REPORT OF THE SECRETARY REVIEWING THE WORK 



OF THE PAST YEAR. 



THE Ontario Fruit Growers' Associ- 

 ation is the oldest Society in affili- 

 ation with the Department of Agri- 

 culture. But age here is no indication of 

 lessened energy or halting progress. For a 

 number of years good educational work has 

 been done by this association, and some dis- 

 tinct advances have been made during the 

 past twelve months. 



LOCAL FRUIT GROWERS* ASSOCIATIONS. 



These were organized last spring by dele- 

 gates sent out by the department under the 

 Auspices of the association. It was found 

 that the Horticultural Societies of our towns 

 and cities operating under the Agricultural 

 Arts Act did not apply thoroughly to practi- 

 cal fruit growing conditions. Their work has 

 been devoted to floriculture and along the 

 lines of civic improvement. Fifty-one such 

 fruit meetings were held, the programme 

 being to meet in a suitable hall, then to ad- 

 journing to an orchard for a practical demon- 

 stration of pruning, grafting, etc. At night 

 a general meeting was called when the organ- 

 ization was completed and officers were 

 elected. As a result of these meetings 

 thirty-six local organizations were formed 

 reaching all the way from Iroquois on the 

 St. Lawrence to Leamington in Essex 

 County. 



FRUIT INSTITUTES. 



The work of our Farmers' Institutes sys- 

 tem, which formerly applied to dairymen, 

 stockmen, fruit growers, and farmers as a 

 whole, has been gradually divided into se- 

 parate departments, so that the sections of 

 the country engaged almost entirely in one 

 branch of Agriculture may receive special 

 attention along that line. When it was de- 

 cided to organize Local Fruit Growers' As- 

 sociations, we took advantage of the Farm- 



ers' Institute machinery and solicited the co- 

 operation of its officers, and through their 

 co-operation and help in the matter of funds, 

 we were enabled to hold a great number of 

 these Fruit Institutes or practical orchard 

 meetings. 



PRUNING DEMONSTR.ATIONS. 



At these meetings the Delegates gave a 

 talk on the necessity for good pruning and 

 then proceeded to show how it should be 

 done. In almost every case this method 

 provoked a lively and practical discussion 

 which was especially appreciated by the 

 farmer boys. 



THINNING FRUIT. 



Still later in the season when the fruit 

 was pretty well advanced a request was 

 made for orchard meetings in the apple sec- 

 tions, for instruction in summer orchard 

 management and the thinning of fruit. Here 

 again the Dominion Fruit Inspectors helped 

 us out, and that they did good work is evi- 

 denced by the many complimentary letters 

 from farmers who had received the instruc- 

 tion. These meetings lasted from July 22nd 

 to 31st. 



OBJECT LESSON IN SPRAYING. 



Following up the orchard meetings, we 

 arranged for demonstrations in spraying and 

 twenty meetings were held. The Secretary 

 of the Local Fruit Growers' Association 

 made all arrangements, supplied spray 

 pump and the materials for the Bordeaux 

 mixture and selected an orchard for the 

 work. These meetings commenced at 

 Whitby and extended as far as Iroquois. 



SPRAYING FOR THE SAN JOSE SCALE. 



The San Jose Scale commission in their 

 report to the Minister of Agriculture last 

 month recommended the use of lime and 

 sulphur for the wintei- treatment of the scale. 



