November, 1908 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



247 



I 



A Pioneer Gardener 



Among- the 10,000 subscribers to The 

 Canadian Horticulturist, there are a 

 number who have been readers of the pub- 

 lication for many years, 

 some of them since the ' 

 first issue appeared, over 

 30 years agro. One of 

 the latter is Mr. Robt. 

 Walker, of St. Cath- 

 arines, Ont. , whose por- 

 trait is published here- 

 with. He was one of the 

 early subscribers, and 

 has been a constant 

 friend of The CAN.yDIAN 

 Horticulturist ever 

 since. In a recent letter 

 to the editor, Mr. Walker 

 refers to some of his hor- 

 ticultural experiences, as 



Mr. Robert Walker follows : 



"I take great interest in the letters from 

 correspondents published in your valuable 

 paper from time to time, and it occurred 

 to me to enquire if any farmer or gardener 

 had grown an acre of tomatoes previous 

 to i86g. In that year I grew about 

 one acre and a quarter of tomatoes. The 

 crop was abundant and proved a financial 

 success. Many visitors from a distance 

 and neighbors came to see them, some out 

 of curiosity and others for information. I 

 had also about one acre of grape vines 

 planted in 1871, mostly Roger's varieties, 

 Concord, Allen's Hybrid, Ontario, Isa- 

 bella and a few Montgomerys. 



"I was told that neither tomatoes nor 

 grapevines were grown to the same extent 

 previous to the dates mentioned, and 

 would be glad if you or any correspondent 

 would inform me where in Ontario a simi- 

 lar or greater area was planted with toma- 

 to or grape vines before these dates. At 

 that time I was gardener to the late W. J. 

 McCalla, Esq., and the grounds were situ- 

 ated in the township of Grantham, coun- 

 ty of Lincoln, and are now a part of the 

 city of St. Catharines. 



"In the year 1884, we had in the con- 

 servatory a century plant {Agave Ameri- 

 cana) in bloom, the flower stem being 20 

 feet high. It was sold to the Horticul- 

 tural Gardens, in Toronto. I have not seen 

 any record of an Agave blooming in Can- 

 ada since 1884. One bloomed in Roches- 

 ter,N. Y., in i86g, and 50,000 persons paid 

 to see it." 



NOTES FROM THE PROVINCES 



I 



A South Australian Law 



The Standard of Empire 



Regulations issued by the government 

 dealing with the importation of plants and 

 fruit, the practical outcome of resolutions 

 passed at the recent interstate conference, 

 absolutely prohibit the introduction into 

 South Australia of any grape-vine from any 

 country or state. They also provide for the 

 admission of other living trees, plants, or 

 fruit from any other state, if accompanied 

 by a government certificate declaring that 

 they have been examined before being ex- 

 ported and found to be reasonably free from 

 disease, and that the packages containing 

 the exports are new or have been thoroughly 

 disinfected by a specified process. 



The regulations further prohibit the im- 

 portation of any plant from a country where 

 the insect Phylloxera vastatrtx is known to 

 exist, unless accompanied by a grower's 

 declaration that the plant wa.4 grown fur- 

 ther than 50 yards from any vine and that 

 no phylloxera exists or has existed in the 

 garden from which the plant came. 



British Columbia 



The fruit crop of the Okanagan Valley 

 will be 50 per cent, larger this season than 

 in any previous year, according to Mr. E. 

 M. Palmer, Provincial Commissioner of 

 Horticulture. The fruit growers should 

 have a good year. The old orchards are 

 bearing more fruit than ever, while many 

 of the young ones are beginning to give 

 returns. In the words of Mr. Palmer, "The 

 increase in the fruit output will go on get- 

 ting larger each year as the newer orchards 

 develop but there is little or no danger of 

 outstripping the demand. New markets are 

 opening up. For instance, this year the 

 .Australian trade offered to take 40,000 boxes 

 or 60 ears of apples of a certain grade but 

 it has not been found possible to spare so 

 much fruit. There is an unlimited market 

 for high grade fruit also in the United 

 Kingdom. Some of the large Okanagan 

 firms contemplate making shipments to 

 England this year. 



"Furthermore, the northwest has 250,000 

 additional customers each year, which is 

 one of the reasons why the question of dis- 

 tribution of the crop is such a vital one. 

 With fresh consumers and fresh dealers, 

 both wholesale and retail, springing up 

 every year on the prairie, the question of 

 marketing is one which requires both wis- 

 dom and care and not a little enterprise. 

 It constitutes one of the most important 

 problems in the fruit industry at the pres- 

 ent moment. Although the industry has 

 difficulties to face and problems to solve, 

 ■everything seems in a prosperous condi- 

 tion." . 



New Westminster Fair 



B. C. Saturday Sunset 



The fruit exhibition was one of the most 

 remarkable which visitors to the fair have 

 ever witnessed. Yearly the number of en- 

 tries increase but those in most close touch 

 with this department were surprised beyond 

 measure not only with the numbers which 

 far exceeded those of last year but with the 

 quality. 



The exhibit was significant. Not only 

 does it indicate that fruit growing is becom- 

 ing a more and moie popular avenue of 

 revenue for the farmer but the fruit-grow- 

 er is now getting the art down to a science 

 and the products are the best than an ideal 

 soil, an ideal climate and the best of atten- 

 tion can produce. 



Victoria Exhibition 



G. A. Knight 



Although we have had two dry summers 

 in succession, our fruit turned out remark- 

 ably wel! this season, and there were some 

 grand displays of apples, pears and plums 

 af the Provincial Exhibition in Victoria. 

 There was one thing, however, that ruffled 

 the tempers of many exhibitors and others 

 and not without cause. Before the judges 

 started to place the awards, one of our sub- 

 inspectors of fruit pests started on a tour 

 of inspection with magnifying glass in hand. 

 Plate after plate of beautiful fruit that 

 would have been prize winners was con- 

 demned. If he found the slightest trace of 

 fungous disease, or oyster-shell scale, off he 

 marched with the plates containing such 

 pests and piled them in a come." of the 



building. How desolate those beauties look- 

 ed piled in that corner ! Many thousand 

 pairs of sympathetic, but indignant eyes 

 were cast upon them in their six days of 

 isolation, and also upon the many bad gaps 

 that were made on the tables. It was out- 

 rageous work and should not occur again. 

 The display of grapes and peaches also 

 was good. On the coast, however, . these 

 fruits have to be grown against a wall to 

 get them to perfection. 



Kootenay Valley, B. C. 



H. W. Power 



Contrary to general expectations, Koote- 

 nay growers did not this year realize the 

 handsome profits from strawberry growing 

 that past seasons have led them to expect. 

 A combination of circumstances, over which 

 no control could be had and which are 

 likely to crop up at any time in any busi- 

 ness, were responsible. In the first place, 

 the financial depression in the neighboring 

 republic lessened the demand there for 

 strawberries considerably with an attendant 

 falling ofl in prices and a big surplus of 

 fruit of a perishable nature which the 

 growers were anxious to get rid of at any 

 old price, as long as they managed to get 

 something. Consequently, a great deal of 

 the surplus American berries found their 

 way to the Canadian prairie provinces, — 

 the only market, outside of the purely local 

 one, open to British Columbia growers. Af- 

 ter the results were totalled up it was found 

 that the Kootenay growers would receive 

 about 90 cents or $1.00 a crate for their 

 berries, this leaving a very small margin 

 of profit. The amount of strawberries that 

 can be produced upon a given piece of 

 Kootenay ground is so heavy that a few 

 cents more or •less per crate will often 

 mean a vast diSerence to the producer's 

 bank account. 



Strawberries were shipped this year from 

 Gray's Harbor, near Crawford Bay, as far 

 east as Prince Arthur, Ont., arriving at 

 their destination in the best of condition. 

 Extra choice Kaslo berries were sold in 

 Calgary for $2.50 a crate, being from 50 

 cents to $1.00 more than the ruling market 

 price. 



KOOTENAY NOTES FROM E. W. DYNES 



The continued progress of the fruit grow- 

 ing industry in Kootenay has made way for 

 a new undertaking— the Kootenay Jam Fac- 

 tory. Their exhibit at the Nelson Fair was 

 much admired and Earl Grey was heard to 

 speak in complimentary terms of the enter- 

 prise of the owners. He backed up his 

 words by ordering a case of Kootenay jam. 

 If possible, fruit canning will also be en- 

 gaged in. 



'The management of the fairs held at 

 Nelson and Revelstoke were successful in 

 obtaining the services of Mr. J. L. Porter 

 of Hood River, Ore., ns judge. In an inter- 

 view, he stated that the people of Kootenay 

 might well be proud of the progress they 

 were making in fruit culture. When asked 

 as to how Kootenay compared with Hood 

 River, he said that the question could hard- 

 ly be considered a fair one as Hood River 

 had 15 years of progress and experience in 

 her favor. However, as far as he had been 

 able to test, with the varieties that were 

 ripe, they were quite the equal of any he 

 had seen anywhere. 



Mr. Porter warned the growers that they 



