162 REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



Niagara Peninsula, Ontario 



There is more fruit culture in Ontario meantime than there is 

 in any other province of the Dominion. These figures show the 

 extent of the trade : — 



Orchards ...... 266,015 acres 



Vegetable and small fruit . . . 65,303 ,, 



Vineyards ...... 5,440 ,, 



The fruit district is confined for the most part to Southern and 

 Western Ontario, and this district is divided into two parts. Hardy 

 fruits, such as apples, sour cherries, and plums, are grown on the east 

 shore of the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, on the north and south 

 shores of Lake Ontario, and on the north shore of Lake Erie. Tender 

 fruits, on the other hand, such as grapes, sweet cherries, pears and 

 peaches, are grown south and west of Toronto, on the south of 

 Georgian Bay and the east of Lake Huron. The districts described 

 constitute the garden of Ontario, and some of the best fruit 

 on the American Continent is grown there. The market is, or at 

 any rate will be, by and by an almost unlimited one. At the 

 present time, the Ontario fruit-growers ship large consignments of 

 fruit to Britain. The great market of the future, however, will be 

 the western prairie. As the country fills up, the demand will 

 increase, and Ontario is likely in the future to have a better market 

 for her produce than she has had in the past. Outside the peach 

 belt, land capable of producing the hardier kinds of fruit can be 

 brought at from £10 to £20 per acre. 



Our visit, however, was mostly confined to the Niagara 

 Peninsula on the south shore of Lake Ontario. It extends from 

 the Niagara river to Hamilton. It is a strip of land about forty 

 miles long by from one to five miles broad, bounded on the south 

 by a low range of mountains, and on the north by Lake Ontario. 

 The district is thus sheltered by the hills, and the climate is tempered 

 by the waters of the lake, and it enjoys the enviable reputation of 

 having the best climate in all Ontario. The soil differs at different 

 parts. At the foot of the hills it is a clay loam and sometimes a 

 stiff clay. Towards the shore of the lake it is a sandy loam. Apples 

 were once the predominant crop in this particular part of Ontario. 

 The climate, however, is too warm for producing apples that will 

 keep. After they are ripe, two or three weeks of warm weather is 

 usually experienced, and they give way much more readily than 

 apples grown in colder climates. This difficulty might have been 

 overcome by the introduction of cold stores, where the apples after 

 being picked, would have been kept until required for the market. 

 It was, however, discovered that this particular stretch of country 

 was capable of producing other fruits without the aid of cold storage, 

 and so the clay land has been devoted to vine-growing. The vines 

 are generally grown in rows about eight feet apart, to allow a waggon 

 to go up between for the purpose of manuring the land and spraying 

 the plants. They begin to bear when three years old and they 

 yield when in full bearing about four tons to the acre. The variety 



