192 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



Augnst, 1912 



The Canadian Horticulturist Si^^ss^g§^^ii^§@^^^ss 



PubltihAd br The Horticultural 

 PublUfains Company* Liniited 



PSTTKRBORO, ON^XJLRIO 



EDITORIAL 



The Only Horticultural Magazine 

 in the Dominion 



OrrioiAL Organ or the Ontario, Qitibbo, New 



Brunswick and Pbinoe Edward Iu^nd 



Fruit Qrowers' Abbociationb 



B. BnoNSON Cowan, ManafinK Dlreotor 



1. The Oanadlan HortlonltnrlBt ie publisbed on 

 the ZSth day of the month preoodlnj date of 

 isene. 



2. Subscription price In Canada and Qreat 

 Britain, 60 cente a year; two years, $1.00. For 

 United States and local subscriptions In Peter- 

 boro (not called for at the Post Office), 25 cents 

 extra a year, including postage. 



3. Remittances should be made by Post Office 

 or Express Money Order, or Registered Letter. 

 Postage Stamps accepted for amounts less than 

 $1.00. 



4. The Law is that subscribers to newspapers 

 are held responsible until all arrearages are 

 paid and their paper ordered to be discontinued. 



5. Change of Address— When a change of ad- 

 dress is ordered both the old and the new ad- 

 dressee must be giyen. 



6. Advertising rates One Dollar an Inch. 

 OopT received up to the 18th Address all ad- 

 vertising correspondence and copy to our Ad- 

 vertising Manager, Peterboro, Ont. 



7. Articles and Illustrations for publication 

 will be thankfully received by the Editor. 



CIRCULATION STATEMENT 

 The following is a sworn statement of the net 

 paid circulation of The Canadian Horticulturist 

 for the year ending with December, 1911. The 

 figures given are exclusive of samples and spoiled 

 copies. Most montbs, including the sample cop- 

 lee, from 11.000 to 12,000 copies of The Canadian 

 Hortlctilturist are mailed to people known to 

 be interested in the growing of frails, flowers 

 or vegetables. 



January, 1911 8,062 



February. 1911 8,260 



March, 1911 8,523 



April, 1911 9.«9 



May. 1911 9,783 



June, 1911 ...10,178 



July. 1911 10,062 



August, 1911 : 10.043 



September. 1911 ; S.WS 



October, 1911 9.991 



November, 1911 9,988 



December, 1911 10,137 



Total 11M8B 



Average each isiue In 1907, 6,627 



" " " •' 1908, 8,695 



" " " " 19*9, 8,970 



" " " 1910. 9,067 



" " " " 1911. S.54I 



July, 1912 11,279 



Sworn detailed statements will be mailed 

 upon application 



OUR PROTECTIVE POLICY 



We want the readers of The Canadian Horti- 

 onltnrlst to feel that they can deal with our 

 advertisers with our assurance of the advertis- 

 ers' reliability. We try to admit to our columns 

 only the moet reliable advertisers. Should any 

 siibscriber. therefore, have good cause to be 

 dissatisfied with the treatment he receives from 

 any of our advertisers, we will look into the 

 matter and investigate the circumstances fully. 

 Should we find reason, even in the slightest 

 degree, we will discontinue Immediatelv the pub- 

 lication of their advertisements in The Horti- 

 culturistt. Should the circumstances warrant 

 we will expose them through the columns of 

 the paper. Thus we will not only protect our 

 readers, but our reputable advertisers as well. 

 All that is neccs.sary to entitle you to the bene- 

 fit of this Protective Policy Is that you include 

 In all your letters to advertisers the words. 

 "T saw your ad. in The Canadian Horticulturist." 

 Complaints should be made to us as soon as 

 possible after reason for dissatisfaction has 

 been found. 



Communications should be addressed 



THE CANADIAN HORTICUI/TUBIST. 



FITBBBOSO. ONT. 



THE FRUIT DIVISION 



One of the most interesting features of 

 the report of the proce<'<lings of the Do- 

 minion Fruit Conference held recently in 

 Ottawii, now being distributed by the Do- 

 minion Department of Agriculture, is the 

 account it contains of the discussion of the 

 advisability of having a commissioner plac- 

 ed in charge of the fruit division. The 

 most significant feature of the discussion 

 was the determined manner in which the 

 fruit growers pressed their point in spite 

 of a manifest desire on the part of leading 

 officers of the Department of Agriculture, 

 including the Minister of Agriculture, that 

 the point should not l)e insisted upon. 



The fruit growers did well to recognize 

 the fact that Dairy Commissioner Ruddick, 

 who has been acting as commissioner of the 

 Cold Storage and Fruit Divisions, also has 

 done good work for the fruit growers. 

 Nevertheless the fact remains that Mr. 

 Ruddick is not a practical fruit grower, 

 and that his training has been along an en- 

 tirely different line. The chief of the fruit 

 division at present must lay all his recom- 

 mendations before the dairy and fruit com- 

 missioner. He has no power to consult di- 

 rect with the minister of agriculture. This 

 condition should not be allowed to continue 

 any longer than possible. It must not be 

 forgotten either that Hon. Mr. Burrell, 

 while in the opposite ranks in the House 

 of Commons, was one of the most severe 

 and persistent critics of the present ar- 

 rangement. Were the fruit division placed 

 under the control of a commissioner possess- 

 ing the necessary qualifications, nothing 

 but good would result. 



LAND AGENTS 



It is possible for a country to have too 

 much of a good thing even of land agents. 

 This is being demonstrated in many sec- 

 tions of Canada. While the disastrous 

 results that follow speculation in land are 

 becoming more clearly recognized every 

 year, th" public as yet has not reached the 

 stage where it realizes that the best and 

 only effective remedy is to apply a suffi- 

 cient tax on unimproved land values to 

 curb this evil. 



British Columbia owes much to its land 

 agents. They have helped to develop 

 thousands of acres of fruit land and to 

 boom the fruit growing pos.sibiIiti6s of that 

 province to a degree that has made them 

 an important factor in its settlement by 

 an unusually high class type of settlers. 

 There are indications, now, however, that 

 in sections of the province at least, the 

 boom in fruit lands has about reached its 

 height for the time being, and that the 

 work of settlement, instead of being pro- 

 moted, is being retarded by the high prices 

 being aske<l for fruit land. A letter re- 

 ceived recently from a subscriber of The 

 CANADIAN HouTiCT:'LTfRiST in British Colum- 

 bia contains the following reference to this 

 subject: "I hope that Ontario will never be 

 ■blest with an armv of land agents or specu- 

 lators in fruit lands and town lots such as 

 British Columbia has now. When a man 

 has to pay two hundred to four hundred 

 dollars an acre for uncleared land and 

 .spend another one hundred to three hun- 

 dred dollars to clear it, he looks at it twice 

 before buying. At present prices not much 

 of this land is likely to be taken up for 

 several years." 



Land agents are now appearing in the 

 fruit districts of Ontario, where they are 

 receiving a warm welcome, because it is 

 realized that they are likely to have an im- 

 portant influence in developing these sec- 

 tions. As yet there is not much danger of 

 their operations proving harmful except 

 possibly in a few sections of the Niagara 

 District, but the time may not be far dis- 

 tant when this will no longer be the case. 

 More and more the tend of taxation must 

 be away from the taxation of improvements 

 towards the taxation of land values. A 

 fruit grower who sets out an orchard or 

 vineyard should not be taxed for his enter- 

 prise. Instead we should tax those men 

 who, while holding land idle, profit from 

 the enterprise of their neighbors who im- 

 prove their places. We should encourage 

 the workers not the shirkers. 



Last spring we drew attention in these 

 columns to the fact that the Goderich Hor- 

 ticultural Society had adopted the pansy 

 as the emblem for the town of Goderich, 

 and that it purposed encouraging its cul- 

 ture until it should become a feature of the 

 town. Now comes word that the Winnipeg 

 Garden Club has adopted the sweet pea as 

 its official flower. This is a most commend- 

 able line of endeavor. A few weeks ago the 

 writer spent a couple of days in Galveston, 

 Texas, where oleanders were blooming in 

 front of apparently a majority of homes. 

 The effect created by these beautiful flow- 

 ers was beyond description. While it is 

 not desirable that •horticultural societies 

 should limit their work too much to one 

 variety of flower or shrub, there is no 

 reason why more of our societies should not 

 encourage especially the growth of some cer- 

 tain variety of flower or vine, as is being 

 done in Goderich, Winnipeg and elsewhere. 

 Let us make our towns and cities known by 

 the beauty of their floral effects 



AVhile there are a number of sections in 

 Ontario and the east that make the proud 

 boast that they are the garden spots of Can- 

 ada, they all fall far short of British Colum- 

 bia in their ability to produce photographs 

 to substantiate their claims. This does not 

 prove that they lack the conditions they 

 maintain they possess, but that they lack 

 the photographs. For some years The 



C.\N.\Di.\N HoRTictTLTURisT has found it a 

 comparatively easy matter at any time to 

 obtain excellent photographs of orchards 

 and vegetable gardens in British Columbia, 

 but a much more difficult matter to secure 

 illustrations of similar scenes in Ontario, 

 Quebec and the Maritime provinces. Only 

 recently a syndicate of publications wrote to 

 us for illustrations of fruit scenes in the 

 east for publication in a Metropolitan mag- 

 azine. They seemed at a loss to know 

 where to secure any. The fruit resources of 

 the east will never be advertised as they 

 should until those interested in promoting 

 them realize the necessity of taking more 

 good photographs and using them as oppor- 

 tunity presents. 



In Ontario this year over sixty schools 

 have been qualifying for the special gov 

 ernment grant offered to those schools that 

 teach agriculture through school gardens. 

 There is probably no other province or 

 state on the continent that is showing 

 greater development along these lines. This 

 is encouraging, and we may well hope that 

 the good work that has thus been started 

 will extend rapidly. Much of the credit for- 

 the success of this movement is due to the 

 capable work of Prof. S. B. McCready, the 

 director of elementary agricultural educa- 

 tion. 



