24 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



January, 1913 



Basic 

 Slag 



(Sometimes known as 

 Thomas Phosphate Powder) 



The 



Great 



Fertilizer 



ior all crops 



Now being produced in 

 Canada by 



The Cross 

 Fertilizer Co., Ltd. 



Sydney, Nova Scotia 



The fruit growers of 

 the Annapolis Valley 

 are using thousands 

 of tons every year 

 with the best results. 

 What is good for the 

 Annapolis Valley will 

 be good for Ontario. 



Purchasing Dealers Wanted 

 Everywhere 



Descriptive pamphlets, ^.prices 

 and all information from our 

 Travelling S alesman for 

 Ontario, 



Alexander E. Wark 



WANSTEAD, ONT. 



Jordan Harbor Station Needs Improvement 



Editor, The Canadian Horticulturist,— 

 Allow me to commend the editorial which 

 appears in your October issue relative to 

 the Jordan Harbor (Ont.) Fruit Kxperi- 

 ment Station. Both as a Canadian cngag- 

 cd in professional horticultural work in the 

 United States and as a property holder in 

 the Niagara district, I have watched, at 

 first with hopeful interest, but latterly with 

 keen disappointment, the failure of this 

 institution to produce results of value to 

 the fruit growers of the province or of 

 scientific interest to those engaged in agn- 

 cultural research and education. Your com- 

 ment on the situation, therefore, meets my 

 hearty approval, and I sincerely trust will 

 bring about a movemcmt for the proper 

 support of the Station. As it has been my 

 privilege to observe the work and organiza- 

 tion of this institution from its inception, 

 and to visit it from time to time ever since 

 Mr. Rittenhousp made his first donation 

 and proposals in regard to its establish- 

 ment to the Department of Agriculture, it 

 is possible that you or your readers might 

 be interested in some of my observations 

 in connection with its founding and work. 

 The Jordan Harbor Fruit Experiment 

 Station was founded ostensibly for plant 

 breeding, the chief object being to test and 

 develop new varieties and to improve old 

 varieties of fruits and vegetables for the 

 Niagara district and the province of On- 

 tario. Incidentally it was planned to col- 

 lect data of scientific interest bearing on 

 the problems of heredity as applied to plant 

 life. I do not believe that the efforts of 

 the Station should ever have been planned 

 wholly with a view to limiting it to plant 

 breeding experiments. Probably it was not 

 really intended to exclude culture experi- 

 ments of various sorts although the horti- 

 culturaJ public was give.n the impression 

 that its one chief object was plant improve- 

 ment work. 



Under such circumstances it was to be 

 expected that the Department of Agricul- 

 ture would make every effort to secure a 

 well equipped and experienced specialist 

 both in horticulture and in plant breeding 

 to superintend the institution. In a long 

 conversation some years ago with Professor 

 C. C. James, who was then Deputy Minis- 

 ter of Agriculture, I was told that the De- , 

 partment was not limited in the salary it 

 would pay the right man and that it pro- 

 posed to get the best man in America. 

 Professor James said that the Department 

 was going after a man of the calibre of 

 John Craig, late professor of horticulture 

 in Cornell University, or Dr. Webber, then 

 head of the division of plant breeding in 

 the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, to head the Jordan Harbor work; he 

 added furtHer that he hoped to obtain the 

 services of a man superior in scientific 

 training and at least the equal in possi- 

 bilities of practical accomplishment to 

 Luther Burbank ! (The writer, who had 

 had some training and experience in both 

 horticulture and plant breeding, had had 

 the temerity to apply for the position him- 

 self, but in view of the distinguished men 

 under consideration he insisted at the close 

 of the interview on the immediate with- 

 drawal of his name from the list of ap- 

 plicants ! ) Such an attitude on the part 

 of the Department of Agriculture was most 

 commendable, and, at least at first, an 



•Prof. Pickett held the position of ProfeeBor of 

 Horticulture. New Hampshire College, from 1908 

 to 1912. Formerly he wa« Secretary of the On- 

 tario Agricultural College, and recently he wa« 

 offered the position of Professor of Horticulture 

 in Ua/cdonald CoUece.— Editor. 



effort was made to secure such a man. 

 Proefssor Craig himself, consulting with 

 the writer in regard to the Station at Jor- 

 dan Harbor, said that he had been ap- 

 proached and. when he could not undertake 

 the work himself, was asked for aid and 

 advice in the selection of a director. 



A CHANGE IN PLANS 



In view of the high purpose and ideals 

 which first actuated the Department of 

 Agriculture in its search for a competent 

 superintendent, it was a matter of great 

 surprise that the first appointee, the late 

 lamented H. S. Peart, capable horticul- 

 turist perhaps, but absolutely untrained 

 and inexperienced as a plant breeder, 

 should have been its selection. The choice 

 was more fortunate than the Department 

 had a right to expect, for Mr. Peart was 

 remarkably successful in caring for the 

 preliminary work in the development of 

 the Station, in laying out the grounds, 

 superintending the planting and collecting 

 material for future work. To those of us 

 who knew Mr. Peart personally, and there 

 were many, it was a pleasure to note the 

 energy with which he set to work to make 

 the farm a credit to the horticultural in- 

 dustry, ajnd the manner in which he gain- 

 ed the confidence of the fruit growers in 

 his district. Indeed, in spite of his own : 

 lack of knowledge of the principles and . 

 methods of plant breeding, he might, with 

 proper support and expert assistants, have 

 produced the desired results, for he clearly 

 proved his ability as a capable director ii 

 ' other directions from the very start. With- 

 out such training himself, without large 

 financial support, and without experienced 

 plant breeders as assistants, the plant 

 breeding work could not be other than a 

 disappointing failure even had Mr. Peart's 

 untimely death not cut shon his work al-. 

 most at its beginning. | 



Your tribute to Mr. Hodgetts is well de-,1 

 served. He has done splendid work for the 

 Ontario fruit growers, but the work of the 

 Jordan Harbor Station is of such import- 

 ance as to make it impossible for a non- 

 resident director to handle it. Such an 

 arrangement as is now in vogue precludes 

 even the renotest possibility of the Sta- 

 tion accomp.ishing its purpose. 



If any serious plant breeding is to be 

 attempted, or any first-class experimental 

 studies of the effects of fertilizers, different 

 methods of cultivation, value of cover 

 crops, systems of pruning, and so forth, 

 are to be attempted, the Department of 

 Agriculture must be prepared to spend 

 money on a scale commensurate with the 

 horticultural interests of the province, 

 bearing in mind the long time necessary 

 for certain lines of work, and the many 

 difficulties confronting the experimentalist 

 particularly in the case of orchard fruits. 

 It must appoint a horticulturist as its di- 

 rector who has received specialized scien- 

 tific and practical training in both plan' 

 breeding and horticulture; it niust give th.j 

 director lar-re powers of discretion in choosi 

 ing trained assistants and in planning thf 

 course of various experiments. The dil 

 rector should be advised by a proper boar<l 

 as to the nature of the information fol 

 which he is to ^eek in his experiments, thul 

 learning the needs of the fruit growers cj 

 the province. He should be responsible tl 

 some one head, preferably the Minister <l 

 Agriculture or the President of the Agrj 

 cultural College. Yours very truly, 



B. S. PICKETT,* 



Professor of Pomolog 



University of Illinois 



