Vegetable Problems Discussed by Practical Groovers 



THE sixth annual convention of the 

 Ontario Vegetable Growers' Asso- 

 ciation was held in London, Ont., 

 September 14th. Mr. Thomas Delworth, 

 of Weston, the president, occupied the 

 chair. In his opening remarks 

 Mr. Delworth stated that during 

 the past year the association had 

 taken up two lines of new work. 

 One was the issuing of a monthly 

 crop report which had given general sat- 

 isfaction. Printed forms were sent out 

 and the members were particularly re- 

 quested to make their report in accord- 

 ance with the form. The other particular 

 line of work was the sending of .seed to 

 the Government's Experimental Farm at 

 Monteith, New Ontario. The result 

 had been exceedingly satisfactory. The 

 potatoes grown in that district were of 

 a particularly good size, smooth and very 

 good looking, and he thought that in the 

 future Ontario would derive great bene- 

 fit not only from the fact that the grow- 

 ers in older parts of Ontario would be 

 able to secure a supply of northern grown 

 potatoes, but that as new Ontario be- 

 came settled its growers would be able 

 to supply the larger cities of Old On- 

 tario with all the potatoes they required 

 and cut out the potatoes that are now 

 being shipped in from New Brunswick. 



Mr. Delworth thought that a further 

 amendment should be made to the Seed 

 Control Act making .seed merchants re- 

 sponsible for the variety of seed that 

 they sell. He said that it was very hard 

 on market gardeners to plant a supply of 

 onion seed and find after they had ma- 

 tured that they were not true to the 

 variety. 



The matter of irrigation was a burn- 

 ing question with the vegetable growers 

 of Ontario and he thought that the On- 

 tario Government should put in a plant 

 at the Jordan Experimental Station to 

 demonstrate the practicability of the 

 overhead system for market gardeners. 

 He also thought that the Dominion 

 Government should amend the statute 

 fixing the weight of certain vegetables. 

 He instanced a case where a gardener 

 near Toronto had sold parsnips at so 

 much per bushel and on delivery the 

 purchaser insisted on sixty pounds to 

 the bushel, making a loss to the gardener 

 of fourteen pounds of parsnips to each 

 measured bushel. He thought that the 

 new standards should be as follows : 

 Parsnips, forty-five pounds ; carrots, fifty 

 pounds ; beets, fifty pounds ; artichokes, 

 fifty-six pounds per bushel. The present 

 rate is sixty pounds a bushel in each in- 

 stance. 



The President's address was ably dis- 

 cussed by C. W. Baker, of London, Ont. 

 He thought that every member of the 

 Association should put his shoulder to 



the wheel and back up the president and 

 other officers in their efforts to keep vege- 

 table growing to the front. The conven- 

 tion approved of the president's recom- 

 mendations, and the executive committee 

 was instructed to bring the question of 

 standard weights to the attention of the 

 government. It was also decided to ask 

 that seventy-five pounds be the lawful 

 weight for a bag of potatoes, so that 

 sugar sacks may be used. 



Mr. Kerr, of Ottawa, spoke of the 

 benefits of irrigation. He told of a gar- 

 dener near Ottawa who had a celery 

 patch on a hill and during the dry wea- 

 ther he irrigated it with water pumped 

 by a wind mill, and the plants that were 

 so watered on the hillside were much 

 better than those in the valley where they 

 did not receive irrigation. 



SECRETARY'S REPORT 



Mr. J. Lockie Wilson, Secretary, in 

 his annual report, announced that there 

 had been gains in membership and a 

 healthy condition. The St. Thomas 

 branch showed the greatest percentage 

 of gain in membership, 396 per cent, and 

 Tecumseh second with an increase of 

 100 per cent. Woodstock showed 

 twenty-five per cent, and Toronto twelve 

 per cent. Mr. \\'ils()n had something 

 to say about New Ontario and the potato 

 growing at Monteith and about his trip 

 to the Old Country and the wonderful 

 work that was being done by the far- 

 mers in England, France and Belgium. 

 While in England he had seen one hun- 

 dred acres of strawberries and one thou- 

 sand acres of potatoes on one farm. It 

 was his opinion that Ontario grown to- 

 matoes could be shipped to English mar- 

 kets with profit and he was going to 

 induce the Ontario Government to make 

 a shipment during the present season. 

 From one of the small Canary Islands 

 there have for years been shipped into 

 England, packed in sawdust and peat, 

 over $1,000,000 worth of tomatoes an- 

 nually. 



Mr. F. F. Reeves, of Humber Bay, 

 gave a very interesting address on Early 

 Potato Growing, which will be publish- 

 ed later. 



SMALL FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 



Professor Crow, O.A.C. , Guelph, 

 dealt with the subject of Small Fruits 

 in Connection with Vegetable Growing. 

 He thought market gardeners could grow 

 small fruits to great advantage, particu- 

 larly strawberries. Their land being well 

 fertilized, they could secure a heavy 

 yield of berries. He had his doubts as 

 to whether any land could be too rich for 

 strawberries and he thought it would 

 pay to irrigate a strawberry patch dur- 

 ing the hot days of the summer months. 

 They had worked no feet of strawber- 

 ries with the Skinner System and it had 



236 



given splendid results. He did not think 

 5,000 boxes of strawberries to the acre 

 would pay, from one acre at the Experi- 

 mental Farm they had picked 14,000 

 boxes. 



His practice of mulching was to apply 

 a fair covering of manure in the fall. 

 Just put enough to prevent the tops from 

 freezing and to prevent the heaving of 

 the ground. He would apply the balance 

 of the mulch in the spring after the 

 ground was thawed out; then he would 

 put it on good and thick. He preferred 

 something finer than long straw, straw 

 two or three inches long and about two 

 or three inches thick put on between the 

 rows and in the rows as well. The 

 coarse part of the mulch should be raked 

 off in the spring into the spaces between 

 the rows. If the soil was light he would 

 not run the scuffler through in the spring 

 but if the soil was packed it would be 

 well to run the scuffler through, but not 

 too deep. 



Ht advocated the matted row system, 

 the rows being three and a half to four 

 feet. The plants should be started two 

 and a half or three feet apart in the row 

 and put out as early in the spring as 

 possible. A great many growers culti- 

 vate both ways for a considerable time 

 before allowing any runners to start ; 

 they then allow the runners to fill up one 

 way and discontinue cultivating one way 

 and in this manner they soon secure a 

 matted row. The runners are not allow- 

 ed to form until July. If labor could 

 be secured at a reasonable price it would 

 pay to send a man over the patch to 

 space the runners. Strawberry plants 

 should not stand clo.ser together than 

 four inches. If the soil is very rich the 

 rows might be 15 or 18 inches wide. 



For strictly fancy trade he would re- 

 commend the Glen Mary, Sample, Beltz 

 and Uncle Jim. The Williams was most 

 generally grown for market purposes and 

 the Wilson for shipping purposes. Par- 

 sons Beauty had given good results at 

 the Experimental Farm. 



He made a strong plea for the cultiva- 

 tion of gooseberries. The canning fac- 

 tories were paying big prices and they 

 were easily grown. 



JORDAN STATION REPORT 



There was a very interesting report 

 from the Jordan Experimental Station, 

 at Monteith. They tried the experiment 

 of growing certain strains of tomatoes 

 under glass cultivation, but they did not 

 succeed except with one variety called 

 the Ferguson O. K., and that yielded 

 over eight pounds of fruit per vine. 

 .'\bout thirty varieties of musk melon 

 were started in the greenhouse, and they 

 succeeded very well with the experinicnt. 

 Fifty-nine varieties of peas were tested 

 for yield. They found that growing the 



