THE PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND FRUIT COWERS' ANNUAL 



CONVENTION 



I FEEL that my horticulturist friends in 

 Ontario may expect a line from me, 

 now that our anmial meeting is over, on the 

 work we are trying to do here in orchard- 

 ing. I shall not attempt to load your col- 

 umns with the matter of any of the reports, 

 papers or addresses which form the trans- 

 actions of our association, but merely state 

 in general terms that we assembled in 

 Charlottetown this year on the 3rd and 4th 

 of February, with all the best orchardists in 

 the province in attendance, and Messrs. W. 

 A. McKinnon, A. McNeill and Saxby Blair 

 from without. Our meetings were most 

 enthusiastic all the way through, the night 

 ones being crow^ded to the doors, and they 

 all furnished much instruction which must 

 ultimately benefit horticulture here. 



The fruit show was a revelation to even 

 ourselves. This was the oflf year with ii<?, 

 and the season was late and the fruit crop 

 as a consequence retarded in growth and 

 ripening. Still, there was never such an 

 apple show here, and the pears were splen- 

 did as far as they went ; also Mr. McNeill 

 attended the Nova Scotia show before com- 

 ing here, and certainly Nova Scotia has fine 

 fruit this year and lots of it. He was also 

 at your Ontario show, but he did not hesi- 

 tate to say that little Prince Edward Island's 

 exhibit of winter fruit was facile princeps. 

 We did not expect this verdict this year. 

 We have ambitions in that direction for 

 some near period in the future. 



Of all our apples the Baxter and the 

 Gravenstein elicited most agreeable surprise. 

 Of the former I can only sav that it is not 

 widely enough grown to be pronounced on 

 definitely ; but it is a beauty, and Mr. A. A. 

 Moore, a large grower, declares it everv- 

 thing that can be desired. He gives the lie 



direct to many of the unkind things your 

 Ontario committee said of it some few years 

 ago. Do you ever revise your judgments? 

 Of the Gravenstein I can only say that we 

 can equal, if not excel Nova Scotia, and 

 ours is a month later. That means much 

 for us in tempting the British market. Our 

 association has done its share in stimulating 

 fruit growing in the past year. It has now 

 the whole province behind it. Education 

 is omnipotent in this regard at least. As 

 to the amount of aid received from the pub- 

 lic chest, it is still absolutely incommensu- 

 rate. But it is coming up a notch yearly. 

 The papers read were all of a superior class. 

 Vice-President Johnstone's on " The Need 

 of Grafting and My Experience With 

 Same," was one of the best papers we have 

 ever had, and Chief McKinnon declared 

 openly that he had never heard its equal. 

 Mr. Registrar White's paper on " My Ex- 

 perimental Orchard " brought out much 

 practical discussion on varieties and cul- 

 ture. Senator Ferguson's, on " The x\pple 

 Market," could not be well bettered, and the 

 other papers and reports were all of absorb- 

 ing interest. Of course Chief McKinnon 

 gave several of his pleasing and profitable 

 addresses on matters connected with the 

 commercial side of apple growing, and A. 

 McNeill was a host in himself on anything 

 and everything connected with horticulture. 

 He addressed the young people from the 

 cottages, come in to see what a fruit grow- 

 ers' convention was like, with the same ease 

 as he struggled with that interesting ques- 

 tion, " Is the Gano and the Black Ben Davis 

 Identical." or " What is the influence of ihe 

 stock on the cion and vice versa?" Then 

 we- had W. Saxby Blair's splendid address 

 on " How to Conserve the Moisture of Or- 



