THE 



Canadian Hokticultukis' 



Vol. XX. 



1897. 



No. 3. 



THE GRIMSBY AND WINONA FRUIT GROWERS, 



HESE two sections are really 

 one ; the G. T. R. railway 

 stations are scarcely five 

 miles apart, and are in ad- 

 joining townships. Here 

 the fruit industry was first 

 stimulated into activity by 

 such pioneers as A. M. Smith, and C. 

 E. Woolverton, who began shipping 

 strawberries and other fruits by express, 

 about the year i860. 



In those days strawberries averaged 

 10 cents a quart for the season, grapes 

 10 cents a pound, apples $2 a barrel, 

 and peaches $3 and $4 a bushel. The 

 first blackberry plantation at Grimsby 

 was of the old Lawton variety, and these 

 averaged about 15 cents a quart. Those 

 were the palmy days of fruit growing ; 

 yet, every one planted sparingly for fear 

 of overstocking the markets. Between 

 the years of i860 and 1870 probably 

 $1,000 a year would cover the total 

 value of fruit shipped by express from 

 Grimsby, while that of apples by freight 

 would be covered by two or three times 

 that sum. What a contrast with today, 

 when the value of the fruit shipped from 



each of these shipjiing points is upwards 

 of $100,000 per annum; while of ap- 

 ples the G. T. R. agent reports that 

 about 18,000 bbls. have been shipped 

 this season from Grimsby alone, and 

 6,000 from Winona. 



Our frontispiece shows the \\'inona 

 station just before the arrival of the fruit 

 train, with the fruit packages piled up 

 on the platform awaiting transportation, 

 photograph was taken by Mr. Craig, and 

 the plate first appeared in the report of 

 the Committee on Agriculture of the 

 House of Commons, and was loaned 

 this journal by Mr. J. H. McLeod, 

 Secretary of the Committee. A similar 

 view might easily be made at Grimsby 

 almost any day during the whole fruit 

 season from July to October. 



It seems a little strange that now, 

 when prices are so low, the fruit growers 

 are planting whole farms to fruits, while 

 in those days of high prices a small gar- 

 den plot was enough to satisfy them. 



Among the prominent fruit growers 

 of Grimsby and Winona, at the present 

 time, we will mention the following, and 

 others will be noticed in a future number : 



