ST. JOSEPH AND MANITOULIN ISLANDS 



387 



1. The importance of cleanliness and care 

 of the orchard. 



2. The necessity of thinning, if best fruit 

 is to be obtained. This point was well illus- 

 trated at Mr. John Laird's orchard, Picton. 

 Mr. Laird thinned Duchess some weeks be- 

 fore, and a very great improvement in size 

 could be noticed. 



3. The desirability of whole sections de- 

 voting their energies along certain lines, 

 such as apple growing, dairying, etc., was 

 clearly brought out. 



4. The necessity of spraying if scab is to 



be overcome, was never so clearly shown 

 than in the case of Albert MacDonald, Con- 

 secon, who said : "I have lost Si, 000 by 

 not spraying." 



The question of insects was handled by 

 Prof. Lochhead in a very helpful way. The 

 Fruit Marks Act and packing of apples for 

 sale was of great interest at nearly every 

 meeting. Many expressions of regret that 

 farmers could not attend were heard and 

 universal approval of this practical way of 

 reaching the fruit growers. 



FRUIT GROWING ON ST. JOSEPH AND MANITOULIN 



ISLANDS 



BY PROF. W. LOCHHEAD, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, GUELPH. 



PROF. LOCHHEAD having been sent 

 out by the Superintendent of Farm- 

 ers' Institutes to meetings at Mani- 

 toulin and St. Joseph Islands, writes to Mr. 

 Creelman a newsy letter in reference to the 

 agricultural and horticultural conditions of 

 these islands. Mr. Creelman sends us an 

 extract from that portion of Prof. Lochhead's 

 letter dealing with fruit growing particularly. 

 *' I have been making this hotel my head- 

 quarters for three days. Ever since coming 

 from Manitawaning, I have been making 

 excursions to various parts to get informa- 

 tion regarding the capabilities of St. Joseph's 

 Island. My opinion of St. Joe has to a large 

 extent changed since I came here. I had 

 the idea that the soil and rock were very 

 much like those of the Grand Manitoulin, 

 but such is not the case. Although the 

 underlying rocks are probably the same — 

 Silurian limestone — yet the soil and sub- 

 soil have great depth. In fact, I have no" 

 where seen an exposure thus far in my 

 travels. In Manitoulin the great fires had 

 burnt away everything of a vegetable nature 

 in the soil, and left it blue or white. Here, 



however, there is as a rule much humus in 

 the soil. In many places and on large areas, 

 too, the clay is cold and heavy, and in other 

 places the soil is quite sandy. 



" I visited several farms. I saw splendid 

 crops of peas, although they tell me this is 

 an off year on clay land for peas, an account 

 of the wet May and April. Oats, wheat and 

 barley look well and give evidence of an 

 abundant crop. 



"From what I can gather this island is 

 quite suitable for fruit growing. I saw ad- 

 mirable yields of apples. Duchess and Alex- 

 ander among the early varieties, and Long- 

 field, Yellow Transparent and Wealthy as 

 early winter apples. ' The Japan plums, 

 Burbank and Abundance and Ogon, are 

 quite hardy and are great bearers, with Mr. 

 Chas. Young, of Richards Landing. To 

 show how fruit growing may be made 

 lucrative Mr. Young tells me that he got 

 $65 for the strawberries he sold from a patch 

 not one-fifth acre in extent (after taking all 

 he wanted for his own use). He got 10 cents 

 a box at the 'Soo'. The ' Soo' is the ready 

 market for all produce grown in St. Joe." 



