178 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



July, 19U 



The First Big Ben 

 Cost $12.85 



Bis Ben is the result of 26 years 

 of fine clock mal<ing. The first 

 Big Ben cost $12.85 to make. 

 The first hundred cost S6.50 each. But 

 the R*reat demand has brougfht the price 

 down to everyone's pocketbook. 



Buy Him Now 

 for $3.00 



Bifir Ben the national sleep-meter, is 

 arousinfi: thousands of farmers on time. 

 Everywhere, everyday, the gentle, insist- 

 ent voice of Big Ben taps the "sleepy 

 heads" to joyous action. This "minute- 

 man" starts the day with a smile. Big 

 Ben never fails— he's on the job always. 

 He rings 5 minutes straight, or at inter- 

 vals of 30 seconds for 10 minutes. He 

 tells the truth and gets you and the farm 

 hands up "on the dot." 



Big Ben is hand-built, like a fine, thin- 

 model watch, and "time checked" for 140 

 hours for accuracy. 1,055 skilled watch- 

 makers build Big Ben — the clock that's 

 the t>ride of the famous Westclox Com- 

 munity of La Salle, Illinois. 



2,500 Big Bens now leave the factory 

 every 10 hours and the demand gets big- 

 ger daily. Big Ben has ticked himself 

 into popular favor because he is built 

 right, runs right and is priced right. 



Big Ben is sold by 5.000 Canadian 

 dealers. If you cannot find him at yours 

 send us S3. 00 today and we will send him 

 by return express, duty charges prepaid. 



WESTCLOX. La Salle, Illinois 



Imperial Bank 



E.i.bii.hed OF CANADA i875 

 HEAD OFFICE TORONTO 



Capiul Paid-up. . 6.000,000.00 

 Reserve Fund . 6.000,000.00 

 Total Assets . 72.000,000.00 



D. R. WILKIE, Preridant and General Manager 

 HON. R. JAFFRAY. Vice-Prerident 



Br«noh«a and Aranciea throughout 

 th* Dominion of Oatnada 



Letters of Credit, Drafts and Money Orders 



Issued avsulable in all parts 



of the world 



Special attention given to collections 



Savins* Dapartmant at all Branches 



Interest allowed on deposits at best current rates 



throughout tliose valleys under systems of 

 irrigation, chief of which might 'be men- 

 tioned Kiimloops and Walhachin on the 

 main line, Vernon, Kelowna, Summerland 

 and Penticton in the Okanagan Lake dis- 

 trict, and Grand Forks in the Kettle River 

 Valley, in addition to numerou.s localities 

 such as Salmon Arm, Armstrong, Nelson, 

 Th© Needles, Nakusp and many others 

 where irrigation is not essential. In all 

 these valleys many hundreds of acres have 

 already been nlanted to the tre« fruits. 

 There are still thousands more awaiting 

 the coming of the settler to take advantage 

 of the opportunities which are at present 

 lying dormant in thus western province. 



Some criticism has been made at times in 

 regard to the dessert qualities of British 

 Columbia apples. I believe, however, that 

 this province, in public competition, not on- 

 ly with the states to the south, but with 

 the older fruit districts of the east, has 

 demonstrated that it can produce fruit 

 which cannot be excelled for size, color, 



freedom from blemishes and, in the case 

 of many varieties, for dessert qualities. 



UNSOr.VEO PROBLEMS 



The country is new ; many problems are 

 unsolved, and in some cases the great 

 opportunities of the west have been man- 

 ipulated by the unscrupulous land-jobber, 

 but all honor I say to the men wlio, with 

 strong conviction and great courage, have 

 undertaken the work of making the fruit 

 industry the most important agricultural 

 feature of this province of wonderful re- 

 sources. They will be able to profit by 

 the exiierience of the older provinces and 

 avoid many of the mistakes made in the 

 earlier days when horticultural knowledge 

 was much more meagre than it is to-day. 

 They have the success of the states to the 

 south as an incentive to stir them up to 

 good works, and there is every indication 

 that in a very few years British Columbia 

 apples will be favorably known in every 

 fruit-consuming country on the globe. 



Nova Scotia's Fruit Development 



W. T. Macoun, Dominion Horticulturist, Ottawa 



THE Cornwallis and Annaimlis VaPeys, 

 where most of the fruit of Nova 

 Scotia is grown, is practically one 

 valley. It is about oue hun- 



dred miles long and from six to 

 eleven miles in width, and lies between 

 two ranges of hills about six hundred feet 

 in height. On the west side of the valley 

 the North Mountain protects the orchards 

 from the winds which blow across the Bay 

 of i'unday. Tidal rivers through and inter- 

 secting the valleys help to moderate the 

 climate in winter and also moderate the 

 heat in summer. The spring is compara- 

 tively late and the autumn usually rather 

 cool. Most of the older orchards are xjlant- 

 ed on the lower and heavier soils, but some 

 of the most profitable ones are on the sandy 

 and gravelly slopes of the hills, and many 

 orchards are being planted in such situa- 

 tions, as the land is usually cheaper than 

 where the soil is heavier. 



Apples, pears, jjlums, cherries and small 

 fruits, and to a limited extent iieaches and 

 grapes, are grown in these valleys. The 

 mining towns of Nova Scotia, of which 

 there are a great many, use large quantities 

 of the small fruits which are grown very 

 successfully in most parts of the province. 



A GRE.IT LOSS 



Like the other Maritime Provinces, Nova 

 Scotia has suffered by the constant emigra- 

 tion of her young men to western Canada 

 and to the United States; and while the 

 men who remained realized what a great 

 future there was in the fruit-growing in- 

 dustry, they could not induce many of their 

 sons to stay at home. There was also little, 

 if any, cooperation among the growers, and 

 it was left to a few enthusiastic men to do 

 what little was done for the general wel- 

 fare. Now, this is all changed, and co- 

 operation is the watchword. During the 

 past two seasons twenty-two cooperative 

 associations have been formed, and while 

 each of these associations has its local man- 

 ager, a general manager for them all has 

 been appointed this year. 



EFFECT OF COOPERATION 



The fruit growers of the Annapolis Val- 

 ley, and in fact in all parts of Nova Scotia, 

 are, most of them, intelligent men, and it 

 but needed the cooperative movement to 

 bring about the marked advance in methods 

 of growing and handling the crop, which is 



seen to-day, although the progressive fruit 

 growers of the Annaiiolis \ alley have long 

 been noted for the good culture they gave 

 their trees. With the cooperative move- 

 ment came the more general use of the 

 power sprayer, many of which have been 

 bought during the past two years. 



A QREAI CROP 



During 1911 there were few trees of bear- 

 ing age that did not have fruit, and most 

 of the trees were almost breaking with their 

 load, the fruit being very free from blem- 

 ishes, and higher colored and better matur- 

 ed than usual. Barrels ran short and fruit 

 growers lent a helping hand to the coopers 

 to keep up the supply. One factory near 

 Port William, we are told, turned out fifteen 

 hundred barrels a day for two mouths, an- 

 other one twelve liundred, and so on. 

 There are about ten of these factories in a 

 radius of ten miles. About one hundred 

 warehouses are scattered along the railway 

 in the Annapolis Valley, in which the fruit 

 is sorted, packed and stored until shipped. 

 At some centres there are from tour to five, 

 and brick buildings are now being erected. 

 The writer visited the Annapolis Valley dur- 

 ing the first week ot November, and found 

 the fruit practically all sately housed. Two 

 of the largest growers are said to have each 

 harvested about eight thousand barrels of 

 apples, while other yields of from four 

 to five thousand barrels were reported. It 

 was expected to send one hundred and fifty 

 thousand barrels to the Canadian North- 

 West, and many of these had been shipped, 

 including sixty-three thousand barrels of 

 Gravensteins. 



Norfolk County 



The wonderful transformation that has 

 been worked in Norfolk county, Ontario, 

 largely through the efforts of one man, Mr. 

 James E. Johnson, of Simcoe, is shown by 

 the fact that within the past five years 

 nearlv 260,000 fruit trees have been set 

 out in that section, while the output from 

 the old orchards has increased from ten 

 thousand to nearly 40.000 barrels annually. 

 As a result of the improved methods which 

 have been adopted there are fewer instances 

 of insect pests and fungous diseases than 

 ever before, while the price paid for fruit 

 has advanced materially. 



