562 BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 



BRITISH NORTH AMERICA 



their fruit according to certain standards and are liable 

 to fine if they do not do so. Inspectors are stationed 

 at packing-houses, on the markets, and at the ports of 

 export, who examine the fruit to determine whether it 

 is packed according to law. A marked improvement 

 has been noticed in the Canadian fruit exported since 

 this law went into effect. There are also standard 

 barrels, boxes and baskets for the whole of Canada. 



While floriculture is growing very rapidly, the area 

 under glass in Canada is not very large yet, it being 

 estimated at about 120 acres or 6,000,000 square feet 

 in 1912. The estimated capital invested is $1,500,000 

 and the value of the output $1,800,000. The flowers 

 most grown under glass in Canada are carnations and 

 roses, although many other kinds are also raised. Some 

 of the Canadian growers have an international reputa- 

 tion for the quality of the flowers they produce. The 

 official organ of the florists in Canada is " The Canadian 

 Florist," a trade paper published every two weeks. 



Many kinds of vegetables succeed admirably in Can- 

 ada and there are a large number of skillful growers. 

 Owing to the rapid development of the larger cities and 

 the many new towns in the newly settled parts, there 

 are many openings for market-gardeners. Large quan- 

 tities of vegetables, including particularly tomatoes 

 and corn, are grown for the canning factories in south- 

 western Ontario where the season is earlier than in any 

 other part of eastern Canada. Early vegetables are 



FRUIT DISTRICTS 

 OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 



654. The fruit region (within dotted lines) in British Columbia. 



grown on a large scale, and have proved very profitable 

 to those engaged in the business. Perhaps the most 

 noted vegetable grown in Canada is the Montreal musk- 

 melon, which is well known for its high quality in many 

 cities of the United States. The production of such a 

 high-class melon is a good indication of the summer 

 climate of Canada, which in many parts is hot enough 

 to mature melons well. The market-gardeners are 

 represented in Ontario by the Provincial Vegetable 

 Growers' Association, branches of which are to be 

 found in a number of the cities and towns. This organ- 

 ization has done much to assist market-gardeners and 

 to make them feel that their calling is as important as 

 any other branch of agriculture. \y_ T. MACOUN. 



Nova Scotia. 



Nova Scotia (Fig. 655) is a peninsula on the extreme 

 eastern side of Canada. It extends in a northeasterly 

 and southwesterly direction and is crossed by the 

 forty-fifth parallel of north latitude. No part of the 

 interior is more than 30 miles from the sea. The sur- 

 face is gently undulating, with no high mountain 

 ranges. The principal farming and fruit-growing sec- 

 tions are mainly in the valleys through which the rivers 

 run and around the headwaters of the Bay of Fundy, 

 where the high tides have left extensive deposits of 

 rich alluvial soil. The annual rainfall is about 42 inches. 



The French Acadians early made plantings of the 

 apple in this province. When the New England settlers 



came, in 1761, to occupy the lands of the deported 

 French, they found apple trees in bearing, many of 

 which lived and continued to bear fruit well along into 

 the last century. The .leading horticultural industry 

 is fruit-growing. Its most important division is apple- 

 culture, although pears, plums, cherries and small 

 fruits are successfully grown. These soft fruits un- 

 necessarily sold in the local markets, which, though 

 steadily growing in size, are as yet of too limits 

 city to justify an extensive development of the culture 

 of such perishable products. Apples, on the other 

 hand, are shipped to the British and other foreign mar- 

 kets where, in their season, they successfully compete 

 with those from other parts of the northern hemisphere. 



The strictly horticultural region of Nova Scoli 

 small section of the western part of the province gen- 

 erally called the Annapolis Valley. This region, except 

 in its extreme eastern part, is separated from the Hay of 

 Fundy and protected from the direct force of the north- 

 erly and westerly winds by a range of hills, some 400 to 

 500 feet in height, known as the North Mountain. It 

 includes the valley of the Annapolis River, which flows 

 southwesterly to the Annapolis Basin, and the valleys 

 of the Pereaux, Habitant, Canard, Cornwallis, Gas- 

 pereau and Avon Rivers, which flow into Minas Basin 

 on the east. It is a narrow strip of country 6 to 10 

 miles wide and less than 100 miles long. 



Here apple-culture, from being a side line to general 

 farming down to about forty years ago, has grown to lie 

 the leading branch of agriculture. The yield of apples in 

 this district, packed and sold in 1911, was 1,734,000 

 barrels. The yield for 1912 is estimated at 1,100,000 

 barrels. These figures do not include, in either case, 

 those that were used by the canneries, evaporators and 

 vinegar factories, or that were consumed in the dis- 

 trict in which grown. About one-tenth of the output 

 finds a market in the towns and the villages of the non- 

 fruit-growing sections of the maritime provinces, the 

 remainder being exported to Great Britain, Germany 

 and other European countries, and to Newfoundland, 

 the Canadian West, the West Indies and South Africa. 

 The varieties of apples grown have been selected 

 chiefly with reference to the English market. The 

 leading commercial sorts are Gravenstein, Blenheim, 

 Ribston, King, Yellow Bellflower, Cox Orange, Wagener, 

 Baldwin, Stark, Spy, Golden Russet, P'allawater, Rox- 

 bury Russet and Ben Davis. Some of these have long 

 been known in England and were introduced from that 

 country. The Gravenstein, especially, reaches a high 

 quality here. The winter varieties also do well and 

 mature just as the cool weather of autumn comes on. 



As a rule, orchards are carefully cultivated, ferti- 

 lized, pruned and sprayed. A large quantity of com- 

 mercial fertilizer is used every year, as the area in 

 orchards has outgrown the supply of stable manure. 

 Cover-crops are grown to furnish humus, the clovers, 

 vetches and buckwheat being the crops chiefly used for 

 this purpose. The practice of thinning apples has lately 

 been adopted by many of the best growers and is likely 

 to become more general as competition in fruit-raising 

 increases. 



A system of frost-proof apple warehouses, that has 

 come into existence during the last sixteen years, is an 

 important element in the carrying-on of the fruit busi- 

 ness in Nova Scotia. These numbering one hundred 

 in all are found at the railway stations throughout 

 the fruit district. The usual width is about 40 feet, the 

 length from 80 to 120 feet, affording room for packing 

 and storage for 5,000 to 10,000 barrels. Formerly, 

 the fruit-grower packed his apples at home, or in hi 

 barn. Then, when a steamer was ready to load at Hali- 

 fax, the apples had to be hauled to the railroad station, 

 often several miles distant, and loaded into the waiting 

 cars. Now the apples are generally taken in barrels 

 directly from the orchard to the warehouse whore they 

 are stored until ready to be packed out for shipment. 



