EDITORIAL NOTES. 



149 



1882 yielded his in the fall of 1885, not three 

 years from the time of planting, an income 

 of $1.84 a vine, or $553.20 for the three hun- 

 dred vines. The average price was about 

 12 cents a pound, and the proceeds at the 

 rate of $800 per acre. 



His Public Spirit 



Mr. Pettit has ever been ready to serve 

 the fruit growers of Ontario in any public 

 enterprise. He was 

 long a director of a 

 local fruit growers' 

 association, and at 

 one time president ; 

 also for years a mem- 

 ber of the Niagara 

 District Fruit Grow- 

 ers Stock Co., a sort 

 of co-operative or- 

 ganization for the sale 

 of fruit. His name 

 has always been a 

 prominent one on 

 deputations and com- 

 mittees, as for exam- 

 ple for securing legis- 

 lation against the 

 Yellows or against 

 the San Jose scale. 



Experimental Worlc 

 witli Grapes. 



When an experi- 

 menter in grapes was 

 needed it was most 



Fig. 2774. Mr 



Experimenter in Grapes 



natural that we should turn our thoughts 

 to Mr. Murray Pettit ; for not only 

 had he one of the largest vineyards n 

 the district, but he had himself been doing 

 experimental work for many years, and had 

 already a row of about 100 varieties, care- 

 fully labeled, from which he was making 

 himself acquainted wdth varieties. Our 

 Board of Control furnished him with all 

 other varieties of any promise, and have 

 thus secured in Mr. Pettit a fruit experi- 



menter who is thoroughly posted in his 

 specialty, the grape. 



At our Leamington meeting Mr. Pettit 

 gave us much valuable information, and at 



A House Meeting of tlie Grimsby Horticultural 

 Society 



the principal feature was his address on 

 " Grape Growing for Profit." He first gave 

 a very interesting review of the history of 

 grape growing in the 

 Niagara Peninsula. 

 In i860, when King 

 Edward, then Prince 

 of Wales, visited this 

 district, only four va- 

 rieties of grapes were 

 under cultivation, and 

 prominent among 

 them the old Isabella, 

 •now entirely dis- 

 carded. 



It was in 1876 that 

 the first shipment of 

 grapes by express 

 was made from 

 Winona, and this was 

 probably about the 

 first made in the pro- 

 vince. Since that 

 time the industry has 

 grown . to a wonder- 

 ful extent, and now it 

 is not an uncommon 

 thing to see eight or 

 sent forward from this 



Murray Peitit, 



for the Province of Ontaeio. 



ten carloads a day 

 station. 



A Reliable Crop 



After thirty years of experience in grape 

 growing Mr. Pettit claims that grapes are 

 among tlie most reliable fruits for profit, be- 

 cause the yield is more constant, the price 

 less variable, and the vine is less subject to 

 insects and diseases than other fruits. True, 

 prices have fallen to a low figure compared 



