better spirit and feeling towards the employer. But the greatest difficulty seems to 

 be in getting men at all ; therefore, an effort should be made to get men from else- 

 where. The system of building cottages and employing more married men — men 

 who are less roving in their disposition, and hence will not leave for every little 

 difficulty that arises — is a system worthy of trial and one that should be encouraged, 

 as it partly solves the social side of the problem, besides having other advantages 

 both for the employer and employee. 



Pruit culture works well in connection with dairying, a good deal of the work 

 coming at a time when other farm work is not so pressing. The pruning can all be 

 done in the late winter, when the weather is not too disagreeable. Thus it has a 

 tendency to provide work all the year round on the farm, the lack of which is partly 

 responsible for the system of hiring men for the summer only and leaving them to 

 seek other employment during the winter. The consequence of this practice is felt 

 in the spring, by the reluctance of men to engage to work on the farm when they 

 know that as the next winter approaches they will have to turn to the town again 

 for work. 



MarTcets. — Most of the fruit that is not consumed locally goes to Montreal or 

 Ottawa, while a small percentage is shipped direct to Europe. In Montreal and 

 Ottawa there is an ever extending and growing market, close at home, with easy and 

 quick transportation facilities. These are the natural markets for this district, and 

 besides there are excellent shipping facilities at the port of Montreal for the Old 

 Country markets. There are also great possibilities for building up United States 

 markets for the best grade of winter apples. New York, Boston, and all the New 

 England manufacturing towns are within easy reach, and as yet the Canadian apple 

 is almost unknown in those markets. 



Land Values. — Along the river front, the value of improved land varies from 

 $60 to $100 per acre, and about the same price prevails in the back concessions. 



The whole of this land is not adapted for the location of apple orchards, but an 

 average of twenty- five per cent, of the land is so adapted ; and taking the farm as a 

 whole the price is very reasonable, and perhaps may be considered a little low if 

 the possibilities of fruit growing are taken into consideration. From the results of 

 the well-managed orchards quoted in the opening of this report, farms with good 

 orchards may be, with a very conservative estimate, valued at four or five times 

 their present value. 



Eecommendations. 



Size of Orchards. — The average size of the orchards is about an acre in extent, 

 very rarely was one encountered of four or five acres, while there are a few about 

 eight or ten acres, and two orchards only of fourteen acres. These two are young 

 orchards partly one and partly two years old. The majority of the orchards 

 are not full, and very little attempt is made to replace dead trees, so that 

 in a few years a great m.any orchards will become fields with a few trees scattered 

 about them, unless a revival of the orchard industry takes place. There are approxi- 

 mately 19,396 bearing trees and 6,368 non-bearing trees in this district. 



In order to make orcharding profitable and interesting, it should be taken up 

 on a scale that will give the grower good returns and make it profitable to install all 

 the latest improvements for its handling. Also, he should grow fruit of one variety 

 in large enough quantities that he can demand the attention of buyers as a factor in 

 the market. This means that shipping must be done by the car-load, and wherever 

 possible they should be of one variety. This does not necessarily mean that one 

 variety only should be grown, but that the varieties should be grown in large ejiough 



