DIVISION OF HORTICULTURE 681 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 " 



The practical solution of commercial problems is the chief interest of our Experi- 

 mental Stations and comprises practically the whole of the plant breeding work at 

 the Central Experimental Farm at the present time. One of our problems is the 

 development of superior " home-grown " seed of a number of vegetable crops, tho 

 chief of which at the present time are com, tomato, garden pea, and bean. As the 

 majority of vegetable seeds are produced in more southerly districts, often in states 

 and countries possessing longer summer seasons than generally is the case in Canada, 

 tliese seeds are not, therefore, particularly suited to the growing/ of crops in our own 

 Canadian climate. A certain quantity of this home grown seed has been distributed 

 during the past few seasons, but the amount has recently been considerably increased, 

 and. judging by the reports received during the close of 1915 (which refer to seed grown 

 that season) a still greater distribution is being planned for the future. 



The vegetable crops at present receiving the most attention are, tomato, sweet 

 corn, and garden pea. With the first two, exceptional earliness is the primary object; 

 M'ith peas, heavy yield, quality, and size are the chief desiderata. Work is also being 

 carried on with fruits and flowers. The work with fruits is necessarily slow, owing 

 to the long period required for maturity with the majority of tree fruits. In small 

 fruits, results may be obtained more rapidly and at the present time some hundreds 

 of bispecie-hybrids of strawberries are giving promise of valuable results. 



It has been customary in previous reports of the work in plant breeding to report 

 the work under the three main headings, pomology, vegetable culture, and floricul- 

 ture, as it has been found to be the most convenient method of reviewing all the 

 activities of the work undertaken in this branch of horticulture. 



POMOLOGY. 



Breeding new varieties of apples has been a most important featvire of this work 

 at the Central Experimental Farm for many years past, and from time to time 

 descriptions of promising new varieties have been made and a distribution of the 

 best of these has been carried on for some time past. The orchards contain several 

 hundred seedlings, now fruiting, and several hundred more have been added each 

 season to the nursery stock, for future planting and experimentation. 



The objects in view are, in the first place, to obtain an early bearing, heavy yield- 

 ing and good keeping apple of first-rate quality, that could be added to the class of the 

 Wealthy and Wagoner varieties. Although the Wagoner is a valuable apple in many 

 fruit-growing sections it is not hardy enough for the more northerly districts, and 

 hardiness is an essential requisite in any variety of commercial apple for this country. 

 It is, moreover, generally conceded, and was particularly emphasized at the recent 

 Fruit Growers' Convention, that the eastern apple sections have several excellent 

 winter varieties, possessing the characteristics of firmness and good quality, but lacking 

 in sufficient colour to compete favourably on the apple markets of the world with 

 other apple-growing districts, colour: having been shown to be an important factor 

 in successful commercial marketing. With this object in view, a number of new 

 crosses have been made with the more highly-coloured varieties of apples, together with 

 the best winter varieties, to produce new types to meet this demand. 



The second important line of work in apple breeding is the production of new- 

 specie hybrids of exceptional hardiness that may be grown successfully in the more 

 northerly sections of our central western provinces. The late Dr. William Saunders 

 produced a large number of hybrids resulting from crossing Pijrus haccata, a small- 

 fruited Siberian species of exceptional hardiness, with Pynis Malus, the commercial 



orchard apple. . 



Many of these hybrids of the first and second generation have proved exceptionally 

 hardy, and further crosses and selections have been made in the past by the Dominion 



16— 47* Ottawa. 



