PROMINENT CANADIAN HORTICULTURISTS. 



Fir,. 1845. G. C. Caston, Craighurst. 



It has always been the policy ot our 

 Association to search out the foremost fruit 

 g-rower in each ag^ricultural district as direc- 

 tor for that district. By this means we have 

 tried to secure as officers the best representa- 

 tives of our industry. 



No mistake was made when Mr. G. C. 

 Caston was elected for Division No. 13. 

 His excellent common sense ; his long" ex- 

 perience in growing" and handling" fruits, and 

 his reg"ular attendance upon our meeting"s 

 have combined to make him one of our most 

 valued members, whose judg"ment is always 

 sought when important questions arise. 



Mr. Caston was born in the village of 

 Craighurst where he now resides. He 

 beg"an his Public School education at six 

 years of age, and at fourteen was as far 

 advanced as the teachers of those days. 

 Having to make his own way in the world 

 and not being able to get the benefit of a 

 course at the High School, he worked at 

 farming for several years. Having a liking 

 for machinery he worked for several years 

 at the milling business, but, finding his 



health failing, he turned back to the farm. 

 With an inborn love for horticulture he 

 resolved to turn his village lot of five acres 

 into an orchard, and soon planted it with 

 trees. About this time he became a mem- 

 ber of the Ontario Fruit Growers' Associa- 

 tion, and he reg^ards this as one of the most 

 important steps in his life. Always a 

 voracious reader and possessed of a retentive 

 memory, he read all the horticultural litera- 

 ture he could get. The annual reports of 

 the association had, for him, an absorbing 

 interest, and he will always remember with 

 warm feelings of gratitude Prof. Saunders, 

 the late P. C. Dempsey, A. M. Smith and 

 others, who were leading members of the 

 Board at that time, and who contributed so 

 much valuable information to the reports. 



For several years, while his orchard was 

 young, he grew small fruits between the 

 trees. After a time he purchased the 

 adjoining farm, and has now quite a large 

 area planted to apples, pears, plums, cherries 

 and small fruits, and which he is gradually 

 enlarging every year. 



In '94, at the request of the Board, he ac- 

 cepted the management of the Experimental 

 Fruit Station for Simcoe County, his special- 

 being hardy apples and hardy cherries. 



On the retirement of Mr. Chas. Hickling 

 from the Board of the Association Mr. 

 Caston was elected Director for Division 13. 

 This position he has held up to last year 

 when he was elected Vice-President of the 

 Association. 



Mr. Caston has also been Secretary of the 

 local Farmers' Institute since its organiza- 

 tion, and has served as Secretary and 

 Director of local Agricultural Societies, and 

 his services as judge of fruit at the fall fairs 

 is much in demand. He has a strong faith 

 in the future of the fruit growing industry 

 in Ontario as one of the most important 

 industries of the Province. 



