THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



May, 1914 



The Canadian Horticulturist 



(^OMBINKD WITH 



THE CANADIAN HODTICULTURIST 

 AND BEEKEEPEfi 



Wah which hns been incorporated 



The Ciinadliin Bee Journal. 



Published by The Horticultural 



Publlahlnii Company, Limited 



PKTKRBORO, ONTARIO 



H. Bronson Cowan Managing Director 



The Only Magazine* in Their Field in the 

 Dominion 



Ofkicui. Oroanb of thr Ontario and Quebec 



Fruit Growkks' Associations 



AND OF The Ontario ani> New Brunswick 



Bebkekpers' Associations. 



REPRESENTATIVES 



UNITED STATES 

 8'XXX>KWBLL'S SPECIAL AGENCY. 

 Chicago Office— People's Gas Building. 

 New York Office— 286 5th Avenue. 



GKEAT BRITAIN 

 W. A. Mountstephen, 3 Regent St., London, S.W. 



1 The Oanadiaji Horticulturist is published in 

 two editions on the 25th da.v of the month pre- 

 ceding date of iaene. The first edition is known 

 as The Canadian Horticulturist.. It is devoted 

 exclusively to th« horticultural intexeets of 

 Canada. The second edition is known as The 

 Canadian Horticulturist and Beekeeper. In this 

 odition eeveral pages of matter appearing in the 

 first issue are replaced by an equal number of 

 imgies of matter relating to the bee-keeping in- 

 terest* of Canada. 



2. Subscription price of The Canadian Horti- 

 culturist in Canada and Great Britain. 60 oenta 

 a year; two years, .$100, and of The Canadian 

 Horticulturist and Beekeeper, $1.00 a year For 

 United States and local subscriptions in Peter- 

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

 ejTtra year, including' postage. 



3. Remittances should be made by Post Office 

 or Express 'Money Order, or Registered Letter- 



4. The Law is that subscribers to newspapers 

 are held responsible until all arrearagea are 

 paid and their paper ordered to be discontinued. 



5. Change of Address— When a change of ad- 

 dress is ordered, both the old and the new ad- 

 dresses must be given. 



6. Advertising rates, $1.40 an Inch. Copy 

 received up to the. 20th. Address all advertising 

 corresiwndenoe 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 Becember, 1911. The 

 figures given are exclusive of samples and spoiled 

 copies. Uoet months, including the saimile con- 

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

 Horticulturist are mailed to people known to 

 be Interested in the growing of fruits, flowers 

 or vegetables. 



January, 1913 ...11.570 August, 191S 12.675 



February. 1913 ...11.560 September. 1913 ...13.729 



March, 1913 11.209 October, 1913 .....13.778 



April, 1913 11,970 November, 191J ...12,967 



May. 1913 12.368 Becember, 1913 ...15,233 



.Tune. 1913 12 618 



July, 1913 12626 Total 160,293 



Average each Issue In 1907, 6.627 

 1913, 12,524 



Sworn detailed statements will 'be mailed 

 upon application. 



OUR GUARANTEE 



We guarantee that every advertiser in this 

 iseiue is reliable. We are able to do this because 

 the advertising columns of The Canadian Hor- 

 ticulturist ore as carefully edited as the read- 

 ing columns, and because 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 loesi, provided such transaction 

 occurs ■within one month from date of this issue, 

 that it is reported to us within a week of its 

 occurrence, and that we find the facts to be as 

 stated. It la a condition of this contract that in 

 writing to adverlsers you state: "I earn your 

 advertisement In The Canadian Horticulturist." 



Rogues shall not nly their trade at the expense 

 of our subscribers, who are oTir friends, through 

 the medium of these columns; but we shall not 

 attempt to adjust trifling disputes between sub- 

 scribers and honourable business men who ad- 

 vertise, nor pay the debts of honest Ijankrupts 



Oommunicatlona should be addressed 

 THE C.\NAOTAN HORTICULTURIST, 



PETEBBORO, ONT. 



I EDITORIAL I 

 THE IMPROVEMENT TAX 



Our system of taxing improvements is a 

 relic of the past. It should have been abol- 

 ished long ago. It operates continuously 

 to prevent people from improving their 

 homes by the establishment of lawns, the 

 planting of vines, shrubs and flowers, the 

 more general use of paint or the construc- 

 tion of sun rooms or conservatories. Ex- 

 penditures of this class may involve only 

 a few dollars but they improve the ap- 

 pearance of a home so greatly as fo lead 

 rhe inexperienced to believe that a large 

 outlay has been made. The result is that 

 when the assessor next calls one's assess- 

 ment is likely to be marked up several 

 hundreds and possibly a thousand dollars 

 or more above its original figure. The an- 

 nual increase in taxation thus brought 

 about may equal and even exceed the 

 money laid out on the improvements. 



Only those who have studied this ques- 

 tion, or who have had special opportunities 

 for observation, can realize what a check 

 001 enterprise is this tax on improvements. 

 At one time in France there was a tax on 

 window panes. It finally waJs. abolished 

 when it was found that thousands of houses 

 in the poorer districts were being erected 

 without windows. Even the larger houses 

 had so few windows it was seen that the 

 health of their inmates was likely to be 

 seriously affected. At another period, in 

 the city of Brooklyn, a frontage tax was 

 imposed on houses according to the num- 

 ber of stories they had on the street line. 

 Within a few years houses were being 

 erected that were only one or two stories 

 high on the street line but several stories 

 higher at the rear. History shows clearly 

 that there is no law more certain "than that 

 people will resort to all manner of expedi- 

 ents to evade the tax collector. A ridicu- 

 lous and aggravating feature of the law is 

 the fact that where people neglect to paint 

 and otherwise improve their homes, and 

 thereby permit them to deteriorate in ap- 

 pearance their taxes are likely to be re- 

 duced in proportion to their lack of enter- 

 prise or thrift. ■ 



The issue has a more serious side. These 

 are days when the increased cost of living 

 is recognized' as a heavy burden on the 

 wage earner. When a man erects a house 

 and thus helps to reduce the cost of liv- 

 ing by , lowering rents, we fine him by im- 

 creasing his taxes, whereas had he held 

 the land out of use for an increase in land 

 values, he would have escaped such a fine. 

 The fruit grower, who lowers the cost of 

 living by converting unused or only partly 

 used land into an orchard or garden, is pen- 

 alized by a heavy increase in taxes. It is 

 true that the earning powers of the land 

 are also increased but nevertheless the 

 net returns to the grower from his enter- 

 prise are in every instance reduced by the 

 exact amount of the increase in his taxes. 

 The imjustice and folly involved in this 

 method of raising municipal revenue is re- 

 alized by the people of western Canada, 

 who in several provinces are rapidly re- 

 moving all taxes from improvements and 

 raisin.g them by a tax on land values in- 

 stead. 



The officers of the Guelph Horticultural 

 Society have found difficulty in inducing 

 citizens to enter the lawn and .garden 



competitions, because any improvement 

 these citizens might make in the appeai 

 ance of their homes would tend to increasi 

 their assessment. They are asking the of- 

 ficers of other horticultural societies in Oi - 

 tario to unite with them in an appeal t 

 the provincial government to have the la\' 

 so changed that municipalities need nf 

 be required to tax such improvements. Tli 

 appeal deserves to meet with a hearty r< 

 sponse. 



COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLES 



Elsewhere in this issue appears an articli 

 by Mr. A. E. Adams, of Berwick, N.S 

 dealing with the principles that underli 

 all truly successful cooperative enterprise 

 Much of the remarkable success of the Uri 

 ted Fruit Companies Limited of Nova Scotia 

 has been due to the capable work of Mr 

 .Adaips. Mr. .Adams is, therefore, well 

 qualified to deal with this subject. 



Canada is on the eve of a wonderful dr 

 yelopment of cooperative enterprise. Du; 

 ing the past ten years our attention h.i- 

 been devoted mainly to the organization of 

 local associations. During the past fev 

 years the movement has reached a ne 

 stage, which has resulted in the formatio 

 of provincial organizations that, by linkin 

 up the local units, have greatly strengthei 

 cd the whole movement. .Mready we hav 

 in Canada several large organizations th;! 

 compare favorably with the most successful 

 enterprises of the kind in the world. 



The United Fruit Companies Limited of 

 Nova Scotia, the Ontario Cooperative .Appli 

 Growers' Association, the Grain Growers' 

 Grain Company of Winnipeg, and several 

 British Columbia organizations are all strik- 

 ing examples of cooperative enterprise- 

 conducted on a large scale. The Grain 

 Growers' Grain Company, while not purely 

 cooperative, is largely so, and is probably 

 the greatest farmers' organization in the 

 world. It has assets of over one million 

 dollars. The business it transacted lasl 

 year exceeded fifty million dollars in 

 volume. 



To-day there is a widespread demand fo 

 information relating to the true principle- 

 of cooperative enterprises. The article bv 

 Mr. .■Adams makes a number of these clear. 

 In the June issue of The Canadian Horti- 

 culturist we purpose publishing a continu- 

 ation of this article, which will be equalh 

 as instructive, and which will deal mor 

 fully with the cooperative situation as '■- 

 exists in the Maritime Provinces. Oui 

 readers are advised to follow these articli '^ 

 closely. 



TWO WELCOME ANNOUNCEMENTS 



Fruit growers heard with pleasure tli. 

 double announcement made recently by the 

 Hon. Martin Burrell, Dominion Minister of 

 Agriculture, that he has separated the fruit 

 from the dairy division, giving it the status 

 of a separate division, and that he had ap- 

 pointed Mr. D. Johnson, the well-known and 

 successful fruit grower of Forest, Ontari<i 

 as Dominion Fruit Commissioner. Thu- 

 has been brought to a successful conclusion 

 an agitation that has been waged by the 

 fruit growers of Canada during the past 

 nine years. 



The first protest against the amalgam, 

 tion of the fruit with the dairy division <• 

 the Dominion Department of .\gricultui 

 was lodged by The Canadian Horticultuii- 

 in its January issue. 1905. Shortly befot' 

 this it had been announced that Dr. Jas 

 W. Robertson was retiring as Dominion 



