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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



Our Work. 



The Ontario Fruit Growers' Association have 

 still an enormous amount of work on hand, in 

 order to assist in developing this fair province of 

 Ontario. Their work may be the means of adver- 

 tising the Dominion as a whole. 



We see vast strides made in the Southern States, 

 by which they are becoming famous. How did 

 this come about ? The great motive power is the 

 Southern Industrial Association, which is bound 

 together to advertise in every possible way the 

 great resources of the Southern States. The Fruit 

 Growars' Association can do the same with the 

 portion of Ontario devoted to fruit. This portion 

 is at present very small compared with what it 

 will be in the near future. Our statesmen, our 

 politicians, our manufacturers and mercantile men 

 are doing their best in this respect and the Can- 

 adian Horticulturist is doing a great deal, but our 

 Fruit Growers' Association have still a large work 

 on hand. At the last annual meeting a flood of 

 useful knowledge was set forth, mostly beneficial 

 to individuals, but not so much to the industry as 



a whole. . . , ,j ,_ 



The work of the Association should be contm- 

 nous throughout the year. We elect officers and 

 directors to look after our interests and, if they 

 have the power, they undoubtedly should have also 

 the means to further the fruit interests of which 

 we Canadians are justly proud. One branch of 

 work which they should look after, is the correct- 

 ing of false impressions regarding our country. 



England's statesmen, journalists and leaders m 

 thought and action are the ones first to be brought 

 to the realization of Ontario's claim as the bright- 

 est jewel in the Biitish realm. We have been 

 told and we know that the English are very con- 

 servative and once possessed of an idea they hold 

 it tenaciously. For example we will quote a few 

 false impressions from writers of high repute. 

 Lord Macaulay's English History, considered one 

 of the great works of literature, is to-day read and 

 re-read in England by all the statesmen, journal- 

 ists, politicians, ministers, lawyers, students and 

 others Now what impression do they derive 

 about Canada in that work ? Macaulay gives a 

 beautiful description of Holland, he speaks of its 

 fertility, its highly cultivated gardens, its quiet 

 towns, trim villas, summer villas, summer houses 

 flowers, renowned tulip beds, etc., and further he 

 proceeds to say that "this view produces the same 

 effect on an English traveller as the sight of Eng- 



land produces on a Norwegian or a Canadian." 

 Here we are classed as living in the same sur- 

 roundings and climate as those of Norway. 



Again we read in another renowned work. Gib- 

 bon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a 

 similar statement. Gibbon describes the climate 

 of Germany in the early days of the Christian Era 

 as a country of intense frost and eternal winter, 

 the home of the reindeer, an animal which re- 

 quires the most intense cold; then he proceeds 

 as follows : ' ' Canada is at this day an exact pic- 

 ture of ancient Germany ; although situated in the 

 same parallel with France, that country experi- 

 ences the most vigorous cold, the ground is cov- 

 ered with dtep and lasting snow and the waters 

 of the St. Lawrence are regularly frozen over in 

 a season when the Seine river in France and the 

 Thames river in England are free from ice." 



You would infer from the above two quotations 

 that flowers and fruits in Ontario would be an 

 oddity. These are only a few of many instances 

 which might be quoted, but enough is shown to 

 prove that means are needed to counteract such 

 wrong impressions. 



The shipping of fruit to England assists in dis- 

 pelling this error, but still other means are needed. 

 A great effort is being made to develop the Great 

 North West, but before that can be satisfactorily 

 performed it is requisite that would-be settlers 

 should be fuUv informed that they have a province 

 close at hand' where they may procure an abun- 

 dance of fresh fruits daily. It is only a matter of 

 a few years when a vast improvement in fruit 

 transportation rates will be realized (providing 

 our -Association insist on securing them.) We 

 will not be surprised to see fruit laid down m 

 Winnipeg as fresh and nearly as cheaply as it is 

 now being delivered in Montreal. 



We had a golden opportunity to show the Duke 

 and Duchess of York the resources of the fruit 

 sections of Ontario, but it was lost, and they re- 

 turned to England carrying only deep impressions 

 of the great resources of the North West, our 

 Indian people, the lumber camps of Quebec, and 

 of some gorgeous military spectacles. Why should 

 not our Association seek to induce a few of Eng- 

 land's nobility to pay a summer visit to our fruit 

 districts, .so that, on their return, the English 

 minds may be filled with reports of Ontario's 

 beautiful climate and luscious fruits. 



J. F. Brennan, Grimsby. 



