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ONTARIO GROWERS IN COUNCIL. 



Myrabolan stock is tender ; nor is the native plum of the 

 east to be recommended for stocks for Canada. The 

 western form of the native plum grows readily from pits, 

 making plants large enough for budding in August of the 

 first year, and winters well. It is good stock for plum, 

 peach and apricot. Propagation by root cuttings is very 

 easy with cherries, plums, and the stone fruits in gen- 

 eral. Take up roots from near the surface in fall, cut 

 into three-inch lengths and pack in boxes with alternate 

 layers of moist sand and earth ; store the boxes in a frost- 

 proof cellar. In spring, when roots are well calloused, 

 plant in nursery rows or thickly in beds, in a slanting 

 position, with top end ^4 inch below the surface ; keep 

 surface clean and friable. 



PRUNING PLUM TREES. 



In reply to the query. Should bearing plum trees be 

 pruned ; how and when ? Mr. S. D. Willard announces 

 himself as a convert to the pruning practice. Some 

 varieties, he says, make large slender limbs, and often 

 a growth of from four to six feet in one season. These 

 are likely to set full and break ; but if shortened in by 

 removing one-third or more of the new growth, they 

 will grow stronger, and bear better fruit. This pruning 

 should be done on mild days during winter, never in 

 spring ; it done in spring after the sap starts great in- 

 jury may result from the shock to the tree. 



CANADA WOOD ASHES. 



Prof. C. C. James speaks in favor of wood ashes as 

 an orchard fertilizer, and thinks the Canadian authori- 

 ties should put an export tax on ashes heavy enough to 

 prohibit exportation. Canada, he says, sends its most 

 effective and cheapest fertilizer out of the country to 

 enrich the fruit grower of the United States. A bushel 

 of fresh wood ashes, analyzing 6 to 8 per cent, potash 

 and to ■zYi per cent, phosphoric acid is worth twenty 

 to twenty-five cents, while Canadian people usually sell 



it for about ten cents a bushel. The following formula 

 is recommended for a fruit fertilizer for one acre : 



40 bushels of fresh ashes costing $4.00 



100 pounds bone " 1.50 



100 sulphate of ammonia " 3.00 



Total $8.50 



Manufacturers of fertilizers will charge not less than 

 $12.50 for a general mixed fertilizer of same fertilizing 

 value. Leached ashes have yet 2 to 2^ per cent, 

 potash, and about 2 per cent, phosphoric acid. Soft 

 wood ashes are worth four-fifths, pound for pound, of 

 what hard wood ashes are. Nitrate of soda may be 

 used in place of the sulphate of ammonia. The best 

 returns from the use of ashes are observed on loose 

 open soils. On clayey soils Prof. James advises to use 

 coal ashes first. 



HARDY APPLES FOR THE NORTH AND FOR EXPORT. 



G. C. Caston recommends the following varieties as 

 being comparatively from scab, viz : Yellow Transpar- 

 ent (early summer) ; Oldenburg (early autumn) ; Alex- 

 ander, Red Bietigheimer, Haas or Fall Queen, 

 Wealthy, Pewaukee, Golden Russet, Scott's Winter, 

 Baxter. Almost any variety can be grown, however, if 

 top grafted on hardy stocks, such as native seedlings, 

 Tetofsky, Talman Sweet, etc. King even does well in 

 Canada if top grafted on hardy trees. Northern Spy is 

 not profitable as a nursery tree, but all right if grafted 

 on a hardy tree. 



VALUE OF APPLE ORCHARD. 



The query, what is the value of an apple orchard ten 

 years old, supposing the ground before planting to be 

 worth Sioo an acre, brought out an animated discus- 

 sion, some successful growers contending such an 

 orchard to be worth $1,000 an acre, while one or two 

 less fortunate or less skillful ones estimated the value 

 of an acre to be about $75, as it would cost about $25 to 

 root out the trees ! The great majority of the members 

 took a middle ground. G. R. 



