December 31, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



639 



who have raised many kinds of fruits have found something 

 to fall back upon. Many members of our Association have 

 been doing good work this year by visiting various farmers' 

 institutes and taking part in discussions on horticultural topics 

 and imparting whatever information they could, relating to 

 fruit growing. This is a patriotic and philanthropic work and 

 it should be encouraged. 



At the general Fruit Growers' Convention held during the 

 year agents of the various transportation companies were 

 present and gave an attentive hearing to our suggestions and 

 grievances. They manifested a desire to furnish us with 

 better facilities and greater dispatch in shipping fruits, and sinee 

 the meeting there has been an improvement in this matter. Ex- 

 press companies, however, do not furnish proper accommo- 

 dations, because they should have shelves in their cars on 

 which to store the fruit, instead of piling the light baskets upon 

 one another in such a way that the fruit is in very bad condi- 

 tion when it reaches the consumer. The pilfering of fruit 

 from baskets and other packages in transport has reached 

 annoying proportions. Almost every shipper is at some time 

 accused of giving short weight or measure, the reason being 

 that after the packages have been shipped they are broken 

 into on the road and a considerable fraction of the fruit 

 abstracted by employes or their friends. The loss is Small 

 in each case, so that the shipper does not care to report it, and 

 if he does he gets no satisfaction ; but in the aggregate it 

 amounts to a serious tax upon the growers. There is no 

 reason why fruit should not be as safe in a basket in the charge 

 of an express company as money or any other article of value. 

 We have hopes of checking this evil, because we find that 

 transportation companies feel inclined to listen to our united 

 demands ; and this is one of the great values of such an 

 organization. 



Notwithstanding the advanced position of fruit-growing in 

 this province, it is a fact that not one farmer in ten produces 

 half enough for his own use, and this is true of even the most 

 prosperous ones. It is surprising that in thriving agricultural 

 communities there is so little horticultural taste and knowledge 

 even where there are good buildings, blooded live stock and 

 fine crops ; we see no orchards, no small fruits.no flowers, no 

 ornamental planting, and if there is any, it is in such a neglected 

 state that it emphasizes the fact that horticulture is an unap- 

 preciated art. Perhaps a diet in which fruit formed a larger 

 proportion would give us a more healthy set of men than one 

 in which fat pork abounds, and if farmers would take a keener 

 interest in surrounding their homes with beauty they would 

 have less complaint to make of their children for emigrating 

 to other countries and engaging in other pursuits. 



Professor Saunders is doing a great work in producing new 

 varieties of fruits adapted to the colder portions of our country, 

 and his experiments in hybridizing Strawberries, Raspberries, 

 Gooseberries, Currants and other fruits will prove of great 

 benefit. I saw some of the results of his labors, in testing not 

 a few, but hundreds of varieties of Raspberries, during their 

 season, which had been produced by hybridizing and careful 

 selecting. 



Mr. Pettit, in a strong speech, urged that if the foreign fruit 

 trade was to be made profitable, there should be certain mar- 

 ket days at centres of traffic where the products of the grower 

 could be disposed of directly to the buyer, and subject to in- 

 spection by an officer of the Government, as is the case with 

 cattle, grain, etc. It is essential that grades of fruit should be 

 established, so that a Government brand upon a package of 

 apples or other fruit marked Number one should mean that it 

 was of fair size and color, free from scab and worms, and packed 

 properly in packages of standard size. In the same way grade 

 Number two should have a specific meaning, and in all cases it 

 should be understood that fruit for export should be properly 

 packed. A few consignments of fruitinbadordergivesapreju- 

 dice against the entire output of the region from which it came. 

 Even where growers are honest in packing their fruits, if there is 

 no standard there will be no evenness of quality, and nothing but 

 strict rules, thorough inspection and accurate grading will give 

 the buyer any guarantee or the grower any assurance that his 

 Number one fruit is not a different article from the Number 

 one fruit of his neighbor. After some discussion the following 

 resolution was passed : Resolved, That we deem it the best 

 interest of the fruit-growers, shippers and consumers, as well 

 as the good name of our country, that a standard of excellence 

 be established for such fruits as are shipped in barrels and 

 other closed packages into the markets of our cities and towns 

 and for transportation to foreign countries, and the Govern- 

 ment is hereby petitioned to appoint proper inspectors for that 

 purpose. 



Professor Craig, in speaking of the method of the propaga- 



tion of fruit-trees, said that while fruit-growers are busily en- 

 gaged in looking for new varieties, few of them are studying 

 how to improve old methods of propagating the varieties we 

 have, or investigating the effect of the different modes of 

 propagation upon the health and longevity of the subjects. 

 That a tree makes a vigorous growth for three years in a nur- 

 sery-row is no proof that it will make a valuable orchard-tree, 

 and the reason is not always that the soil and climate are un- 

 congenial. We should know whether the cion is married into 

 a congenial family. The practice of grafting on pieces of roots, 

 which originated in 181 1 with Andrew Knight, has introduced 

 many knotty problems into pomology which are still far from 

 solution. Trees grafted on piece-roots allow of deep setting 

 and encourage roots from the cion, and it would therefore 

 seem that in warm climates, where there is no such thing as 

 root-killing, budded trees would be more satisfactory ; but in 

 cold climates the piece-roots serve an indispensable purpose 

 where hardiness is desired, because they allow the use of the 

 deeply set cion. In this way the piece-roots serve only a tem- 

 porary purpose, while the cion represents a variety of known 

 hardiness. Seedling stock is variable, and only an occasional 

 tree will prove sufficiently hardy to withstand severe climates. 

 Good trees for all purposes can be obtained by using only the 

 first and second cuts from the root, and these should be not 

 less than three and a half inches in length, and the cion be- 

 tween five and six inches. 



Pear-trees are almost always propagated by budding, but 

 some firms in the United States are making a specialty of 

 crown grafting on the whole roots. Russian varieties treated 

 in this way and planted eight years ago on the farm of the late 

 Mr. Charles Gibb are now making vigorous growth. 



In a recent bulletin, Professor Budd, in discussing the stock 

 for Cherries, mentions the Wild Red Cherries, Primus Pennsyl- 

 vanica and Prunus pumila, as two promising stocks. Of the 

 first, he says that "it has been found that it unites perfectly 

 with all varieties tried on Morellos, Dukes and Heart Cherries, 

 either by grafting or budding. It sprouts, but when top- 

 worked with vigorous sorts it does not appear to have any 

 reserve material to waste in sprouts." Of the second Cherry, 

 he says " as yet its use is experimental, but it unites well with 

 all hardy sorts in budding, and it does not dwarf the parts 

 worked upon it to a greater extent during the first five years 

 than does the Mahaleb." I have tried both these stocks in a 

 small way, but have not been sufficiently successful yet to 

 justify my advocating their use. 



In propagating the Plum the same objection to the Myroba- 

 lan stock can be urged as in the case of tender stocks for 

 Pears and Apples. The native Plum of the east cannot be 

 recommended, as it is affected by the Black Knot and it grows 

 slowly. The western forms of the same species have not these 

 defects and they unite well when budded or grafted with the 

 Plum, the Peach and the Apricot. These western Plums grow 

 readily from pits, and make large enough stock for budding 

 in August of the same year they are planted. The art of graft- 

 ing is of immense service, but I have little doubt that trees on 

 their own roots would be, as a rule, less liable to disease. 



The best and simplest protection for Roses in winter, ac- 

 cording to Mr. James Webster, of Hamilton, has been found to 

 be the mounding up of earth to the height of ten inches about 

 the plant. This mound is removed in the spring when danger 

 of frost is passed, and then the pruning is done. Not more 

 than six or eight inches of wood is left on the strongest Roses, 

 while from the less vigorous ones the weakest shoots are 

 taken away entirely. The wood cut off in pruning is imme- 

 diately burned, as by this means the thrips and insects which 

 leave eggs in the wood to pass the winter are kept down. 



In regard to the use of wood-ashes in orchards, Professor 

 James, of the Guelph Experimental Station, said a fruit-tree 

 makes three demands upon the soil — (1) for the wood, (2) for 

 the leaves, (3) for the fruit. Ashes contain the elements which 

 a tree uses to form healthy wood, and therefore they are use- 

 ful as a fertilizer for this purpose. Leaves, by the time they 

 fall, have returned their best parts to the tree; but still some 

 loss occurs where the leaves arc blown away. In the fruit the 

 orchard sustains its loss mainly, and if we know the constitu- 

 ent parts of this we can tell just what elements are needed. 

 Potash is the largest ash-element in all fruits, and therefore the 

 best fertilizer will contain potash, and that is why wood-ashes 

 are so valuable. Ashes, besides, have some phosphoric acid 

 and lime elements which help to raise their value up to twenty 

 or twenty-five cents a bushel, but when ashes can be had at 

 ten cents a bushel they are the cheapest fertilizer that can be 

 obtained. A complete fertilizer for an acre of orchard would be 

 forty bushels of ashes, 100 pounds of crushed bone and 100 

 pounds of sulphate of ammonia. 



