104 
within or without the Annapolis and 
nearby valleys. 
For the last 30 years the production of 
fruit from the orchards of Nova Scotia 
has been steadily increasing. The yearly 
income from the sale of fruit exported 
now amounts to about $1,500,000. Con- 
sidering the number and extent of the 
young orchards just coming into bearing, 
there seems every reason to believe that 
the future rate of increase will be still 
more rapid, and that the annual returns 
for the years immediately succeeding 
1910 will probably exceed $2,000,000. The 
business of fruit growing in Nova Scotia 
offers an opportunity for the investment 
of capital as safe as that afforded by any 
business in the Province. 
The best fruit growers are constantly 
trying to understand and to reduce to 
practice the principles of horticultural 
science. With these men annual cultiva- 
tion of orchard lands is the rule. Cover 
erops are grown. Stable manure, com- 
mercial fertilizers, or both, are yearly 
applied. Fruit trees are so pruned as to 
admit the air and sunlight to the growing 
fruit, to remove weak and dying or in- 
terfering branches and to encourage and 
maintain a healthy, continuous growth of 
the tree. Three or more sprayings with 
a poisoned fungicide are given each year 
to control insect pests and fungous dis- 
eases. Formerly Bordeaux mixture was 
the only fungicide used, but lately the 
lime-sulphur wash has been tried by some 
of the best orchardists with apparently 
good results. This mixture was first 
brought into use in orchards to combat 
the San Jose scale. It was soon found, 
however, that, besides being an insecti- 
cide, it had an important fungicidal 
value and, though the dreaded scale has 
not yet made its appearance in Nova 
Scotia, the lime-sulphur wash is being 
used both as a dormant and a summer 
spray. 
It is important to notice that in start- 
ing an orchard the returns are far more 
remote than in other lines of farming. 
Under the ordinary method of treatment, 
an apple orchard gives little, if any, in- 
come during the first 10 years. There is, 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
however, an annually accruing value in 
the growth of the trees, which more than 
offsets the expenses incurred in their 
care. Almost all the bearing orchards 
in the fruit district today were grown 
while the owners were engaged in other 
kinds of farming. But when the profits 
of orcharding became apparent, this 
branch of agricultural industry took first 
place. While other lines of farming are 
now secondary to orcharding in the fruit 
district, they are nevertheless of consid- 
erable importance in providing a source 
of income until the young orchard comes 
into bearing, paying expenses during 
years of poor crops or low prices, or pro- 
viding a means for using the product of 
natural hay lands, and thus supplying 
manure for the orchard. The raising of 
small fruits, market gardening, dairying, 
beef or poultry raising, or other branches 
of agriculture to which the farm may be 
best suited, provides an excellent side 
line to orcharding. 
In years of ordinarily good crops of 
fruit, about seven-eighths of the mar- 
ketable apples produced in Nova Scotia 
find a sale in foreign countries. The chief 
market is in Great Britain, although 
there is now a growing trade with New- 
foundland, the West Indies, and South 
Africa. Our proximity to the British 
market and the comparative cheapness of 
water transportation give Nova Scotian 
growers an advantage over their compet- 
itors. The varieties of apples generally 
grown in England are found to succeed 
well here, and our growers aim to secure 
such varieties as are popular with the 
British consumer. 
The fruit industry, however, has now 
reached a stage in which the proper vari- 
eties of trees to plant, the proper care of 
the growing trees, and the handling of 
the fruit are fairly well understood. The 
next step in the natural development of 
the industry is now being taken in the 
formation of co-operative associations of 
fruit growers for the marketing of fruit. 
The proper marketing is as important as 
the growing of fruit. Without organiza- 
tion the producers are at the mercy of 
the transportation companies and of deal- 
