352 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



Pettit, President of the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association ; Linus Woolverton, 

 M.A , Secretary of the same Association, his adjoining neighbor with his magni- 

 ficent home ; Mr. C. E. Woolverton, Mr. A. H. Pettit, Mr. Geo. W. Cline, with 

 his orchard of seven thousand plum trees, Mr. E. D. Smith, with his four hundred 

 acres of nursery stock, vineyard and peach orchard ; Mr. W. M. Orr, who, I 

 believe, sent into the market, north, the finest samples of plums shipped this 

 season ; and several others whom we had not time or opportunity to call upon. 

 To all those fruit growers, the opening of the Hamilton and Grimsby 

 electric railway and the establishment of a wholesale fruit market at the Hamil- 

 ton end of the road, must prove a great and profitable boon. We had the 

 privilege of being present at the opening of the fruit market on the 22nd of 

 August, and witnessed the interest taken in it by the citizens of the city and 

 adjoining fruit districts, and saw the loads of fruit coming in by almost every 

 car during the forenoon of that day, and were most favorably impressed with 

 the promising auspices of the inauguration. Through the courtesy of the presi- 

 dent, Mr. W. W. Ross, and the manager, Mr. F. W. McBeth, I was given the 

 freedom of the market, a privilege which enabled me to judge of its capacity for 

 handling fruit, and estimate its possibilities of development as a distributing 

 centre, to the general advantage of grower, handler and consumer. From the 

 enormous quantities of fruit sent in daily by the growers on all sides and dis- 

 tributed by this market to all parts of the province, it must have already justi- 

 fied its promoters in their faith in its possibilities of success. To my mind, it 

 is an enterprise that the fruit growers of Ontario, and the Horticulturist, as 

 their publication, should give every encouragement to. With such a convenient 

 distributing centre, and more reasonable express and freight rates, the consump- 

 tion of the finer fruits so successfully grown in the Niagara peninsula must largely 

 increase in all other sections of the province. 



Mitchell, Out. T. H. Race. 



The Bureau has never received more discouraging reports than during 

 the present season. Apples have been a failure. The bulk of correspondents 

 report none at all, or a dozen or two on a tree. A number hazard the opinion 

 that a half bushel or possibly a bushel might be the average, while occasional 

 correspondents have a generous yield to report. The best returns come from 

 districts near the lakes. Plums are a poor crop, and so are peaches. Cherries 

 did not do as well as usual, but they were not so badly troubled with black knot 

 as in former years. Grapes, which were almost entirely cut off by the May 

 frosts, put forth a second bud, and about half a crop is expected. Raspberries 

 did well in the Niagara and Hamilton sections, but strawberries suffered from 

 frost and drouth. There was a fair amount of wild fruits in the northern and 

 eastern portions of the Province. — Bulletin 54, Ontario Bureau of Industries. 



