The Canadian Horticulturist. 91 



PROMINENT CANADIANS.- 1. 



Mr. F. W. Hodson. 



N this case we cannot write under the head of Prominent 

 Canadian Horticulturists, because, so far as we know, Mr. 

 Hodson has not made a specialty of either fruit growing, 

 or gardening. But he has recently been promoted to a 

 position which is an important one to fruit growers, as 

 well as to farmers, viz. : Superintendent of Farmers' Insti- 

 tutes of Ontario. Until recently, this work devolved upon President Mills, of 

 the O. A. C , Guelph, but the burden was too heavy, and it was at length found 

 necessary to appoint a man to give his time to this important work. Now the 

 Fruit Growers' Association of Ontario, together with the Dair)'mens' and other 

 Associations in Ontario, have the privilege of selecting a certain number of 

 speakers on their owvi industry to make up the staff of speakers sent out to do 

 institute work, and it is in this connection that we are somewhat closely assa 

 ciated with Mr. Hodson. Nor is he unacquainted with our work, for as man- 

 aging editor of The Farmers' Advocate, he has frequently attended our meetings 

 and reported upon the excellence of our work, in that journal 



Mr. Hodson is the son of a prominent farmer and sheep breeder of the 

 township of Whitby ; and, owing to his evident abilities, was made associate 

 editor of The Farmers' Advocate in 1880. He has also held the secretaryship 

 of two important Associations — the Sheep Breeders' and the Swine Breeders' — 

 and has been most successful in working up the interests of them both. 



No wonder, therefore, that in response to numerous letters urging his 

 appointment, the Minister of Agriculture has seen fit to accede, and place Mr. 

 Hodson in a position where his abilities will have the widest scope. 



Pruning^ Grape Vines. — That pruning is a great art, seldom mastered 

 by even good gardeners, may readily be noted by the condition of grape vines, 

 in most places All the lower portions of the main shoots are comparatively 

 naked, and the few stronger branches grow from the upper portion of the vine ; 

 but a well pruned vine will be covered with strong branches firom the base to 

 the summit. This is really the leading object in grape vine pruning ; but not 

 one in a hundred knows how to bring it about. It is wholly accomplished by 

 summer pruning. The upper branches are usually the strongest, and if left 

 run they will draw the nourishment from all the rest. The well instructed 

 grape pruner watches his vines during the season of growth, and whenever any 

 one branch is inclined to grow stronger than its neighbor, it is either pinched 

 back, in order to check its ambition, or else broken off entirely. The social 

 problem of the "rich Ijecoming richer and the poor poorer" applies here. 

 We check the strong branch and the weaker is strengthened thereby. — Meehans' 

 Monthly. 



