Ontario Fruit Explorers

["Joe Boles" <jo.bo@rogers.com>]

Biz:

 

The grafting gizmo at Lee Valley has been around for many years. I have always thought it was around this long because they never sold out their first order. Although, it looks like it might be a fun thing to try. $16.00 is not a big investment if you right it off to entertainment.

 

Espalier grafts: Once the arms are in place I graft the following spring or not. I'm not usually in a rush to pick a variety; then sometimes I switch varieties if the variety does not grow well or I don't like it. With apple and pear I use a bark graft if the bark slips otherwise a splice graft. With prunus I use a chip graft as I get much more success with it; almost nil with other grafts on prunus. Last year I tried late summer budding on pear, plum, apricot and cherry. I'll should see shortly how successful I was.

 

I was looking for some information on a pear and an acquaintance referred me to a book "Fruits of Ontario 1914". I located the book at a used book store in the UK on the internet which I purchased for a very small amount. Not particularly a great book for this day-and-age, photos are in black and white. What I did find interesting was in the book was a memo on letterhead and a business card. The business card was for a John Moodie, Lake Hurst Villa, Port Nelson, Lake Ontario. I did some searching on the internet for Port Nelson. In 1935 Port Nelson was at the foot of Brant St. in Burlington on the Ontario lakeshore. I've attached the memo as it is the most interesting part.

Particularly note where the memo was sent from and the date of the memo.