The Canadian Horticultun^ 



Vol. XXXVII 



SEPTEMBER, 1914 



No. 9 



The Exhibition of Fruits 



Prof. T. G. Bunting, Macdonzild College, Que., President Quebec Province 



THE successful exhibition of fruit is 

 a study that largely comes through 

 practice and experience. It requires 

 a knowledge of what perfection is in the 

 different varieties, as well as how to 

 exhibit fruit in its most attractive form. 



A comparatively small percentage of 

 fruit growers will make any pretence at 

 exhibiting their produce. There are 

 plenty of reasons they may give for not 

 doing so. One frequently heard is that 

 their fruit is not good enough. 



There is nothing that will so surely 

 encourage a man to grow good fruit as 

 exhibiting and competing for honors at 

 the various exhibitions. It is largely 

 through our exhibitions that our most 

 prominent judges and pomologists get 

 their experience, as here they can see 

 large numbers of fruits of the various 

 varieties, grown under different condi- 

 tions, competing side by side. No one 

 man can be expected to grow all varie- 

 ties, and have them at their very best. 

 Thus his experience will be more or less 

 limited until he comes in contact with 

 the larger exhibitions. 



Another reason that is sometimes giv- 

 en by the average man for not exhibiting 

 is, — he would have no chance against 

 the larger exhibitors some of whom have 

 been exhibiting for years on a large 



scale. Naturally they have profited by 

 their past experience and know just how 

 to get the most out of their fruits, not 

 only in exhibiting but also in growing 

 it. But this does not in any way pre- 

 clude the small grower from securing a 

 fair share of the awards. 



JUDGING 



Judging is a difficult position for any 

 man, even of wide experience, especially 

 at the larger exhibitions, and it is true 

 judges do not always agree in their de- 

 cisions. When we consider that judging 

 consists of balancing up the good and 

 bad points of the different exhibits and 

 then placing them in their relative posi- 

 tions, we can see how difficult it would 

 be to obtain at all times the same placing 

 by various judges. Frequently they are 

 called upon to judge fruits which are be- 

 low the average and which contain many 

 defects. Then it may be a case of 

 choosing the plate with the least or less 

 serious defects, and in such decisions 

 there may be room for dispute. 



Our exhibitions have been one means 

 of training our fruit growers and pro- 

 fessional horticulturists in pomology and 

 giving them the practice and experience 

 necessary to qualify as judges. Any pro- 

 fessional or amateur fruit grower may 

 feel sure that he will be given a fair 



Fruit Growers' Association 



chance at our exhibitions even when com- 

 peting with the largest exhibitors. 



To win a prize should be an honor 

 more highly prized than it sometimes is. 

 .At some of the fruit exhibitions as many 

 as fifty to a hundred exhibitors may be 

 competing in the same class for some 

 of our better known fruits, and competi- 

 tion must of course be keen. Those who 

 are unsuccessful — if having the right 

 spirit — will make even greater effort the 

 next year to produce the prize winning 

 fruit. 



SELECTING THE FRUIT 



The selection of fruits for exhibition 

 purposes will bring out all the finer 

 points of the different fruits, and one 

 cannot really know the number they may 

 possess until he comes in contact with 

 individual fruits in making these selec- 

 tions. A tree of Crawford peaches will 

 have no two alike and when one comes 

 to select five specimens for a plate, he 

 should have some ideal in mind and each 

 should conform as nearly as possible to 

 that ideal. This tends to produce uni- 

 formity which should be one of the first 

 things required, even if the plate does 

 not possess some other quality in as 

 high a state as one would like. An un- 

 usually large or very highly colored 

 specimen on a plate with others, will 



A Britiih Columbia Packing School in Operation. These School* are conilucted in Leading Fruit Districts and have been Productive of much gocd. 



