EXTENSION OF FRUIT GROWl X(;.— I. 



Fig. 1090.— Mr. E. D. S.mith, Wi.nuna, Ont. 



The following paper was given by Mr. E. 

 1). Smith, at a large gathering of farmers, at 

 .Stone}- Creek, last February. It is a strong, 

 enthusiastic paper, and our readers may wish 

 to know something of the writer. Mr. Smith 

 is a Canadian, who had large early experience 

 in farming, but in 1885 coming into possession 

 of land 85 acres of the paternal estate, he 

 turned his attention to growing fruit and fruit 

 trees. A pushing energetic man, of unusual 

 business ability, his undertakings have proved 

 successful, and his name is well known 

 throughout Ontario. Mr. Smith has now 

 growing 1"25 acres of solid nursery stock, at 

 Helderleigh (views of which are shown in 

 Figs. 1091 and 1092) on land all thoroughly 

 tile drained 30 feet apart, and he gives each 

 crop about .SO tons of well rotted stable 

 manure, or other composite manures. 



As a fruit grower he is no less enterprising. 

 He has now over one hundred acres in fruit, 

 all thoroughly drained. Of this about fifty 

 acres is in grapes, (a view of which is shown in 

 Fig. 1093) and the rest in a great variety of 

 other fruits. 



Mr. Smith keeps several teams of horses, 

 and grows all the hay and oats needed, upon 

 his own farm. In addition to the manure from 

 his own stables, he buys compost from Toron- 

 to, and supplements the whole with bone dust, 

 and about 2000 bushels of ashes annually. 



But it is a buyer and shipper of fruit at 

 Winona station that .\lr. Smith is most widely 

 known. He has made his name and the name 

 of Winona famous among fruit dealers far and 

 wide through the enormous amount of fruit 

 which he has distributed, and in this Wiiv lie 



has given enormous impetus to the planting 

 of fruit and fruit trees about Winona. 



In the following article, however, it is evi- 

 dent he speaks from the standpoint of a grow- 

 er and seller of trees than that of a fruit 

 glower, and while we credit him with perfect 

 honesty in his statements, we know many 

 fruit growers whose experience of the last 

 few years has led to ultei- discouragement. 



Hl'TER such a season of low 

 prices as the one just passed, 

 the subject of my paper be- 

 comes a pertinent question. 

 " Has the planting of fruit orchards, 

 vineyards and berry fields for commer- 

 cial purposes been overdone"? You 

 will notice that I say "commercial pur- 

 poses " because I judge there is no one 

 so bold as to say that planting for home 

 use by the householders of this broad, fer- 

 tile i)oininion has been over done, espe- 

 cially when we know the tremendous im- 

 portance it is to the health and vigor of 

 our people to have an abundance of ripe 

 fruit, and at the same time know that 

 thousands of homes all over the country 

 still have little or none of their own to 

 gather, and when such is the case sel- 

 dom buy any. 



Now it is no more fair to assume the 

 year 1896 to be a guide as to prices than 

 to take the year 1895. The high prices 

 of the latter year were brought about 

 by the crop being short in many sections, 

 though extremely heavy in others ; this 

 will not likely occur more often than in 

 the past, when it has averaged once in 

 five years for the last twenty seasons. 



The low prices of 1896 may never 

 occur again, as they have never occurred 

 in the past, although we have had, almost, 

 if not quite, as heavy crops in proportion 

 to the markets opened up and the facil- 

 ities for handling the product. Had we 

 had the crop of 1896 ten years ago we 

 could not have given it away at a price 

 to pay, and so should we have no larger 



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