PROCEEDINGS OP THE ANNUAL MEETING. 257 



to dispose of them to great advantage. We are instituting experiments 

 in fruitgrowing there which I have no doubt will be very successful. 



You have known Nova Scotia by reputation, probably, on account of 

 production of Gravenstein apples. Xearl}- everyone has. As 1 said 

 before, there are certain localities in the province of Nova Scotia where 

 that variety seems to have come to the highest state of jjerfection. Nova 

 Scotia was one of the earliest provinces to begin exporting apples. In 

 1S78 there were 30,000 barrels of apples exported to the British market. 

 The industry has grown rapidly, and owing to their favorable location, 

 being right on the seaboard and having good communication with Lon- 

 don, it has grown, until last year Nova Scotia exported over a half million 

 barrels; and this year, I am credibly informed, the export will approach 

 one million barrels to the l^ondon and Liverpool markets, and those are 

 nearh" all Gravenstein s. Northern Sjjy, King, Nonpariel, and varieties of 

 that class. If Professor Taft were in Nova Scotia he would find apples 

 around there that he hadn't heard of or known in the northwest at all. 

 There we find dozens of kinds that have not succeeded in our western cli- 

 mates, principally on account of the fact that the foliage does not seem to 

 stand our dry seasons. Yet in the provinces where the salt breezes come 

 up the ba}' of Fundy, and where there are many small rivulets, and the 

 tides rush up and modify the atmosphere, and the air is more or less im- 

 Ijregnated with the moisture of the salt sea, we have these old English 

 varieties which succeed very well; so that we find Grass Pippin and all 

 the pippin class growing there very widely. 



(I*rofessor ("raig here illustrated his lecture with stereopticon views.) 



New Brunswick is not a fruit-producing country. Cranberries and 

 raspberries grow Avild in great i)rofusion, and they ship large quantities 

 o^ raspberries to the market at Boston, three or four weeks after the 

 oi'dmary raspberry season is over, and secure very remunerative prices. 



You will be surprised to know% perhaps, that in the different portions 

 of the province of Quebec we are able to grow grapes to some extent and 

 with considerable success — surprised, because we have a temperature 

 considerably colder than yours, and we count on sleighing from the mid- 

 dle of December until the middle of March ; but our extremes in the mat- 

 ter of cold are not so much more than j^ours, and by giving the grapes 

 some protection by laying them down in the autumn, and pinning them 

 to the earth, and giving them a small amount of protection ui the way 

 of soil, they come through without any injury. They are pruned, of 

 course, before this is done, and the work of laying them down really is 

 not so heavy as you might suppose. 



I have not anything moi'e to say, except to emphasize just a word that 

 Mr. Garfield brought out, bearing upon the infiuence of horticulture upon 

 our homes, and I can only close by quoting the words which I heard fall 

 from the lips of that venerable pomologist, Marshall P. Wilder, some years 

 ago, who said, I thought in very l)eautiful language, that fruits were the 

 overfiow^ of God's bounty, that they were gems from the sky dropped 

 down to beautify the earth, gratify our tastes, and minister to our wants. 

 The more w'e realize this the more w^e shall appreciate divine goodness 

 to us and the duty of ]»i'oviding fruits for others. 

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