who foi- 

 some years has obtained an average 

 profit of one hundred dollars an aero 

 from a reclaimed orchard, Thes^ re- 

 sults have been accomplished by the 

 thorough application of the principles* 

 of orchard practice frequently de- 

 scribed in the columns of The Cana- 

 dian Horticulturist. 



Mr. Johnson's orchard comprises ten 

 acres, five of which are in full bearing. 

 When he purchased his farm in 189f). 

 the orchard contained 300 apple tree.=;. 

 The trees had been badly neglected, 

 having been left in sod, seldom pruned 

 and never sprayed. They were cover- 

 ed with a growth of moss, and had a 

 starved and stunted appearance. The 

 annual .crop was about one hundred 

 barrels of inferior apples. 



As soon as the land was fit to work, 

 the spring after he took charge, Mr. 

 Johnson plowed up the orchard and 

 kept the ground thoroughly cultivated 

 until the first of July. A cover crop 

 M-as then sown. Meanwhile the trees 

 were sprayed regularly. In the au- 

 tumn his efforts were rewarded by 

 three hundred barrels of clean fruit of 

 good'.size. The orchard now contains 

 1,000 trees, one-half of which yield an 

 average crop of 800 barrels of first- 

 class merchantable apples. When 

 asked by a representative of The Cana- 

 dian Horticulturist for details of the 

 methods by which these results had 

 been reached, Mr. Johnson readily 

 responded. 



"I attribute," he said, "what suc- 

 cess I have met with to four operations : 

 First, spraying; second, cultivation: 

 third, fertilizing; and fourth, pruning. 

 The best soil for an orchard is a light 

 or a gravelly loam. Mine is a light 

 loam. My orchard is situated on tho 

 crest of a hill and slopes to the north, 

 west and south. So far as I can see, 

 the slope of the orchard does not make 

 any difference in this part of the coun- 

 try. Of course we are not troubled 

 with spring frosts here. It is possible, 

 perhaps, that where these are pre- 

 valent a northerly slope would possess 

 slight advantages. 



"I have practised thinning for ten 

 years with good results. About the 



first of July I go through the orchard 

 for this purpose. This practice gives 

 me larger fruit, more even in size and 

 better colored. Moreover the fruit 

 can be handled much more quickly in 

 picking and packing. Thinning is one 

 of the important operations in growing 

 first-class fruit. The superintendent 

 of the Dominion Experimental Station 

 has directed experiments in thinning 

 in my orchard. The Blenheim variety 

 was selected for the test. Five trees 

 M-ere thinned and these were compared 

 with seven trees unthinned. The trees 

 were uniform in size and were equally 

 well set with fruit. About seventeen 

 per cent of the apples were removed 

 from the thinned trees on July 15th. 

 The apples were counted when picked 

 and were packed by the Co-operative 

 Fruit Company of Bridgetown. All 

 the barrels were marjted so that the 

 shipment could be traced to the selling 

 point. The apples were sold on their 

 merits and the purchaser knew noth- 

 ing of the nature of the experiment. 

 The number one fruit from the thinned 

 trees sold at thirty -four cents per bar- 

 rel more than for the same grade from 

 the unthinned trees." 



Cost of Production. 



Mr. Johnson values his bearing or- 

 chard at fivft hundred dollars an acre, 

 which at six per cent, is a rental of 

 thirty dollars. He has kept complete 

 records of his expenditure and receipts. 

 The fertilizer used per acre averages 

 eleven dollars and 50 cents. Sowing 

 the fertilizer costs one dollar an acre, 

 discing and harrowing five dollars, seed 

 for the cover crop two dollars and 

 fifty cents, barrels thirty dollars, sprays 

 ing twelve dollars, and picking, pack- 

 ing and truckage thirty dollars. The 

 total outlay per acre of bearing or- 

 chard he places at one hundred and 

 twenty-two dollars. For the past num- 

 ber of years he has averaged one hun- 

 dred and twenty barrels to the acre, 

 and his average price for all varieties 

 has been one dollar and eighty-five 

 cents a barrel. This gives him a gross 

 income per acre of two hundred and 

 tAventy-two dollars and a net profit of 

 one hundred dollars an acre. These 

 returns show an encouraging improve- 

 ment over those formerly obtained 

 from this land. 



