November, 1910 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



253 





%>i^,^^ 





Aa' ll-Year-Old^AppU Tree at Gordon Head, Near! Victoria, B. C. 



I 



Oregon, paying $300 to $400 an acre for 

 land that will not give any better returns 

 than land here that can be bought for 

 $50 an acre. The Westerner knows how 

 to boom the fruit industry, keeping it 

 constantly before the public. The people 

 become enthused, develop every oppor- 

 tunity, and are receiving the results of 

 intelligent care. 



"Cooperation has done much for the 

 fruit growing industry. Wherever a 

 cooperative fruit growing association 

 exists great strides are being made in 

 apple growing. In fact these associa- 

 tions may be compared to the oasis in 

 the desert. They are like fruitful spots 

 in the desolation of Ontario apple grow- 

 ing districts. 



"In my opinion the Ontario Govern- 

 ment should boom the fruit industry of 

 the province and encourage in every pos- 

 sible way the cooperative fruit growing 

 associations." 



CLOSER INSPECTION ADVOCATED 



In a letter received from Mr. J. G. 

 Mitchell, of Thornbury, the general 

 manager of The Georgian Bay Fruit 

 Growers, Limited, Mr. Mitchell says: 



"Prof. Crow is right when he de- 

 scribes the apple industry as having been 

 steadily on the decline for the last fifteen 

 years. While in conversation with some 

 of the largest receivers, they asked me 

 why it is they cannot get Canadian 

 apples like they could fifteen years ago. 

 They complain of the amount of rubbish 

 going forward and state that generally 

 speaking no reliance can be placed in 

 the pack. The reliable brands can be 

 counted on the fingers of one hand. 



"Why is this? The reason is not hard 



to find nor hard to understand. The ease 

 with which growers are able to sell all 

 their fruit, lump orchard, and tree run 

 (that is take everything) is largely re- 

 sponsible for the deterioration in the 

 quality of fruit. Under this system, 

 growers, generally speaking, take little 

 care of their orchards. The great ma- 

 jority of orchards have had no pruning, 

 cultivation, spraying or a pound of fer- 

 tilizer during all these years. The won- 

 der is that the apples are even as good 

 as they are. 



HEAVY LOSSES 



"The Old Country receivers, and in- 

 dependent shippers here, have paid dur- 

 ing the last few years $850,000 more for 

 Ontario apples than their market value. 

 This was caused largely by the Old 

 Country money being placed in the 

 hands of unscrupulous men, who bought 

 without judgment or perhaps with the 

 object, as many of them said, of putting 

 the cooperative associations out of busi- 

 ness. We do not blame the Old Coun- 

 try people. They sent their money here 

 in good faith, and for two reasons : To 

 help the apple industry and secure suffi- 

 cient supplies for their own distribution. 

 It was a matter of misplaced confidence. 

 The loss of $850,000 is a lesson they will 

 not forget, and in future they will be 

 more careful to place their money with 

 responsible parties. 



INFBKIOR STOCK PACKED 



"Even this year, in this district, there 

 are hundreds of orchards being bought 

 up and barrelled where the stock is only 

 fit for the evaporator. These apples find 

 their way to the markets, to the further 

 depreciation of the good name of On- 



tario. I can state as a positive fact that 

 there are no good apples in the counties 

 of Bruce, Grey and Simcoe, except the 

 SIX demonstration orchards near Col- 

 Imgwood in the county of Simcoe, taken 

 care of by the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, which I personally inspected, and 

 a number of orchards owned by mem- 

 bers of the Georgian Bay Fruit Growers- 

 Association here. In all these orchards 

 we have splendid crops of beautiful 

 apples, as good and in some cases bet- 

 ter than we have had in many years 

 these orchards, being scattered, as thev 

 are, over considerable territory, show 

 that the reason that they are good this 

 year is not because of their location or 

 soil. The same sun shines on them all 

 alike. Where the fruit is not good it is 

 simply the growers themselves who are 

 to blame. Had all the growers of this 

 district given the same attention to their 

 orchards as those referred to, there 

 would have been added at least $300,000 

 more to the assets of this locality this 



Mr Marsh, in his article in the 

 October issue of The Canadian Horti- 

 culturist, censures the Department of 

 Agriculture. I hardly think Mr. Marsh 

 can understand the situation. Both the 

 Ontario and Dominion Governments are 

 doing all they can to assist the industry 

 Without finding fault with Mr. Marsh 

 regarding dealers apportioning off of 

 territory, I would state that that applied 

 to conditions ten ye,ars ago, but has 

 nothing to do with present conditions, 

 as cooperative associations have been 

 the means of advancing the prices to 

 growers so much, that it is impossible 

 for buyers to allot themselves territory. 



MORE DEMONSTRATION ORCHARDS 



"There is nothing more the Depart- 

 ment can do, unless open up a few more 

 demonstration orchards. We have had 

 a great many institute fruit meetings 

 here, and have always found the depart- 

 ment ready and willing to assist in every 

 way possible. We have held three de- 

 monstration meetings in connection with 

 our association, assisted by speakers 

 sent out by the institute, this year, and 

 we sent out hundreds of personal letters 

 not only to our members, but to all those 

 who should be interested, requesting 

 them to be present, and explaining the 

 advantages of attending. It was notice- 

 able that we found the same forty or 

 fifty growers at each meeting. There 

 should have been three to four hundred. 

 It is also noticeable that these thirty or 

 forty growers are the only ones who have 

 apples worth considering this year, and 

 they have them just according to how 

 well they practised what they were told 

 and saw at the meetings. 



"The rest of the growers seem to be 

 a hopeless proposition. About the only 



