I 



June, 1910 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



'47 



age in transportation, through breakage of 

 package and pilfering of fruit, and in in- 

 creased price for fancy packed fruit in a 

 better package would more than offset the 

 extra cost. Our fruit growers should look 

 into the possibilities of the six-basket car- 

 rier. 



Among the many schemes adopted by hor- 

 ticultural societies to interest their mem- 

 bers and others in floriculture, none ap- 

 pears more novel than one recently insti- 

 tuted by Mr. Geo. Vickers, president of the 

 Barrie Horticultural Society, Mr. Vickers 

 is a dry goods merchant and recently dis- 

 tributed broadcast thoughout his town this 

 notice : "One Geranium in Bloom in a 

 three and a half or four-inch Pot with ev- 

 ery $1.00 Worth of Stockings Bought and 

 Paid for on Friday and Saturday." The 

 plants were grown by a local florist, and 

 Mr. Vickers took this means of combining 

 business with his hobby, horticulture. As 

 anything that will help to make people more 

 appreciate flowers and floriculture is worth 

 promoting, this scheme might profitably be 

 adopted by merchants elsewhere. 



?jTl5jT]an]anl3JT]anlaJil&^aJil3nlan]a^ 

 PUBLISHERS' DESK m 



We desire for our files one or two addi- 

 tional copies of the February, 1910, i.ssue of 

 The C.\n.\dian Horticulturist. Any of our 

 readers having a copy of this number they 

 do not desire to keep will confer a favor by 

 mailing it to this oflioe. 



Horticulture on Prince Edw^ard Island 



Rev. F. A. Wrightman, Montague 



The illustration on the cover of this issue 

 shows a scene in University Park, Sack- 

 ville, N. B. More views of maritime prov- 

 ince horticulture would be published on our 

 front cover and on the inside pages if they 

 were available. Our friends in those prov- 

 inces are asked to send photogranhs of or- 

 chards, parks, lawns, gardens, and so forth, 

 for u.se in this magazine. With them, send 

 notes descriptive of the particular scene pho- 

 tographed. 



"I am well satisfied with the results from 

 mv advertiserrent which has been running in 

 the last four issues of The CAN.\puN Horti- 

 culturist. I shall continue this advertis- 

 ing another year if all is well." This is an 

 extract from a letter recently received from 



■•. C. P. Newman of Lachine Locks, Que., 

 grower of small fruits. We are constantly 

 receiving from advertisers statements of this 

 kind. They show the value of our column,' 

 as an advertising medium. Take the hint! 



On another page of this issue will be 

 found our classified advertising column 

 headed "For Sale and Wanted." It will 

 pa,y you to glance through this column of 

 small advertisements. There may be some- 

 thing there that will interest you. 



There are many of our readers to whom 

 this column can be of value. The man who 

 has something to .sell that fruit growers or 

 gardeners buy, the man who wants to got a 

 position on a fruit farm or as a gardener 

 or who perhaps wants to employ such a 

 man, the man who has a fruit farm to sell 

 or who wants to buy a good fruit farm, and 

 in fact a large percentage of our readers, 

 could profitably use this column. You may 

 never have advertised before. Here is a 

 good opportunity to learn at a small cost 

 the value of advertising. 



AVhether you place an advertisement there 

 or not, read this column each month, and 

 when writing to advertisers be sure and tell 

 them that you saw their advertisement in 

 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



PRINCE Edward Island, though a small 

 province does its f arminggenerally speak- 

 ingonthe large. Intensivefarming in the 

 true sense has not been practised to 

 any considerable extent. This is not because 

 of any lack of adaptation, but because of the 

 comparative absence of a sufficient demand 

 in the local markets and the further lack 

 of proper facilities for reaching more dis- 

 tant ones. Lack of express arrangements, 

 iced cars and too frequent handlings are 

 seiious defects in our transportation con- 

 ditions. Market gardening, therefore, with 

 the exception of what little may be needed 

 to supply the limited demand of the small 

 towns is not followed, except for the farm- 

 er's table. So limited are the markets that 

 even with the small attention paid to this 

 aspect of agriculture, a glutted market is 

 the common condition in the season of fruit 

 and vegetables; and the prices are often 

 of the lowest. 



Oats, wheat and potatoes are the Prince 

 Edward Island staples and these wholly oc- 

 cupy the farmers thoughts and attention. 

 He cannot seem to adapt himself to a small 

 acreage. A hundred acres, and often double 

 this amount, is as little as he cares to 

 bother with. Here he uses his gang plows, 

 combination seeders, harvesters and other 

 complicated machinery. This is his ideal 

 of farming. A few acres in fruits and 

 vegetables, largely cultivated with hand 

 tools, would strike him as a serious drop 

 in the dignity of the profession. This would 

 seem to be a more fitting occupation or di- 

 version, by way of pastime, to the man 

 who had retired from active life. These ideas 

 are the outcome of generations of usage — 

 a usage that has largely been made neces- 

 sary because of market conditions. 



NATURAL conditions FAVORABLE 



Notwithstanding the comparative absence 

 of intensive farming as represented in the 

 cultivation of vegetables and small fruits, 

 it is doubtful if there is any part of the 

 Dominion where the natural conditions are 

 more favorable than here. The Island itself 

 is often spoken of as "the garden province." 

 This is not because of its diminutive size, 

 but on account of its uniform fertility. The 

 Innd is smooth, gently undulating, free from 

 rocks and swamps, and unencumbered by 

 small stones. The soil is a light sandy loam, 

 warm, and wonderfully easy of cultivation. 

 The natural drainage is about perfect. The 

 summers are bright and warm with gener- 

 all.y cool nights, while the rains are, as a 

 rule, frequent but not excessive. The aut- 

 umn is mild and open to a degree not exper- 

 ienced on the main land. Insects and dis- 

 eases are much loss numerous and destruc- 

 tive than in other places. The season being a 

 little later than most main land sections. 

 Prince Edward Island products are matured 

 when outside markets are clean, thus re- 

 moving competition. It will be seen, there- 

 fore, that these conditions, both of soil and 

 climate, are about perfect for the purpose 

 of the small fruit and vegetable grower. 



This claim is borne out by the actual re- 

 sults. Anyone attending our provincial ex- 

 hibition or the Charlottetown market will 

 be surprised at the excellence and variety 

 of the stuff grown. The small fruits, such 

 as cherries, strawberries, raspberries, black- 

 berries, currants and gooseberries do amaz- 

 ingly well. I believe it is a law of nature 

 that the higher the latitude where fruit 

 will come to full maturity the better will 

 be its quality. Tli'^re seems to be something 

 in this alternating of cool nights with bright 

 warm days to give firmness and flavor and 

 lusciousness to fruits and vegetables grown 



under these conditions. These qualities are 

 noticeable to a marked degree in the fruits 

 and vegetables grown in Prince Edward 

 Island ; but, the great need is a market. 



MORE AVAIL.\BLB MARKETS WANTED 



Charlottetown, the capital, has about 12,- 

 000 inhabitants. It is not an industrial cent- 

 re, but is largely a city of homes where 

 people have some leisure, and many of 

 whom possess gardens of their own. The 

 largest cities in the maritime provinces have 

 but 50,000 inhabitants, and they (St. John 

 and Halifax) are at present a day's journey 

 distant. These, and other disadvantages, 

 make even these limited centres impossible 

 to the Prince Edward Island grower. But 

 the cities of the maritime provinces are 

 growing in size and increasing in number, 

 and no doubt with their growth will come 

 a corresponding improvement in transporta- 

 tion facilities. If 'there were in the mari- 

 time provinces a city of say, the size of 

 Boston, within reasonable distance, it would 

 simply revolutionize this industry in Prince 

 Edward Island. A number of our maritime 

 cities are bound to grow to large industrial 

 centres in the not-distant future, and when 

 this takes place it will transform agricultur- 

 al methods on Prince Edward Island. 



When these conditions prevail it will not 

 only change our methods of agriculture, but 

 will be of great advantage both economically 

 and politically. When the Island is trans- 

 formed into a province of vegetable and 

 fruit gardens rather than one of oat and 

 wheat fields, the average farm would be 

 large enough at 25 acres. This would make 

 possible an increase in the population by 

 about 400 per cent. In other words, instead 

 or h.-jving 103,000 population, with no vac- 

 ant lands, we would have room for about 

 400.000 people by thus reducing the acreage 

 of the farm. Such an increase would tend 

 to attract manufacturing, and thus give 

 corresponding growth to our towns and cit- 

 ies. It is easy to see that such an in- 

 crease would at least help to restore our 

 lost representation at Ottawa, and give us 

 such an importance as to bring the tunnel, 

 now a fond hope, in the realm of practical 

 certainty. In the light of these facts a 

 fruit and vegetable garden assumes a great 

 and new significance. 



opportunity for OHERRT TRADE 



Something could even now he done by a 

 little improvement in transportation facil- 

 ities, and a little more business enterprise. 

 To illustrate we may refer to the Kentish 

 cherry orchards which everywhere obtain 

 here. The various varieties of sweet cher- 

 ries do exceedingly well in difi^erent parts 

 of Nova Scotia and are about the only ones 

 cultivated. These cherries are largely sold 

 in St. John and Halifax, and are put on the 

 market about the middle of July. Their 

 season is, however, short and frequently 

 they fail almost entirely. Cherries of all 

 kinds throughout New Brunswick, for some 

 reason, are made conspicuous by their ab- 

 sence. On Prince Edward Island, however, 

 the Kentish cherry is grown with the great- 

 est of ease, and in splendid abundance. 

 There is scarcely a farm, large or small, 

 between East Point and North Cape, that 

 has not a cherry orchard of some descrip- 

 tion. The crop very seldom fails ; in good 

 years, the yield is enormous, and the local 

 demand is comparatively limited. These 

 cherries come into maturity about a month 

 later than the Nova Scotia crop, and being 

 equally suitable for preserving as for table 

 fruit, it will be seen that they should have 

 a splendid demand in the cities of the ad- 



