290 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



December, 1913 



The Canadian Horticulturist m^^ 



(• >\|l(l VKO WITH 



THE CAHADIAN HORTICULTURIST 

 AND BEEKEEPER 



With which has been Incorporated 



The Canndian Bee Journal. 



Published by The Horticultural 



Publithing Company, Limited 



PKTERBORO, ONTAKIO 



m 



EDITORIAL 



m 



m 



The Only Magazines in Their Field in the 



Dominion 



Ofkiciai Organs ok the Ontario and Quebec 



FRcrT Growers' Assochtions 



AND OP Toe Ontario Beekeepers' Association 



H. Bronson Cowan Managing Director 



UNITED STATES RERESENTATIVES 



STOCTKWELL'S SPEOIAL AGENOT 

 Chicago Offlee— People's Qae Building. 

 New York Office— 286 5th Avenue. 



1. The Canadian Horticulturist Is published In 

 two editions on the 25th day of the month pre- 

 «e"'"5 <la't« of Issue The first edition la known 

 as The Canadian Horticulturist. It Is devoted 

 exclusively to the horticultural interest* of 

 Canada. The second edition Is know es The 

 Canadian Horticulturist and Beekeeper. In this 

 edition several papee of matter appearing in the 

 first issue are replaced by an equal number of 

 pages of matter relating to the bee-keeping in- 

 terests of Canada. 



2. Subecriptlon price of The Canadian Horti- 

 culturist In Canada and Great Britain, 60 cent« 

 a year; two years, $1.00, and of The Canadian 

 Horticulturist and Beekeeper, $1.00 a year. For 

 TTnlted States and local subscriptions in Peter- 

 boro (not called for at the Poet Office), 25 cents 

 extra a year, including postage. 



3. Remittances should be made by Poet Office 

 or Exiprese Money Order, or Registered Letter. 



4. The Law is that enbecribers to newapaipers 

 are held responsible until all arrearages are 

 paid and their paper ordered to bo discontinued. 



5 Change of Address— WTien a change of ad- 

 dress Is ordered, boti the old and the new ad- 

 dresses must be given. 



6. Advertising rates, $1.40 an inch. Copy re- 

 ceive d up to the 20th. Address all advertising 

 oorreapondenc* and copy to our Advertising 

 Manager, Peterboro. Ont 



CIRCULATION STATEMENT 

 The following is a sworn statement of the net 

 paid circulation of The Canadian Horticulturist 

 for the year ending with December, 1912. The 

 figTires given are exclusive of samples and spoiled 

 copies. Most months, including the sample cop- 

 ies, from 13,000 to 15.000 copies of The Oamadian 

 Hortlcnlturiet are mailed to people known to 

 be interests in the growing of fruit«, flowers 

 or vegetables. 



January, 1912 9.988 August, 1912 u iia 



February, 1912.... 10,457 September. 1912 "lo'sw 



March. 1912 10,877 October. 1912 "iooti 



Apnl, 1912 11,788 November, 1912.."<U62 



5^y. 1912 12.112 December, 1913 11144 



■Tune. 1912 10.946 "-^^ 



July. 1912 10,986 132,556 



Average each Issue In 1907, 6,627 



" ' 1908, 8,695 



" " 1909, 8,970 

 " " *' ' 1910, 9,067 



« 1911, 9,541 



'• " 1912, 11,037 



November, 1913 13,778 



Sworn detailed statemente will be mailed 

 upon application. 



OUR GUARANTEE 



We guarantee that every advertiser in this Iss'Ue 

 is reliable. We are able to do this because the 

 advertising columns of The Canadian Horticul- 

 turist are as carefully edited as the reading 

 columns, and becatise to protect our readers we 

 turn away all unscrupulous advertisers. Should 

 any advertiser herein deal dishonestly with any 

 subscriber, we will make good the amount of 

 his loes, lurovlded suoh transaction occurs with- 

 in one month from date of this issue, that it is 

 reported to us within a week of its occurrence, 

 and that we find the facte to be as stated. It 

 ie a condition of this contract that in writing to 

 advertisers you state: "I saw your advertise- 

 ment in The Canadian Horticulturist." 



Rogues shall not ply their trade at the expense 

 of our subecribers. who are our friends, tirough 

 the medium of these columns : but we shall not 

 attempt to adjust trifling disputes between sub- 

 soribors and honourable business men who ad- 

 vertise, nor pay the debte of honest bankrupts. 



Oommtinications should be addressed 

 THE CANADIAN HORTIOULTTJRIST, 



PETERBORO, ONT. 



TRACING THE MONEY 



The editor of the Grimsby Imdependent 

 has been occupied recently endeavoring to 

 trace the final resting-placp of the bulk of 

 the money that drops out of sight some- 

 where between the point whieire the fruit 

 grower is paid for his product and where 

 the city consumer pays out his money for 

 the same article. The following is a re- 

 port of his investigations aud his conclu- 

 sions based thereon : 



"I have traced a basket of peaches from 

 Grimsby to Queen Street West, Toronto, 

 and made the following discoveries- 

 First, the fruit grower got forty cents 

 for his basket of fruit, the railway com- 

 pany got five cents, the commission 

 house got four cents, landing the basket 

 of fruit in the hands of the retailer in 

 Toronto for forty-nine 01 fifty cents. The 

 consumer paid at a retail store on Queen 

 Street West, Toronto, ninety cents. Now 

 this is not the history of only one bas- 

 ket of fruit, but it is th'e history of thou- 

 sands and tens of thousands and it is 

 a very conservative history, because there 

 are many choioe baskets, for which the 

 grower does not get anything more than 

 the usual price in his home town, and the 

 retailer puts them up as extra choice, 

 and charges a dollar, a dollar and ten 

 cents for them, and even a dollar and 

 twenty-five cents. Now, what does this 

 prove ? This proves that the grower got 

 forty cents for his basket of peaches, the 

 railway company got five cents, the com- 

 mission house got four cents, and the 

 retail dealer got forty cents. What does 

 that mean? It means that the retail 

 dealers of the Dominion of Canada are 

 getting the profits of the fruit business, 

 instead of the growers. The railway is 

 paid a fixed amount, the commission 

 house giets a fixed amount, but the re- 

 tailer fixes his own price and fixes it so 

 high that he makes a hundred per cent, 

 profit, and sometimes a hundred and 

 fifty per cent, profit, and he injures the 

 fruit business into the bargain." 

 May we be allowed to enter a dissemt 

 with the conclusion reached .'' Our contem- 

 porary has not pursued the investigation 

 far enough. If the retailer is able to re- 

 tain for his own benefit the /enormous re- 

 turns stated, then beyond doubt he is the 

 guilty party. But is he? Let us take a 

 retail storekeeper in Toronto, for example. 



A retailer in a store on Queen Street West, 

 Toronto, is doing business on land worth 

 anywhere from thirty to two hundred thou- 

 sand dollars a lot. Figure out what rental 

 such a man must pay. Estimate how many 

 thousands of baskets of fruit he must 

 handle to pay his month's rent before he 

 will have amy profit left for himself. Con- 

 sider, also, that the help he employs lives 

 on high-priced land and has to pay high 

 rentals — and therefore expects high wages. 

 Consider also, that this man does business 

 all the year round, including slack sea- 

 sons when the amount of business handled 

 is small. After doing all this, and after 

 allowing for losses due to fruit going bad 

 on his hands, bad accounts and a hundred 

 and one other incidentals, figure out if the 

 retailer is making anything like such a 

 fortune as might at first appear. The fact 

 is, he is not. The man who is reaping the 

 largest harvest is the man who owns this 



high-priced land, who has done nothing 

 to create its value, but who gathers in its 

 big rentals just the same. 



It may be claimed that these conditions 

 dp not apply in smaller cities, such as Ber- 

 lin, where land is not so high in value, but 

 where retaileis niaintain prices just th'e 

 same. The reply is that land in Berlin, 

 considering the restricted opportunities for 

 doing business there, is just as high in 

 value in proportion as is land in Toronto. 

 In Berlin, as in Toronto, the store must be 

 operated all the year round, help must be 

 employed constantly, and the possibilities 

 of a large turnover are much more limited. 



Some years ago the milk producers in 

 the vicinity of Toronto concluded that the 

 milk dealers were making excessive profits. 

 They poimted out that the milk dealers were 

 obtaining largier returns for handling the 

 milk for only a few hours in connection 

 with its delivery than the producers ob- 

 tained. Several hundrel of them formed a 

 company and started in the milk business 

 in Toronto. They soorn found that the milk 

 dealers did not have any such profits as 

 had appeared. 



The expense of doing business in Toronto 

 is so great and the competition from others 

 in the same business is so keen the average 

 retailer has a hard time to continue in busi- 

 ness. As soon as we realize this fact and 

 begin to pay a little more attention to the 

 landowners, whose land in some instances 

 in a city like Toronto, is worth over a mil- 

 lion dollars an acre, we will be hot on the 

 'scent of one of the chief factors in the 

 high cost of livimg. 



A WORTHY WORK 



At the recent annual convention of .the 

 Ontario Horticultural Association, it was 

 decided to appeal to the Government for an 

 increase in the grants now given to the 

 sixty or more local horticultural societies in 

 the province. This was a wise move. The 

 Ontario Departmemt of -Agriculture is now 

 in receipt of a special grant from the Do- 

 minion Government of several hundred 

 thousand dollars a year, which money has 

 to be used for the promotion of agriculture 

 including horticulture. 



The Horticultural Societies' Act provides 

 that the annual Government grant shall be 

 distributed among the local societies in 

 proportion to their membership and their 

 expenditures for horticultural purposes. 

 Every increase in the membership or ex- 

 penditures of the stronger societies de- 

 creases proportionately the grants received 

 by the weaker societies. Every new so- 

 ciety that is organized also reduces the 

 grant to all the other societies. During 

 the past few years the membership of the 

 societies has doubled, and their expendi- 

 tures for horticultural purposes have in- 

 creased in the same proportion. Last year, 

 six societies ceased to exist, largely be- 

 cause of the difficulties they had to face 

 in financing their work properly. The 

 time has come when the grants to these 

 societies should be materially increased. 

 The work they are doing is so beneficial in 

 character as to warrant their receiving a 

 considerable share of the money being dis- 

 tributed each year to the province through 

 the Federal Grant to Agriculture. 



Eight years ago, following an editorial 

 published in The Canadian Horticulturist 

 suggesting that action should be taken, 

 a few market gardeners living in the vicin- 

 ity of Toronto met with the editor of The 

 Canadian Horticulturist in the St. Law- 

 rence Market and discussed the advisa- 



