May, 19U 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTUEIST 



12 



GARDENING FOR CHILDREN 



Ohildren are always greatly interested 

 in seeing things grow, especially if it is 

 some plant or animal that they can take 

 full care of. Interest the children in the 

 work of improving their school grounds. 

 As far as possible let each child have a 

 garden for himself. Nothing will make a 

 child like school more than beautiful school 

 surroundings, especially if he has had some- 

 thing to do with the making of them. 



The influence of this work will be far- 

 reaohing. The children will make better 

 citizens and later in life when they have 

 homes of their own. the results of this 

 early training will be -seen in beautiful 

 flowers., well arranged lawns and tasteful 

 homes. Resolve this spring to have the 

 school grounds in your district the best in 

 the vicinity and the grounds around your 

 own home even better. 



PUBLISHER'S DESK 



ESSAY COMPETITION 



In ajiother column will bo found partic- 

 ulars of the essay romnetition conducted 

 bv the Ontario Horticultural A.ssociation . 

 This competition has been rendered pos- 

 sible by the generosity of Messrs Herman 

 Simmers, Toronto, and Mr. R. B Whyte, 

 Ottawa, who have each donated $25.00 to 

 be given in prizes and medals for the four 

 best essays on "My Favorite Garden Flow- 

 er and How I Grew it." Such liberal 

 prizes should bring out a great number of 

 essays, and those who do not win prizes 

 will be well repaid for the work involved 

 by the pleasure obtained from writing 

 down all the work done in the garden, 

 which will act as a record for future years. 



THE VALUE OF BEES 



Articles in this and previous issues have 

 shown the great value of bees in an or- 

 chard. The transfer of pollen is due al- 

 most entirely to insects, and of these bees 

 are the movst important. 



Even under the most favorable circum- 

 stances great numbers are required to do 

 this work in localities largely devoted to 

 fruit growing. During wet, cloudy, or 

 other unfavorable conditions of weather, 

 the bees do not travel far from the hive, 

 and if the nearest bees are several miles 

 away, very little good will be obtained from 

 the bees, and a large proportion of the 

 bloom will be unfertilized and either drop 

 or form mis-shapen or cull fruit. 



The fruit grower who has hives in his 

 orchard will profit most in unfavorable wea- 

 ' ther and will have the most perfect fruit. 

 In addition to the gain in the yield and 

 quality of the fruit, there is an added 

 profit from the honey produced, which is 

 always saleable. It pays to keep bees. 



TREE PLANTERS 



While in many ways we think that we 

 are ahead of our cousins to the South, 

 still in some respects we might profit by 

 their example, one of which is in copying 

 the organizaton of boys, called The Tree 

 Planters of America, which has Ix-en 

 fitarted in the United States to promote 

 systematic tree planting in profitless pas- 

 tures, nooks, ravines, on useless or worn 

 out plcts, or partly denuded forest areas, 

 and in every place where the .soil is not 

 yielding a reasonable contribution to the 

 general welfare.- 



Canada has thousands of jiist suoh 

 places, many of thepi near towns and vil- 

 lages. A little time ispent in planting 

 trees would change unsightlydump grounds 

 and Hee<l patches into beautiful groves. 

 Let us have a lodge of the tree planters 

 of Canada in every town and village and at 

 every country school. 



The illustration on the cover of this issue 

 shows a peach orchard in bloom in the 

 vicinity of St. Catharines, Ontario, the 

 noted fruit and truck district, which the 

 citizens proudly call the Garden of On- 

 tario. We are indebted to the courtesy of 

 the Grand Trunk Railway Co., for the priv- 

 ilege of using this photograph. 



We should be pleased to receive good 

 .sharp and distinct photographs showing 

 fruit or garden scenes for publication in 

 The C.\n.\dian Horticulturist, the best of 

 these to be u.s*'d on the front cover, the 

 others that would make good reproductions 

 to be used on the inside pages. Send us 

 the best photographs you have. If you 

 wish them returned write the word return 

 on the back of the photograph together 

 with your name and address. 



Many new subscribers commence receiv- 

 ing The Canadi.\n Horticui.utrist with 

 this number. We extend to them a hearty 

 greeting, and our only regret is that we 

 were unable to commence all of these sub- 

 scriptions with our Garden Number. We 

 printed what we thought was an ample 

 supply of copies of this number but the 

 demand was so great thpt the issue was 

 practically exhausted within a few days 

 after it was off the press. The subscriptions 

 still continue to come in at a rate to keep 

 our circulation department busy. A large 

 number of our readers are takin.g advan- 

 tage of the splendid premiums ofifered for 

 the securing of new subscriptions. Have 

 you secured one of the«e premiums? We 

 are unable to give a full list and descrip- 

 tions of them in this issue but will mail you 

 a premium list bv return mail if you write 

 for it. It includes two splendid climbing 

 roses, a collection of flower and garden 

 .seeds, and several colleotions of flowering 

 bulbs which are sent free of cost to per- 

 sons who F-ecure new subscriptions to The 

 Canadian Horticulturist at 60 cents for 

 each suKscription. This is an exceptional 

 offer. Time is pasising and you .should take 

 advantage of it quickly. Write for our 

 premium li.st and while you are waiting for 

 it show your copy to your friends and get 

 them to subscribe. They will readily do so 

 when they .see the good things it contains. 

 Be sure and get a premium. 



In this issue we are inaugurating a new 

 department, which we have called "Society 

 Notes." This will be devoted to short 

 pithy reports from the officers of the dif- 

 erent Horticultural Societies, throughout 

 Canada. We want to make The Canadian 

 Horticulturist more truly fully the organ 

 of the Horticultural Societies, and with 

 this end in view would be pleased to have 

 the Secretaries send us brief notes of what 

 they have found to be of the greatest bene- 

 fit to them in their work. Let us have 

 particulars of how you manage your lawn 

 competitions. Do you give the school child- 

 ren .seeds and plants and later give prizes 

 for the best cared for gardens? Do you 

 take an interest in the establishment of 

 gardens in the school grounds? What in- 

 fluence has the Society had in beautifying 

 the town generally, such as the proper care 

 of parks and cemeteries and .sohool grounds 

 and the planting of vines around churches, 

 public buildings and factories. 



We would suggest as a topic for the June 

 Horticulturi.srt. that .vou writ<> on "The 

 Benefit that the Horticultural Society Has 

 Been in Beautifyijig our Town." Make 

 your letters short and to the point . 



SOCIETY NOTES 



We invite the secretaries of Horti- 

 cultural Societies to send in short, 

 pithy reports of work that would in- 

 terest members of other Horticultu- 

 ral Societies. 



Pctcrboro 



Peterboro is in the midst of an ener- 

 getic campaign to increase their member- 

 ship. Mr. Frank Wise, the Supt. of Little 

 Lake Cemetery, the genial Secretary, has 

 taken a great interest in the matter and 

 is working for three times the present mem- 

 bership before the end of next montJi. The 

 Society has made great use of a publicity 

 campaign in the local papers, who are very 

 friendly and will publish anything written 

 up with regard to the improvement and 

 beautification of The Electric City. Asi a 

 means of obtaining this obiect they have 

 books of tickets printed which will be given 

 to a large corps of canvasers who will call 

 on practically every citizen. In this matter 

 Mr. Wise ha.s. enlisted the assistance of a. 

 committee of interested ladies, who will 

 take charge of the membership campaign. 

 A set of attractive window cards exolaining 

 the object have been printed and placed in 

 the windows of all the tusiness houses. The 

 society is making a special offer of plants 

 and bulbs to members who join before the 

 end of May. as every member obtained now 

 adds just that much more to the Govern- 

 ment grant next vear. They have adopted 

 as their slop-an "Beautify Peterboro," and 

 would a,sk the Societies in other places to 

 watch them grow. 



Guelph 



Mr. Jas. Anderson, the president reports 

 that they have had a very successful season. 

 Thev have over 150 members which is an 

 increase over last year but as Guelph has 

 a population of about fourteen thousand 

 there is room for a still larger increase the 

 present .vear when the membership will 

 probably be more than doubled. 



The society is doing a good work in giv- 

 ing prizes for the best lawns as well as kit- 

 chen gardens including the production of 

 fruit and vegetables. 



It also gives prizes for .school children's 

 lawns and gardens and where they do their 

 own work supply them with seeds, geran- 

 iums and other plants in pots- The society 

 also ffilled window boxes for the windows of 

 the Citv Hall, the Post OfiBce and other 

 public buildings. 



The members of the Horticultural Society 

 are furnished with The Canadian Horti- 

 culturist as well as a valuable list of 

 plant, bulb and seed premiums. 



Thornbury 



Mr. Geo. Wright, the energetic Secretary 

 of the Thornbury Horticultural Society, has 

 in.stittited a new department which might 

 be copied by a number of other societies. 

 For a very small fee he .sees that the collec- 

 tions for the member.ship tickets are made 

 and that the nlants and vines chosen as 

 options are promntly delivered when re- 

 reived. Before this owing to carelessness 

 or lack of time these nlants were frequently 

 allowed to remain on hand for daysi or even 

 weeks so that when the member eventually 

 called for them they were badly dried up 

 and often gave very i>oor satisfaction. By 

 the present svstem, they are planted imr 

 mediately. The members are better satis- 

 fied and are more likely to renew their mem- 

 bership ticke1» the next year. 



