The Rural Voice, 1981-12, Page 16Caribbean workers picking aples in
an orchard near Meaford.
Apples sorted and graded by hand in
the orchard
Roadside stands offer many varieties
of apples. plus cider. apple butter.
and even pie.
Grey County
In her nineteenth-century classic The
Canadian Settler's Guide, author
Catherine Parr Traill urged all pioneers to
start an apple orchard in their first acre of
cleared land, and she devoted several
pages of her book to advice on the
management of fruit trees. "Not only are
apples valuable as a most palatable and
convenient article of diet," she wrote,
"but also as one of the most wholesome.
In a climate where great heat prevails
during the summer months, and even
later in the fall, the cooling acid of the fruit
becomes essentially necessary for the
preservation of health."
While most of us today do not enjoy the
luxury of our own orchards, the apple has
remained our most versatile and popular
fruit. The largest apple -producing area in
the province is found in Grey County.
Close to five thousand acres stretching
along the southern shore of Georgian Bay
and through the Beaver Valley provide
two million bushels of fruit a year, one
quarter of Ontario's production.
Grey County has long been known as
prime apple country. Earliest production
records date back as far as 1835. The
moderating influence of the bay to the
north and the protection afforded by the
Blue Mountains to the south combine to
create a micro -climate with sufficient
frost -free days ideal for apple growing.
Almost two hundred orchards are located
in the area around Meaford, Thornbury,
and Clarksburg, and extending into
Simcoe County.
Like all sectors of agriculture. the apple
industry has its share of challenges to
meet. Long before any apples are picked,
the grower plants his root stock in the
spring, and a branch, or whip, of the
desired variety is grafted onto the plant
the following August. Macintosh make up
almost half the crop with Northern Spy
and Delicious supplying most of the
balance.
The young trees are left to grow for one
year, and the following year are set out in
the orchard. Careful management, in-
volving tremendous amounts of labor for
pruning, and spraying, is required to
minimize damage from insects, disease,
and rodents. Commercial harvesting does
not begin for at least five years.
In relentless pursuit of more efficient
production, most growers now are
PG. 14 THE RURAL VOICE/ DECEMBER 1981
following the trend to smaller, higher -
density trees. Since the trees are limited in
height, less ladder work reduces the
labor costs. They also can be planted much
closer together than the conventional
trees, eliminating the large areas of
"waste space" in an older orchard, yet
bear a higher yield per acre. Since they
mature earlier, they also provide a faster
return to the grower. Growers are still
experimenting with different root stocks,
but there is no doubt that the new
"compact" orchard is the look of the
future.
Many consumers are concerned about
the chemical sprays used by fruit growers.
and the continuing controversy over
fungicides such as Captan, but the
growers are quick to point out the
benefits: an abundant choice of fruit at
relatively low prices. The Ontario Ministry
of Agriculture and Food office in Clarks-
burg runs an insect -control monitoring
program, complete with a hotline for
growers, and Ag. Rep. Ken Wilson closely
watches insect and disease development
to advise growers exactly when to spray.
According to Meaford grower Graham
Comley, this program has been extremely
successful in reducing the amount of spray
used. Hitting insects just after the
emerging stage, for example, when they
are most vulnerable, gets the best results
while keeping the spray to a minimum.
Once the harvest begins. growers face
their biggest headache -labor. The low
wages, long hours, and seasonal nature of
the work make it difficult to attract reliable
workers. Because there are no large
population centres nearby, there are not
enough local workers available to pick the
crop, and much of the gap is filled by
"offshore labor," men who are flown in
from the Caribbean for the six-week
harvest. This fall nearly six hundred
workers from the British West Indies were
brought in through Canada Manpower.
The importing of laborers has drawn some
criticism, but the growers insist that
without them they could not get their
crops harvested.
Sake Dykstra, president of the South
Georgian Bay Fruit Growers. is concerned
about the problem. Labor represents a
huge cost to the growers. and the
availability of workers is always in doubt.
Last year Sake and his wife Chelsey made
two trips to Newfoundland to recruit