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THE CANADIAN H O E T I C U L T U R I S T 



May, 1 909 



NOTES FROM THE PROVINCES 



British Columbia 



W. J. Brandrith 



The regular quarterly meeting of the Bri- 

 tish Columbia Fruit Growers' Association 

 was held in Chilliwack on April 3. The at- 

 tendance was large and a good deal of in- 

 terest was manifested in the proceedings. 

 After routine, Mr. W. J. Brandrith was 

 unanimously elected delegate to the Ame- 

 rican Pomological Society's annual meeting. 

 A resolution, calling for local inspection of 

 fruit and orchards by the provincial board 

 of horticulture, was also passed. The first 

 secretary of the association, Mr. A. H. B. 

 Magowan, was voted a life membership in 

 view of his services at the inception of the 

 association 20 years ago. 



Mr. Tom Wilson read a paper on "Pol- 

 lenization." President Puckle gave a short 

 address on "Co-operation." Mr. J. C. 

 Metcalfe, one of the old war horses of the 

 association, gave an excellent address on 

 "The Cultivation of Small Fruits." Mr. 

 Maxwell Smith, Dominion Fruit Inspector, 

 gave a rousing address on "The Commer- 

 cial Aspect of Fruit Growing." The next 

 quarterly meeting place was fixed for Kel- 

 owna and the October quarterly for 

 Creston. 



British Columbia Legislation 



Edgar W. Dynes 



The session of the British Columbia Leg- 

 islature which closed a few weeks ago has 

 been very fruitful of legislation benefitting 

 the horticultural and agricultural inter- 

 ests of the province. Two very important 

 measures were put through, — one known as 

 the Fruit Depots Act, and the other, some 

 very important amendments to the Water 

 Clauses Act. 



In respect of the latter the government 

 sought to eliminate some of the existing 

 abuses in the matter of water rights. It 

 was found that many individuals had stak- 

 ed large quantities of water for speculative 

 purposes and which they could not use. 

 This had the effect of retarding the progress 

 of districts where irrigation is absolutely 

 necessary. To ilhistrate, in a certain dis- 

 trict there might be 3,000 acres 

 of land, arid or semi-arid, and wholly de- 

 pendent on water from a certain creek. 

 But. supposing that some enternrising in- 

 dividual, who owned not more than 1,000 

 acres of land, had located all the water 

 in the creek. The other owners would eith- 

 er have to do without water or be at his 

 mercy. 



Under the new law, all this water be- 

 comes the common oroperty of the land 

 owners in the immediate vicinity who need 

 this water. A man can no loncer hold wa- 

 ter for speculative purposes. The province 

 has been divided into six districts for the 

 purpose of the Act and in each district a 

 commissioner will be appointed with full 

 power to act in the matter of the adjust- 

 ment of the water riprhts. It is a states- 

 man-like piece of legislation and will be of 

 immediate and untold benefit to the sec- 

 tions in the province where irrigation is 

 necessary. 



The Fruit Depots Act provides for aid to 

 depots or stations to be established for the 

 sorting, cooling and packing of fruit, and 

 the government to assist the building of 



such in much the same manner as aid is 

 granted to creameries and cheese factor- 

 ies. The Act gives power to the provincial 

 board of horticulture to license depots or 

 warehouses for the purpose named upon 

 conditions wehreby the licensee is eligible 

 to apply for a loan of not exceeding three- 

 fifths of the value of the plant and not 

 more than $3,000 in any one instance. The 

 second clause of the Act provides that such 

 license may be granted to anybody, corpor- 

 ation or association legally instituted to 

 establish, maintain and operate a fruit 

 depot, equipped with appliances for the 

 sorting and colling of fruits and packing 

 them for shipment. The application for 

 license must be accompanied by proper plans 

 and specifications including information as 

 to the number of orchards tributary to the 

 proposed depot. 



The fourth clause of the Act provides that 

 such license shall be subject to the condi- 

 tions that the facilities of the depot shall 

 be without discrimination and at uniform 

 rates and charges to be onen to the use of 



From All Over Canada 



Editor, The Canadian Horticul- 

 turist: — We take pleasure iii again 

 complimenting you on the general ex- 

 celjence of The Canadian Horticul- 

 turist, and more parficnlarly on its 

 merits as an advertising medium. From 

 almost every part of this wide Domin- 

 ion, between the Atlantic and Pacific, 

 we receive enquiries as a result of our 

 advertisement in The Canadian Hor- 

 ticulturist, to which most of the 

 correspondents refer. Every succeed- 

 ing year brings noticeably greater re- 

 sults, which proves that your paper is 

 progressive in every sense of the word. 

 We think a statement of these facts is 

 due to you, believing that the success 

 of your advertisers is eaually encour- 

 aging to yourselves. — The Dominion 

 Offices of the Potash Syndicate, B. 

 Leslie Emslie, Manager, Toronto. 



all members of any corporation or asso- 

 ciation so licensed and that all rates and 

 charges made, taken and collected by the 

 licensee, in, about and in connection with 

 the depot, shall at all times be subject to 

 the control and regulations of the provin- 

 cial board of horticulture. The license is 

 liable to cancellation for any breach of the 

 Act, in which case all money loaned becomes 

 immediately due and payable. The loan is 

 secured by a first mortgage on the depot 

 and lands connected therewith and inter- 

 est is payable at the rate of five per cent. 

 The immediate plans of the government are 

 understood to include the erection of sev- 

 eral of these depots at some of the more 

 important fruit shipping points in the pro- 

 vince. 



Some concessions have been obtained 

 from the railroad and express companies 

 in the matter of shipping regulations. The 

 minimum weight for carload shipments of 

 fruit has been lowered from 30,000 to 24,000 

 pounds. It was represented by the grow- 

 ers at a meeting at Victoria that they could 

 not compete with Ontario unless they were 

 given the same rates to Winnipeg as the 

 Ontario growers enjoyed but this was 



turned down. Mr. Lanigan, of the C. P. 

 R., made the statement that be had per- 

 sonally canvassed all prominent fruit deal 

 ers in Winnipeg and said that he found tli' 

 main reason why more British Columbia 

 fruit was not marketed on the prairie was 

 that so much second grade fruit was duni]. 

 ed in from Washington and Oregon 11 

 tempting prices. This being tlie case, ! 

 concluded that the reduction asked for ii 

 this instance would not bo of any assistance. 



New Brunswick 



A. E. McGinler. 



The government of New Brunswick is 

 preparing to devote special attention to 

 advertising the advantages of this province 

 in the way of general agriculture and small 

 fruit culture with a view to repopulating the 

 vacant farms and untenanted orchards of 

 the province which, unhappily, are far too 

 numerous. For this purpose, a special of- 

 ficial will be appointed to the staff in the 

 person of Mr. A. Duff-Miller, and it will 

 be his duty to circulate literature and 

 otherwise inform the members of Great 

 Britain's farming community what advant- 

 ages this province offers. Already there 

 is a government agent in St. John who has 

 a list of all farms for sale in the province 

 and has done good work on a small scale. 

 With the appointment of another oflBcial 

 in England, who will work in conjuction 

 with the St. John agent, the scope of the 

 work will be very largely increased and 

 good results are expected. 



This season has been a particularly good 

 one for the export of Canadian apples to 

 Europe, via the port of St. John. The 

 season will close about May 10, but al- 

 ready the returns show that 38,276 bar- 

 rels and 3,730 boxes of apples have been 

 sent forward. Most of these have come 

 from Ontario points as the Ontario apole 

 is more popular in the European market 

 than the New Brunswick product. Nova 

 Scotia apples which are also very popular 

 in the Old Country, are principally shin- 

 ned from Halifax. Facilities at St. John 

 hive been vastly improved by the erectioil 

 here of a large cold storage plant which is 

 expected to prove a great factor in the 

 development of the trade. 



Annapolis Valley West, N. S. 



R. J. Messenger 



The active part of marketing is about 

 over for this year. A few apples are going 

 to our local markets, f700(J apples on the St. 

 John or Halifax markets bringing as high 

 as $4 and $.5 a barrel. Everybody seems to 

 be happy, the speculator because he has 

 made in most cases enough on this year's 

 operations to more than compensate for his 

 losses last year and the producer is happy 

 because he got his money without being 

 asked for rebates. This reminds me of a 

 case where a pious speculator last year 

 asked for and obtained a rebate of $600 

 from a farmer. This year he bought the 

 same farmer's apples when they were low, 

 and after many strong hints generously ( ?) 

 allowed the farmer a gift of $200, when 

 he probablv made enough to more than re- 

 place the $600. 



Orchard work has fairly begun again. 

 Pruning is about all done, except where 

 some have left the work to be done in June. 

 It is unfortunate that we see all kinds of 

 mal-practice in this operation. Ever.v 

 farmer has his own ideas as to how, when 

 and whore to cut, and surely there mnot 

 be some one system that approximates th<- 

 best. 



Early spring spraying is being practised 



