[SAUNDERS] FRUIT-GROWING IN THE NORTHWEST 133 



The wild frost i^'rape, Vit is riparia, is found in Manitoba, but its 

 distribution appears to be limited to the river valleys in the southern 

 parts of the province, and the quantity of fruit yielded by it is small. 



While these various species of wild fruit are useful and very accept- 

 able to the dwellers on the plains, they are not sufficient to satisfy their 

 requirements find, with the earliest establishment of settlements, there 

 was manifested a desire to introduce and test the different varieties of 

 fruits which the settlers had been accustomed to cultivate in their former 

 homes. This led to more or less extensive individual trials of many 

 varieties of apples, peai's, plums and cherries as well as many different 

 sorts of small fruits. While most of the small fruits have usually been 

 fairly successful, the test of a single winter has generally been sufficient to 

 destroy the great part of the larger fruits, both root and branch, and to 

 kill the hardier sorts, which are often designated by th'e nurserymen 

 •' ironclads," to the enow line. But the settler in his loyalty to his new 

 found home has usually been averse to attribute any part of his want of 

 success to the severity or unsuitability of the climate ; he would rather 

 lay the blame on the nurseryman for not sending good trees, or take it 

 on his own shoulders and attribute the failure to his own lack of knowl- 

 edge of the proper methods of planting and treatment. As experience 

 of this sort multiplied, some settlers, more easily discouraged, adopted the 

 opposite view and would assert that no fruit of any value could be gi'own 

 in that climate, and that it was a waste of time and money to make the 

 attempt. 



During the winter of 1886 and the summer of 1887, my iirst visit 

 was made to the western plains, with the object of gaining information 

 as to the possibilities in that country, not only of agriculture, but also of 

 horticulture. I found the widest differences of opinion among the settlers 

 as to the capabilities of the country for fruit growing, although I nowhere 

 saw any evidence of success resulting from any one of the many trial 

 plantations which had been made. 



When the selection of a site for the branch experimental farm for 

 Manitoba was made, the land chosen included a considerable area of light 

 soil, with gravelly subsoil on the bluffs — just such land as is suitable for 

 many varieties of fruit. These bluffs and ravines also supplied many 

 spots well sheltered by growths of native scrub oak, cherry, hazel, dog- 

 wood and other trees and shrubs, where the bearing of the question of 

 shelter on this subject could be tested, as well as that of soil. 



For the other Northwest experimental farm, a site was chosen at 

 Indian. Head, in Eastern Assiniboia, on a section of flat prairie land bare 

 of all trees and shrubs, with one or two shallow ravines running through 

 portions of it, in which water runs in the spring, but which are visually 

 dry early in the summer, excepting in those spots where artificial dams 

 have been made to retain the water. 



Sec. IV., 1890. 8. 



