THE 



Canadian Horticulturist. 



Vol. XXII. 



1899 



No. 7 



PEACH GROWING IN ONTARIO. 



NLY thirty or forty years ago 

 it was thought almost foolish 

 to plant the peach in Ontario. 

 A few natural seedlings were 

 growing about Grimsby, but 

 no one seemed to think that 

 an orchard of good varieties 

 would ever live long enough to give pay- 

 ing returns. About the year i860, Mr. 

 A. M. Smith and Mr. C E. Woolverton, 

 then partners in the Grimsby nursery, 

 planted the first peach orchard of any 

 extent in the Niagara district, devoting 

 about five acres of the farm now known 

 as Maplehurst, to such varieties as 

 Early Purple, Early Crawford, Late 

 Crawford, Royal George, Morris White, 

 Old Mixon and Smock. 



Then was the time to make money 

 out of peach growing, it being quite an 

 ordinary thing to sell the fruit at $3 and 

 $4 per bushel. 



No wonder that orchards were planted 

 on all sides at Grimsby, St. Catharines, 

 Niagara and Winona, and the rage for 

 planting did not cease until yellows came 



upon the trees and gluts in the market 

 reduced the prices. 



For some time it was thought that 

 the Niagara district was the only favored 

 one for peach growing until some enter- 

 prising fruit growers at Leamington and 

 Kingsville found that the soil and cli- 

 mate of that region was also adapted for 

 peach growing. Soon the planting fever 

 seized that whole district, and thousands 

 of acres of peaches were planted. In 

 1S89, W. W. Hilborn, resigned his posi 

 tion as horticulturist at Ottawa and at 

 Leamington with the view of engaging 

 in peach culture. About this time Mr. 

 Hilborn was engaged to act as experi- 

 menter in peaches, and over 150 var- 

 ieties were placed in his care for trial. 

 In 1892 Messrs. Morris, Stone and Wel- 

 lington of Welland, Ontario, became 

 interested in Essex as a peach section, 

 and purchased nearly one hundred acres 

 of land and planted the whole to peach 

 trees, placing them under the general 

 oversight of W. W. Hilborn. 



Our frontispiece shows this farm as it 



249 



