The climate of the western half is characteristically coastal, but the eastern 

 half has some features which are of a continental character. The growing season 

 is long, but not so long as that of Victoria, and is moderately cool, the hottest six 

 weeks averaging about 4 degrees higher than Victoria, and about 6 degrees lower 

 than in the Dry Belt. Both the fall and spring are long-, the winter is short, 

 usually mild, and snow may lie to varying depths for several weeks, especially in 

 the eastern half. A few degrees below zero is known, but is unusual. The winter 

 precipitation, which is mostly rain, is heavy. Considerable fog and haze characterize 

 the fall months, and the fall rains set in about September 15th. The district is 

 pre-eminently suited to dairying, and has many features which make it unsurpassed 

 in Canada for various types of small fruits. 



The soils, while variable, may be characterized as upland and lowland or 

 delta. The latter are usually deep, though not suited, as a -rule, to fruit-growing, 

 except for small fruits for the cannery. The uplands are variable, of glacial origin, 

 have some of the hard-pah which is so prevalent in the stiuth-eastern section of 

 Vancouver Island, but also have many deep rich soils of the greates^'value for small - 

 fruit production. In some sections the uplands are quite heavy,' ^iand admirably 

 adapted for pears. As in all other parts of the Province, there is a considerable 

 portion of the land which is gravelly or light in character, less favourable for 

 production than the better soils. The uplands, though usually deficient in lime, 

 are well supplied with potash and have fair amounts of phosphoric acid. On all 

 lands the addition of potash is very valuable in securing greater firmness of fruit. 



The market for the product of this area is being found very largely in the 

 Coast cities and in the canning-factories, while the shipment of small fruits, cherries, 

 plums, and prunes, by express to Prairie points, which has been large in volume 

 for a number of years, promises to continue so. On the Coast these fruits meet 

 with competition from the American side, but the tariff duties and higher freight 

 rates give valuable protection, though the lack of organization among the shippers 

 gives rise to a lot of irresponsible consignment, and makes the crop unwieldy and 

 less satisfactory to both shipper and receiver than the straight car-load shipments 

 furnished by competition. 



Fruit-growing began in this territory with the planting of trees by the Hudson's 

 Bay Company at Fort Langley. The first settlers in Chilliwack and Langley were 

 mostly from Ontario, and planted many orchards between 1880 and 1895, principally 

 to a mixture of Ontario varieties of apples, plums, and pears, which have furnished 

 a great deal of information to guide the later planting in the district. Along the 

 main line of the C.P.R., plums and prunes, as well as small fruits, were largely taken 

 up between 1890 and 1905, though plum and prune planting received a great set-back 

 some twelve years ago through the introduction of the brown-rot fungus, which under 

 the favourable conditions of a moist climate has greatly restricted the shipping 

 capabilities of all stone-fruits. The efforts to find good commercial varieties of 

 plums which are immune from plum-rot have not been a success, and the develop- 

 ment of the canneries in recent years, which promises to furnish a safe and reason- 

 ably remunerative market for these fruits, is most welcome. 



The general experience in planting apples has not been favourable. Some 

 shippers made good money for years out of early varieties of apples, and a few of 

 the later kinds have given fair success, but most varieties do not succeed. Pears 

 grow well, produce abundantly, but plantings so far have not been large enough to 

 enable shippers to undertake car-load shipments to Prairie points, local production 

 not yet meeting the entire demand of the Coast cities. Strawberries for local 

 markets and express shipments to the Prairie do well, while raspberries are equally 

 profitable. Sour cherries have been but little tried, but sweet cherries do well, more 

 especially for local shipments. Grapes and peaches succeed only under the most 

 favourable conditions, as is true in all Coast regions. 



The Lower Mainland is not pre-eminently a fruit-growing section. Greater 

 profits are to be made in the cultivation of vegetables, in dairying, poultry-raising, 

 and in intensive mixed farming. In all of these lines a large market lies at the 



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