May, 1914 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



^33 



Commissioner of Agriculture, and that the 

 fruit was to be united with the dairy divi- 

 sion under the Dominion Dairy Commis- 

 sioner. The protest registered by The Can- 

 adian Horticulturist was taken up by the 

 various p«3vincial fruit .orrowers' associa- 

 tions, and later the subject was discussed at 

 the first Dominion Fruit Conference. It 

 was felt that the fruit interests of Canada 

 would never receive the attention that their 

 importance deserved until the fruit division 

 was given the same standing- in the Depart- 

 ment of .Agriculture as the seed, live stock 

 ,-ird dair\- divisions. The former Govern- 

 ment having refused to act in the matter 

 the question was again urged at the last 

 Dominion conference. .\ partial promise of 

 ;i(tion was then secured. 



The announcement that Hon. Mr. Burrell 

 has now given the fruit division the stand- 

 insr that the fruit growers have so long 

 desired, is the most importamt, relating to 

 th? fruit interests, that has been made for 

 some time. It should mean an increased 

 expenditure on behalf of the fruit industry 

 pnd an extension of the activities of the 

 department. 



In selecting Mr. Daniel Johnson to have 

 charge of the fruit division the Minister of 

 Agriculture has made a wise choice. Mr. 

 Johnson has both the practical knowledge 

 of fruit growing and the executive ability 

 that is required to ensure the wise man- 

 agement of the department. Mr. Johnson 

 has been successful as a fruit grower, as 

 president of his local fruit growers' associa- 

 tion, of the Ontario Cooperative Apple 

 Growers' .Association, of the Ontario Fruit 

 Growers' Association, and as a leading 

 member of the Dominion Fruit Conference. 

 There is every reason to expect, therefore, 

 that he will be equally successful as Do- 

 minion Fruit Commissioner. Mr. Johnson 

 will have great opportunities to benefit the 



Ifcuit industry of Canada, and is assured of 

 Be hearty sympathy and support of fruit 

 p-owers in all our provinces. 

 I The United States Post Office Department 

 ft conducting an exp-eriment with the par- 

 cels post system that will be followed with 

 interest on this side of the line. Ten cities 

 have been selected for the experiment. Far- 

 mers living on rural routes leading out 

 from thes« cities have been invited to notify 

 the postmaster as to produce they have to 

 sell and the price for the same. .A printed 

 list is then prepared and left with every 

 housewife in the city hy the mail carrier. 

 The housewife may then call up the farmer 

 by telephone or drop him a card and have 

 the supplies transferred from the farm to 

 her door by the parcels post. There are 

 manifest disadvantages connected with such 

 a system, but the experiment will be fol- 

 lowed with interest. Serious difficulties 

 will have to be overcome before the system 

 can be made a success, but they should not 

 prove insurmountable. If it proves a suc- 

 cess across the border we may expect to 

 see the same experiment tried out in this 

 country. 



The discovery on an appl<^ shipped to 

 England of a deposit of copper sulphate in 

 a quantity sufficient to prove dangerous to 

 anv person eating the apple has caused 

 some consternation across the water. Were 

 there anv likelihood that careless spraying 

 might result in any considerable quantity 

 of apples being affected in this way thero 

 might be cause for apprehension, but there 

 is not one chanoe in thousands of such an 

 incident being reported again. It is sur- 

 prising that this case has been heard of. 



PUBLISHER'S DESK 



The annual meeting of The Horticultural 

 Publishing Company, Limited, publishers of 

 The Canadian Horticulturist, The Cana- 

 dian Florist and The Beekeeper, was held 

 in Toronto, on March 26th. The reports 

 presented showed that the Company had had 

 the most satisfactory year in its experi- 

 ence. A substantial sum was voted to the 

 reserve account. Improvements in the pub- 

 lications published by the Company were 

 authorized. 



The old officers were all re-elected. They 

 are: President, W. H. Bunting, St. Cath- 

 arines, Past President Ontario Fruit Grow- 

 ers' Association ; Vice-President, John H. 

 Dunlop, Toronto, Past President of The 

 Canadian Horticultural Association : Man- 

 aging Director and Secretary-Treasurer, 

 H. B. Cowan, Peterboro, President of The 

 Canadian Horticultural .Association, and 

 Ex-Superintendent of Horticultural Socie- 

 ties for Ontario ; Directors : A. W. Peart, 

 Burlington, Past President Ontario Fruit 

 Growers' Association ; Harold Jon«s, Pres- 

 cott, Director Ontario Fruit Growers' As- 

 sociation ; Hermann Simmers, Toronto, Ex- 

 Treasurer of The Canadian Horticultural 

 Association, and P. W. Hodgetts, Toronto, 

 Director of Horticulture for Ontario. 



SOCIETY NOTES 



ceives a premium on his laziness and ne- 

 .glect in the shape of a lower assessment 

 than that of his industrious neighbor. 



".As the Ho'rticultural Society has for 

 years been endeavoring to aid in the beau- 

 tifying of the city, and has been greatly 

 handicapped by this particular point, it 

 was suggested that a slightly lower as- 

 sessment might be allowed to those who 

 beautify their places and thus aid in the 

 beautifying of the city, rather than to those 

 who neglect their lawns and gardens and 

 allow them to become a positive eyesore to 

 the community at large. 



"Your petitioners respectfully request 

 that this resolution be not laid aside, but 

 dealt with at once, and a recommendation 

 be made to the new council that a commit- 

 tee be appointed from your honorable body 

 to act with a committee from the Horticul- 

 tural Society, to take steps to recommend a 

 change, if necessary, in the Assessment 

 Act, whereby this may be accomplished, 

 and the assessor's hands be thereby 

 strengthened in this matter. 



THE TAX ON IMPROVEMENTS 



At a recent meeting of the directors of 

 the Guelph Horticultural Society, the sec- 

 retary was instructed to forward the follow- 

 ing resolution to The Canadian Horticul- 

 turist for publication, with the suggestion 

 that the matter of the increase of taxation 

 on account of landscape improvements, be 

 taken up with all other horticultural socie- 

 ties, and be brought before the next an- 

 nual convention. 



"To the Mayor and Aldermen of the City 

 of Guelph, greeting: .At a meeting of the 

 officers and directors of the Guelph Horti- 

 cultural Society, held in the City Hall on 

 Thursday. December 4th, 1913, after con- 

 siderable discussion a resolution was pass- 

 ed unanimously, and a committee was ap- 

 pointed to draft a resolution to be placed 

 before the City Council to the following ef- 

 fect ; 'Heretofore the society has experienced 

 difficulty in persuading citizens to enter 

 the lawn and gard-en competitions, fre- 

 quently for the reason, that any improve- 

 ment they might make in the appearance 

 ■of their lawns and homes, from a landscape 

 point of view, tended to increase their as- 

 sessment. Instances were quoted, in the 

 case of double tenement houses, where one 

 owner or tenant spends, his pare time in 

 adding to the beauty of his surroundings, 

 and in that way to the beauty and improve- 

 ment of the city. When the assessor sees 

 the improvement he feels justified in add- 

 ing considerably to the assessable value of 

 that particular property, whereas the occu 

 pant of the other tenement, who has al- 

 lowed weeds to grow on his lawn, and hi> 

 place to become generally disreputabl;-, 

 and an eye-sore, and in many icases a 

 nuisance to the neighborhood, actually re- 



Ncw Fruit Commissioner 



Mr. D. Johnson, of Forest, Ont., whose 

 appointment a? Dominion Fruit Commis- 

 sioner, a new position, has been announc- 

 ed recently, was bom on a fruit farm at 

 Forest, Ont., thirty-six years ago. He took 

 charge of the orchards when only sixteen 

 years of age, and for ten years served as 

 foreman at the spraying, cultivation, pick- 

 ing and packing of the fruit. Ten years ago 

 he became interested in the cooperative 

 movement and took a leading part in the 

 organization of the Forest Fruit Growers' 

 and Forwarding Association, one of the 

 first and largest associations established in 

 Ontario, and was for six years its presi- 

 dent and manager. 



Four years ago Mr. Johnson withdrew 

 from the Forest Association to devote all 

 his time to Johnson Bros., fruit growers, 

 shippers and exporters, of which he was 

 a half owner. This firm desired to cut out 

 the wholesaler and sent its own salesman 

 to the West, who sold in car lots during 

 the fall months. Th" firm'is output last 

 season from its own farm was six thousand 

 seven hundred boxes of apples, wrapped 

 and tiered, thirteen thousand eleven-quart 

 baisfcets of peaches, eleven thousand bas- 

 kets of plums, and ninety-five thousand 

 seven hundred pounds of dried fruit. In 

 ]!)]2 their output was over four thousand 

 barrels of apples* 



In Mr. Johnson's orchards spraying is 

 done with power sprayers. They make 

 their own lime-sulphur, barrels and boxes. 

 Their peaches and plums are sold largely 

 by their own mail order system. All their 

 apples are now packed in boxes. The lower 

 grades of apples are worked into evaporat- 

 ed apple rings by their own plant in the 

 orchard, and shipped in car loads to Eur- 

 ope and the West. The peelings and cores 

 arc dried and shipped to Germany. Ar- 

 rangements are being made to convert the 

 lower grades of tender fruit into jam. 



Mr. I Johnson was for some years on the 

 executive board of the Ontario Fruit Grow 

 ers' Association, and was for two years 

 president. He was also president of the 

 Cooperative Fruit Growers of On.ario /or 

 two years, and is now president of the 

 Lambton Fruit and Vegetable Growers' As- 

 sociation, an organization composed of fif- 

 teen active cooperative fruit and vegetable 

 associations in Lambton. Mr. Johnson 

 was a delegate at the last Dominion Fruit 

 Conference. 



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