74 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



were particularly nice and sold for good prices. 

 There are also large quantities of small fruit 

 grown, most of them are sold to canning fac- 

 tories and local markets at fair prices. In the 

 counties of Hastings, Lennox and Addington 

 apples have not been grown to any great extent 

 until within the last ten or fifteen years, when 

 large orchards have been planted principally in 

 those townships lying along the water fronts. 

 Many have fruited well this year. The apple 

 growers in this district find the fruit houses a 

 decided advantage to them for storing their 

 fruit, particularly the cold storage in Trenton, 

 where the fruit is cooled down and held at a low 

 temperature for but a trifle more cost than the 

 ordinary storage. 



Several orcTiard meetings were held in the 

 early part of the season, and were fairly well 

 attended gy growers eager for informaition on 

 fruit storage. Mr. Elmer Lick, of Oshawa, gave 

 practical talks on spraying and pruning, which 

 were very much appreciated, also Mr. F. J. Bar- 

 ker spoke on the advantage of thinning fruit. 



Durham, Northumberland, Peterborough and 

 Victoria. 



(Division No. 5.) 



Represented by Wm. Rickard, Newcastle. 



As director for Division No. 5, I beg to report 

 that the local Fruit Growers' Associations for- 

 merly organized ait Bowmanville, Newcastle and 

 Orono, in Durham County, have not been active 

 or in good working order during the past year. 

 For a time there was considerable interest 

 taken, especially by the membership in Bow- 

 manville, where a number of interesting and 

 profitable meetings were held. Among other 

 things that received prominence was that of 

 building a cold storage fruit house, but up to 

 the present no action has been taken along this 

 line. 



Outlook for Apple Growing. 



In speaking of fruit culture in Northumber- 

 land and Durham, I might properly confine my- 

 self mainly to apples. There are a few who 

 have, to a limited extent, gone into growing 

 pears and plums and small fruits with some 

 measure of success, but the king of all fruits, 

 the apple, has been and is now receiving by far 

 the greater part of the attention and work of 

 the fruit growers of these united counties, and 

 in my opinion, very properly so; for when we 

 consider that the fruit townships bordering on 

 the north shore of Lake Ontario possess th e 

 natural condition of soil and climate for the 

 growing of apples that cannot be surpassed on 

 the North American continent, and when we 

 further consider the almost unlimited prospec- 

 tive markets for this health-giving fruit, both 

 in the east across the great Atlantic to the 

 teeming millions of Europe, and also in our 

 great and glorious west (I say our glorious 



west, for it is ours, the heritage of our fathers), 

 in the near future destined to be the home of 

 many millions of well-to-do people, surprising 

 the world in the production of the greatest of 

 cereals, wheat, making them prosperous to such 

 a degree that while, generally spe^aking, they 

 will not be able to grow fruits, they will have 

 the purchasing power to buy. We say that as 

 far as we are able to look into the future, the 

 prospects for growing apples in this favored 

 district along the north shore of Lake Ontario, 

 are, to say the least, fairly good, and a consider- 

 able number of our most intelligent and pro- 

 gressive land owners are acting on this outlook 

 and planting quite largely young orchards of 

 apple trees of very considerable extent. As an 

 illustration, I may say we find in the second 

 concession of the Township of Clarke, in less 

 than one and a half square miles, two hundred 

 acres in apple orchards, some of them just com- 

 ing into bearing, and as an example of the suc- 

 cess that can be made in apple growing here, by 

 giving it careful intelligent management, let me 

 say that I picked and packed this season from 

 thirty-five Ben Davis trees just ten years 

 planted, one hundred barrels of apples. 



Another Side. 



Notwithstanding the above facts, there is, I 

 am somewhat sorry to say, another side to the 

 question of apple growing in this district. Some 

 of our farmers having orchards are disposed to 

 neglect them, allowing the trees to take their 

 chances. If the orchard receives any atten- 

 tion at all it is after everything else is done. The 

 inevitable result is that we have too much poor 

 fruit, and not enough of real good fruit, and 

 herein lies the success or failure in the grow- 

 ing and marketing of apples. No better work 

 can be done than to educate every man having 

 an orchard up to a careful intelligent manage- 

 ment of the same. This will result in success, 

 while neglect and inattention will result in fail- 

 ure, and this will apply not only to the indi- 

 vidual but to a certain extent to the great and 

 imporant apple business of the country. 



The apple crop in this section for the present 

 year has been very abundant and of excellent 

 quality. As near as I am able to ascertain, the 

 shipments at the various railway stations up 

 to the present time considerably exceed any- 

 thing heretofore, unless it might possibly be in 

 1896, the year with a bumper crop. Summing 

 up the shipments this season, together with 

 what is put in store, I believe I am safe in say- 

 ing that Northumberland and Durham have 

 produced this year somewhere about three hun- 

 dred thousand barrels. But this great and im- 

 portant industry in this country is only in its 

 infancy. In after years it bids fair to double 

 and treble in this favored locality — the fruit 

 townships of Northumberland and Durham. 



A Suggestion. 



I would suggest that in connection with 

 Farmers' Institute meetings the cultivation of 

 fruit be dealt with by giving instruction in the 

 best methods of fruit apple culture. 



