66 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



FATHER BURKE'S IMPRESSIONS OF US. 



MN the Agricultural press of the Maritime 

 sH Provinces, where he is always a wel- 

 ^ come visitor, our friend, the Reverend 

 Father Burke, of Prince Edward Island, has 

 been giving- his impressions of our late 

 g-eneral meeting-, our people and our pro- 

 vince. Needless to say those clever articles 

 leave a very favorable impression of us in 

 the public mind. We have taken the liberty 

 of transcribing' portions of an article which 

 is to be followed by others from his pen in 

 the Maritime Homestead. 



'* If you require my impressions of the 

 Cobourg Fruit Grower's Convention, 1 can 

 only tell you that never meetings more in- 

 tellig-ent, advanced and enthusiastic, dis- 

 cussing- purely horticultural matters, did I 

 attend anywhere." 



******* 



Here Father Burke praises Ontario for its 

 encouragement to agriculture, citing its 

 public grants and what they effect. 



A Pleasure to Meet Them. 



"A people or class of people, so gener- 

 ally favored, ought to have pretty complete 

 institutions and good men as a result of 

 their operation. Ontario farmers, or the 

 representatives of them I met at Cobourg, 

 are certainly a wide-awake, well-informed, 

 progressive class. It is a pleasure to come 

 in contact with such people, a greater 

 pleasure and satisfaction than to meet good 

 men of any other calling, for, after all, the 

 country must depend on the farmer and its 

 hope is in bis proper education. I was de- 

 lighted to remark with what a grasp of 

 principle, what confidence, what readiness 

 of expression, what conciseness and ac- 

 curacy of speech, the speakers as a rule, 

 brought to the discussion of the varied sub- 



jects which the scheme of convention matter 

 suggested during those three days of three 

 sessions each, in which the Association sat." 



* * * * * * 



The programme and discussions are here 

 cited : 



5,000 Members. 



"The Fruit Growers' Association of 

 Ontario has a grand membership — some- 

 thing like 5,000, I believe ; and that same is 

 an assurance of how highly it is regarded in, 

 the country and its authoritative place in 

 the scheme of agricultural information. 

 From one end of the great province to the 

 other, from the United States, from Quebec, 

 from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, 

 came lovers of horticulture, to sit at the feet 

 of those men of Ontario who had made fruit- 

 growing one of the most promising industries 

 of the country and its chief hope. 



Canadians Equal to the Best 



was a kind of personal satisfaction in the 

 comparisons to be made. Good men, the 

 best the Great Republic could furnish ; men 

 of deep learning and wide experience, were 

 present to lend the light of their counsel on 

 all matters which engage the mind of the 

 horticulturist ; they were fresh, too, from 

 the object lessons which the Pan-American 

 Exposition so well taught ; and still, ex- 

 cellent as they were, expert men as they 

 were, practical men as they were, progressive 

 men as they were, the young men of Ontario 

 formerly engaged in the scientific work of 

 the colleges, and, may I add too, many of 

 the common growers from the farms, were 

 really their equals in all the wide range of 

 horticultural knowledge. I was proud of the 

 Ontario horticulturist, proud of the institu- 



