TTie Canadian Horticulturi^ 



Vol. XXXVII 



NOVEMBER, 1914 



No. II 



Choosing Varieties of Apples for British Columbia'' 



R. M. Winslow, 



THE commercial apple industry of 

 British Columbia is a development 

 of the last decade. The census of 

 1890 showed about six thousand acres 

 of fruit in the province, and the census 

 of 1900 showed an increase to only eight 

 thousand acres. At the time of the 1910 

 census, however, the acreage had in- 

 creased to thirty-three thousand six hun- 

 dred and six, and the Provincial Govern- 

 ment's Agricultural Survey of 1913 

 showed this further increased to thirty- 

 eight thousand one hundred and ninety- 

 six acres. The development was, there- 

 fore, a rapid one, following a period of 

 inertia. The new development is largely 

 in the interior. In 1900, interior dis- 

 tricts had only about one thousand acres 

 and now have thirty thousand acres ; 

 while in the coast sections, in the same 

 period, the acreage has increased only 

 about one thousand acres. In fact, the 

 seat of the industry was almost entirely 

 changed, for our interior districts are 

 very different from the coast sections. 



The great demand for information on 

 varieties of apples to plant came largely, 

 therefore, from these new interior areas, 

 which were almost entirely lacking in 

 old apple orchards ; even further, the 

 interior sections, looking to the Cana- 

 dian prairies for their markets were 



•Extracts from an address delivered before the 

 Paciflo Coast Nurserymen's Association, at the 

 twelfth annual meetine held at Vancouver. 

 B.C.. June 16th to 18th. 1914. 



Victoria, B. C, Provincial Horticulturist.,for British Columbia^ 



without information as to what those 

 markets desired. The situation has, 



therefore, thrown a great responsibility 

 on the Provincial Government's Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, which had been ac- 

 tive in promoting the fruit industry and 

 was then called on for technical informa- 

 tion on varieties and on cultural 

 methods. 



Much of the planting had already been 

 done when I came to the province as 

 provincial horticulturist in the spring of 

 1909, but there was still a large demand 

 for information and the demand con- 

 tinued strong until two years ago. With 

 so little local information to draw upon, 

 it was necessary to secure the most re- 

 liable information from other districts of 

 similar character ; we were fortunate in 

 having weather records for considerable 

 periods for typical points in many of our 

 new districts, and with these in hand, 

 we set out to compare climatic condi- 

 tions with already successful fruit dis- 

 tricts. 



Comparisons of climate, as to precipi- 

 tation, are simple, but as to tempera- 

 tures the matter is hedged with difli- 

 culties. In this respect we found the 

 method of utilizing temperature records 

 worked out by the U.S. Biological Sur- 

 vey of the greatest value. Their investi- 

 gations show the marked relation be- 

 tween the character of the growth per- 

 iod and the vegetation. Knowing that 



all the principal commercial varieties of 

 apples had distinct climatic preferences, 

 the problem was to determine what they 

 were. 



The most important temperature con- 

 ditions influencing the success of any 

 variety of apples are as follow : First, 

 the length of the growing season : While 

 this is usually guaged from the length of 

 season between killing frosts, the more 

 exact way is to determine the period 

 during which the mean temperature is 

 over forty-three degrees F. This period 

 for Hood River, for instance, averages 

 two hundred and forty days, from March 

 17th to November 12th; and for Van- 

 couver, B.C., it is two hundred and 

 thirty days from March 25th to Novem- 

 ber 12th. The growing season in the 

 various agricultural districts of British 

 Columbia, is usually between one hun- 

 dred and seventy-five and two hundred 

 and forty days. 



The second consideration is the num- 

 ber of heat units. The amount of warmth 

 as well as the growing season is im- 

 portant. The sum total of heat during 

 the season is expressed in heat units, 

 and a heat unit is taken to be one degree 

 V. for one day for each day of the grow- 

 ing season. In this way, the total heat 

 units for the growing season are deter- 

 mined. Hood River has an average of 

 15,315 heat units; Vancouver, B.C., has 

 12,667. i he total heat units vary wide- 



I 



During th« Past Two Years the Fruit Growers of Nova Scotia Have Built Up a Splendid Reputation For Their Fruit, on Both the Home 

 and Foreign Markets, Through the Work of their Big Fruit Company. The Illustration Shows Some of Their Fruit Ready for Market. 



