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REPORT OF THE SCOTTISH COMMISSION 



might have been after a thunderstorm. The picture is one of the 

 mightiest exhibitions of power in nature, but it is marred and defaced. 

 A place which should have been left untouched by man has been 

 turned into sites for factories and workshops, whose chimneys 

 blacken with smoke the heavens above and the earth beneath. 



We were early astir the following morning. It was to be a big 

 day in the greatest fruit region of Ontario — the Niagara Peninsula. 

 We explored it from St Catherine's to Hamilton. The first farm 

 visited extended to 75 acres. The owner, a fruit-grower himself, 

 was the son of a fruit-grower, and manages his place well. His farm, 

 though larger than farms are in this district as a rule, was otherwise 

 typical. From an inspection of various farms we turned our atten- 



MAGARA RAPIDS 



tion to the fruit stores at the station and then to the wine factory, 

 a mile or two out from the town. It was noon when we got back 

 to the station en route for Beamsville. At Beamsville we were 

 met by many farmers and fruit-growers. Mr Smith, the member 

 for the district in the Dominion Parliament, who is a fruit-grower 

 and preserver, was there. We paid a visit to his canning factory, 

 where tomatoes were being canned. From the factory we proceeded 

 by electric car through the district to Hamilton. We made halts 

 at many orchards on the way. We may mention two. They are 

 not typical of the holdings throughout the whole belt, but they 

 are typical of the holdings in the Grimsby district. One is occupied 

 by a Perthshire man, who had no experience of fruit-growing before 

 he came to Ontario two years ago. He bought ten acres planted 

 with fruit trees, mostly peach trees, at 1200 dollars per acre — a 

 great price surely, even when one takes into account the com- 



