174 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



July, 1907 



The Canadian Horlicullurisl 



Published by The Horticultural 

 Publishing; CompanK~, Limited 



The Only Horticultural Magazine 

 in the Dominion 



OMcial Organ of British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec 

 and Prince Edward Island Fruit Growers' 

 Associations and of the Ontario Veg- 

 etable Growers' Association 



H. Bronson Cowan, 



Managing Editor and Business Manager 



A. B. CuTTiNO, B.S.A., Horticultural Editor 



W G. Rook, Advertising Manager 



Garrett Wall, Circulation Manager 



GREAT BRITAIN 



Frank Fletcher, 135 Henrietta Street, Old Trafford. 

 Manchester, Eng.. Advertising and Circulation Manager 



1. The Canadian Horticulturist is published on 

 the 25th day of the month preceding date of issue. 



2. Subscription Price in Canada and Great Britain 50 

 cents a year, three years $1.20. For United States and 

 local subscriptions in Toronto. 25c. extra a year is charged 

 for postage. Foreign subscriptions, $1.00 a year, in- 

 cluding postage. 



3. Remittances should be made by Post Office or 

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4. Discontinuances — Responsible subscribers will con- 

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 are notified by letter to tliscontinue, -when all arrearages 

 must be paid. 



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 ordered, both the old and the new addresses must be 

 given. 



6. Advertising Rates quoted on application. Sworn 

 circulation 6,800. Copy received up to the 18th. Re- 

 sponsible representatives wanted in towns and cities. 



7. Articles and Illustrations for publication will be 

 thankfully received by the editor. 



Our Protective Policy 



We want the readers of The Canadian Horticul- 

 turist to feel that they can deal with our advertisers 

 with our assurance of the advertisers' reliability. We 

 try to admit to our columns only the most reliable ad- 

 vertisers. Should any subscriber, therefore, have good 

 cause to be dissatisfied with the treatment he receives 

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 and investigate the circumstances fully. Should we 

 find reason to believe that any of our advertisers are un- 

 reliable, even in the slightest degree, we will discontinue 

 immediately the publication of their advertisements in 

 The Horticulturist. Should the circumstances war- 

 rant we will expose them through the columns of the 

 paper. Thus, we will not only protect our readers, but 

 our reputable advertisers as well. All that is necessary 

 to entitle you to the benefits of this Protective Policy is 

 that you mclude in all your letters to advertisers the 

 words "I saw your ad. in The Canadian Horticultur- 

 ist." Complaints should be sent to us as soon as possi- 

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Communications should be addressed: 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST, 



506-7-8^ Manning Chambers, 



TORONTO, CANADA 



A BRITISH COLUMBIA NEED 



In the province of British Columbia, where the 

 majority of fruit growers are novices, more 

 vigorous efforts than those prevailing now might 

 be made to disseminate useful knowledge gained 

 elsewhere. There is danger lest quacks and 

 empirics should mislead those who, in a genuine 

 desire to gain knowledge, make manly confession 

 of ignorance. Au royaume des aveugles les 

 borgnes sont rois. It is difficult to see how the 

 high quality of Okanagan fruit is to be main- 

 tained and loss to the individual and country 

 avoided, unless some well-organized efforts are 

 made. 



A cooperative movement in this direction — 

 for the provision of valuable knowledge and ad- 

 vice — would be more opportune than the present 

 movement for cooperation in the sale of fruit, 

 having regard to the fact that several years must 

 elapse before the province can produce fruit to 

 a large extent. I,ectures in the nearest town, 

 and demonstrations in suburban gardens, are 

 ill-attended for obvious reasons, and are seldom 

 worth the time spent upon them; the distribu- 

 tion of literature is another imperfect half- 

 measure. The necessary knowledge and advice 

 should be brought right into the farmers' own 

 orchard by properly accredited experts, appoint- 

 ed to go from orchard to orchard. Other coun- 



tries have profited largely by such measures, 

 when thorough and well organized. 



It is, of course, absurd to expect the govern- 

 ment of the province or anyone else to carry out 

 precautions and scientific methods for the farmer, 

 but, if it is worth while to invite immigrants 

 from far and wide to try their hands at fruit- 

 growing, and to threaten prosectition of those 

 farmers who do not keep their orchards clean, it 

 is ecjually worth while to make provision for 

 thorough, practical advice and instruction. The 

 magnitude of the possibilities before the Okan- 

 agan Valley call for the establishment of a staff 

 of experts with unquestionable credentials in 

 that excellent fruit section of the province. It 

 is difficult to-day to convince discerning visitors 

 from other prosperous fruit countries that there 

 is not in the province even an official entomol- 

 ogist. The time is at hand when the Okanagan 

 Valley will discard the characteristics of youth 

 and inexperience, and abandon the illusion 

 hugged so closely in some quarters that she is 

 endowed specially by Providence for fruit -cul- 

 ture without effort. Absitinvidia. The fortu- 

 nate conditions which have allowed hitherto even 

 orchards neglected by man to produce good 

 fruit, are passing away. The marvellously fer- 

 tile soil and the climate have proved their 

 potentialities; it is left for man now to prove 

 his power. If the growers' efforts are guided 

 on the right lines, the prospects of this beautiful 

 valley as a producer of hardy fruits are imsur- 

 passed upon the continent. 



INSPECTION AT COAST 



Fruit growers in British Columbia should con- 

 tinue to protest to their provincial government 

 in regard to the discrimination against eastern 

 nursery stock that is practised by the officials 

 of that province. The matter should not be 

 allowed to drop until there is an inspection sta- 

 tion at Revelstoke or Golden. The present in- 

 spection and fumigation station is located at 

 Vancouver. Growers in the fruit districts of 

 the eastern side of the province suffer many 

 disadvantages when they buy trees from Ontario 

 or elsewhere in Eastern Canada. 



First of all, the British Columbia government, 

 by compelling eastern nursery concerns to ship 

 stock through to Vancouver for inspection, 

 makes it almost impossible for the eastern con- 

 cerns to have their stock delivered to the grow- 

 ers in perfect condition. The unnecessary delay 

 caused by the stock having to cross the province 

 to Vancouver, from which point it has to be 

 shipped back almost to the original point at 

 which the goods entered the province, is un- 

 reasonable and anything but good for the stock. 

 In the case of perishable goods, the delay ofteii 

 proves disastrous. Owing to the exorbitant 

 freight rates in the west, the freight on goods 

 shipped in this way, is almost double what it 

 would be were they shipped direct to the grow- 

 ers, so that instead of being a benefit to the Brit- 

 ish Columbia fruit grower, the lack of a station 

 on the eastern border of the province handicaps 

 him, as eastern stock is excluded almost entirely 

 from the province, for it is almost impossible for 

 him to import under anything like reasonable 

 conditions. 



Most British Columbia fruit growers of the 

 interior parts of the province, such as the Okan- 

 agan A'alley, Kamloops and Nelson district, and 

 also in the Columbian Valley, want eastern 

 grown stock. Much of the stock in the east, 

 particularly that from the Niagara district, is 

 grown under climatic conditions almost identical 

 to those of their own districts, whereas the trees 

 that are shipped in by the coast and Washington 

 and Oregon concerns are grown under largely 

 different conditions. In the interior parts of 

 British Columbia, they have some winter, and 

 consequently must have trees thoroughly hard- 

 ened and matured in order to stand the climatic 

 changes. Trees at the coast, however, are 

 grown where there is practically no winter. 

 Trees grown under these conditions make a soft 

 and pithy growth, and often winter-kill or be- 



come black-hearted, and at liest are but slion 

 lived. It is, therefore, the British Columbia 

 fruit growers' wish that eastern stock be allowcc 

 to come into their province, under the same con 

 ditions as stock from the Washington and Oregon 

 concerns, which would be the case were a station 

 established at the eastern border of the province. 

 We can show numerous letters from the ino'f 

 prominent fruit men of British Columbia, slio\\ 

 ing that eastern trees are wanted. In fact, tin 

 orchards that are now in tearing and are briiiK 

 ing profitable results to the growers, and that art ■ 

 producing fruit that is making a name for Brit- 

 ish Columbia, are grown from eastern trees; 

 they have proved, in every respect, better. 

 The growers are able to secure a much larger list 

 of varieties from the east and, also, larger and 

 older trees. Under present conditions, however, 

 they are almost compelled, by the provincial 

 government laws, to buy their trees from a 

 foreign country; trees which, in many cases, are 

 utterly unsuited for their own districts. There 

 are, it is true, some small coast concerns in Brit- 

 ish Columbia that have probably excellent 

 stock, but only a small list of varieties to choose 

 from. 



. Indignation meetings have been held in vari- 

 ous parts of the province, and this spring resolu- 

 tions were passed by different local associations, 

 as well as by the British Columbia Fruit Growers' 

 Association, petitioning for the establishment of 

 a station at Revelstoke. The Board of Horticul- 

 ture at Victoria, while agreeing that it would be 

 a most desirable thing for these growers to have 

 a station in the east, claimed that in recent 

 years the imports from the east have fallen off 

 fully seventy-five per cent., and that it would 

 not pay them to establish a station in the east. 

 A poorer excuse could not be given. The only 

 reason for the falling off of eastern importations 

 is due to the passing of this unjust law discrim- 

 inating against eastern concerns. Were con- 

 ditions reversed and the inspection station estab- 

 lished at Revelstoke or Golden, and the Wash- 

 ington or Oregon concerns compelled to ship 

 their stock to Revelstoke to be examined, it is 

 safe to predict that the Washington and Oregon 

 concerns' trade \vould fall off fully seventy-five 

 per cent, and the trade from the east increase 

 several hundred per cent. As a few hundred 

 dollars would erect a shed sufficient to serve the 

 purpose of an inspection and fumigation station 

 in the meantime, the excuses given do not hold 

 water. In view of the repeated requests made 

 by the fruit growers of British Columbia, it is to 

 be hoped that the provincial government will see 

 its way clear to establish an eastern inspection 

 and fumigation station at an early date. 



A HEAVIER PENALTY NEEDED 



The need for a revision in the Fruit Mark* 

 Act which will make it possible to deal more 

 severely with packers who habitually defy the 

 law, becomes more apparent every year. As it 

 is, the heaviest fine that can be imposed is 25 

 cents to $1 a barrel. It has been found that this 

 fine is not heavy enough to deter fraudulent 

 work on the part of some shippers who consigtt 

 large quantities of fruit every year to the Old" 

 Country. Some of these men have been fineT 

 repeatedly, but continue to resort to false pads 

 ing. They believe that they can make mof[ 

 money by shipping second grade fruit as finest; 

 than they are in danger of losing on the com- 

 paratively small number of falsely packed ba^ 

 rels of fruit on which they may be fined. 



It is seldom that a man can be caught witi 

 more than 25 barrels of wrongly marked fruit i)| 

 his possession. In such a case, the fine canncp' 

 exceed ?25. In the warehouses, barrels thai 

 have been falsely packed are not marked tmtn 

 shortly before they are shipped. It is seldom 

 that the inspectors can catch the fruit just as it 

 is being jjut on the train. AX Montreal, the 

 inspectors are unable to inspect more than five 

 or six barrels an hour. While these are bein^ 

 inspected, three or four carloads of apples may 



