14 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



The Canadian Horticullurisl 



Published by The Horticultural 

 Publishing Company", Limited 



The Only Horticultural Magazine 

 in the Dominion 



'Official Oigan of British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec 



and Prince Edward Island Fruit Growers' 



Associations and of the Ontario Vce- 



etable Growers' Association 



H. Bronson Cowan, Editor and Business Manager 



J. .Albert Hand, B.S.A., Associate Kditor 



W. G. Rook, Advertising Manager 



A, B. CtrrriNG, B.S.A., Travelling Representative 



1. The Canadian Horticulturist is published the first 

 of every month. 



2. Subscription Price $1.00 a year, strictly in advance. 

 I'or all countries except Canada. United States and 

 Great Britain add 50c. for postage. 



3. Remittances should be made by Post GiBce or Money 

 Express Order, or Registered Letter. Postage Stamps 

 accepted for amounts less than $1.00. Receipts will be 

 acknowledjied on the address label, which shows the 

 date to which subscription is paid. 



4. Discontinuances—Responsible subscribers will con- 

 tinue to receive The Horticulturist until the publishers 

 are notified by letter to discontinue, when all arrearages 

 must be paid. Societies should send in their revised 

 lists in January ; otherwise it will be taken for granted 

 all will continue members. 



5. Change of Address — V\'hen a change of address is 

 ordered, both the old and the new addresses must be 

 given. 



6. cAdvertising Rates quijted on application. Circu- 

 lation .S,500. Copy received up to the 25th. Responsible 

 representatives wanted in towns and cities. 



7. cArticles and Illustrations for publication will be 

 thankfully received by the editor. 



8. c-AU Communications should be addressed : 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURLST 



507 and 508 Manning Chambers 



TORONTO, CANADA 



MAY SUCCESS ATTEND YOU 



We wish our readers, one and all, the hap- 

 piest of happy new years. May injurious in- 

 sect pests shun you, the sun shine and the 

 rain fall as you desire, and the output of your 

 gardens and orchards for 1906 be the best and 

 greatest in the history of the country. Such 

 good fortune will be none too good for the 

 readers of The Canadian Horticulturist. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



The great increase that has taken place in 

 the fruit interests of the Dominion has made 

 it necessary to enlarge The Canadian Horti- 

 culturist. During the past two years many 

 improvements have been made in The Horti- 

 culturist; new departments have been add- 

 ed and the amount of setting greatly increased. 

 Several issues last year had to be enlarged by 

 the addition of four to twelve pages each, but 

 even this was not sufficient to relieve the pres- 

 sure on our space, as every month several col- 

 umns of important reading matter had to be 

 left out. 



For years The Horticulturist chiefly rej)- 

 resented the fruit growers of Ontario. Last 

 year it was appointed the official organ of the 

 Prince Edward Island, the Quebec and the 

 British Columbia provincial fruit growers' as- 

 sociations and the management was surprised 

 to find how immense are the fruit interests of 

 these provinces. It was soon realized that if 

 The Horticulturist was to keep the fruit 

 growers of the Dominion in touch with the de- 

 velopment that is taking place in the fruit in- 

 terests in the different provinces it would have 

 to obtain regular correspondents in the fruit 

 centres of these provinces and add still another 

 department to the paper. It was found to be 

 impossible to do this last year, but at a meeting 

 of the shareholders of The Horticultural Pub- 

 lishing Company, Limited, held early in Decem- 

 ber, it was decided to enlarge The Horticul- 

 turist to its jiresent form and to make many 

 other improvements. Most of the shareholders 

 of The Horticulturist are prominent fruit 

 growers. 



One of the best features of the paper during 

 1906, therefore, will be the correspondence that 

 will be published in each issue from the leading 

 fruit centres of the Dominion. Regular cor- 

 respondents have been appointed at Montreal 

 and Winnipeg who will report on the condition 

 of the fruit that reaches and passes through 

 those centres. A monthly letter from I'rince 

 Edward Island will appear that will be written 

 by that well-known horticultural enlhusia.sl. 

 Rev. Father A. E. Burke, the president of the 

 Prince FMward Island Fruit Growers' Associa- 

 tion. The first of these letters appears in this 

 issue. A correspondent has been secured in 

 Nova Scotia, and one is shorth' to be apix)inted 

 in British Columbia. These correspondents are 

 experts in fruit matters and are located in the 

 heart of the fruit centres. The Horticultur- 

 ist expects that their monthly letters will have 

 the effect of giving fruit growers generally a 

 broader outlook on fruit conditions throughout 

 the Dominion, tvnd of bringing them into closer 

 touch with each other. 



As a means of bringing the paper into closer 

 touch with the rank and file of the fruit and 

 vegetable growers, a travelling representative 

 has been added to the staff in the person of Mr. 

 A. B. Cutting, B.S.A., a graduate of the Guelph 

 Agricultural College, where he took the special 

 course in horticulture, and spent a year as in- 

 structor and' lecturer in horticulture. Before 

 going to Guelph, Mr. Cutting spent two years on 

 the large fruit and vegetable farm of J. C. Black 

 & Son, at Truro, Nova Scotia. During his con- 

 nection with the Guelph college he had charge 

 of fruit experiments there, under the, direction 

 of Prof. Hutt, and of the co-operative experi- 

 ments in horticulture over Ontario as conduct- 

 ed by the Experimental Union. Mr. Cutting 

 was in the Argentine Repuljlic for a year and 

 during 1903 visited the southern States, includ- 

 ing Maryland and Georgia, in which latter state 

 he spent three months in the great Hale orchards. 

 It will be Mr. Cutting's mission, while repre- 

 senting The Horticulturist, to visit the fruit 

 and vegetable growers in their homes and to 

 contribute special articles to the paper giving 

 their views and his own on topics of general 

 interest. The first of his letters appears in this 

 issue. 



Although the number of pages has been de- 

 creased from ,52, in the old Horticulturist, 

 to 32 in this, its new form, there is just twice 

 as many inches of reading matter on one of 

 these pages as on one of those in the old Hor- 

 ticulturist. This means that The Horti- 

 culturist, as published last year, has been 

 enlarged by the addition of twelve pages of 

 reading matter, or practically by twenty-five 

 per cent. In addition to this a better quahty 

 of paper will be used this year than ever before. 



Since our last issue we have completed ar- 

 rangements to have the paper printed in To- 

 ronto in future, instead of in Hamilton, as 

 formerly. This will be a great convenience to 

 the business management and will make possible 

 the printing of a better paper. Many other 

 improvements have been made in this issue, 

 such as the addition of a poultry department 

 and separate departments with competent men, 

 who have had practical experience, in charge. 

 Those of our readers who have difficulties with 

 shrubs, bulbs, perennials, or those who do not 

 know just how to have a beautiful lawn are 

 advised to send along questions. We will be 

 pleased to secure reliable answers to all questions 

 bearing on horticultural work. 



We make no apology for giving these details 

 about the business management and plans of 

 the paper. The horticultural interests of Can- 

 ada and those of The Canadian Horticultur- 

 ist are so closely identified that we feel that 

 anything that affects one affects the other, and 

 our readers are interested in both. It is our 

 desire to publish a paper of which Canadian 

 fruit, flower and vegetable growers may have 

 reason to feel proud. The changes that have 

 been made in The Horticulturist have been 

 introduced with that object in view. We look 

 to our readers to give us their active support 

 and it will be our aim to justify their confidence. 



THE DISCORD SHOULD CEASE 



It is time the fruit growers in the different 

 provinces should get together and, armed with 

 representative exhibits, should settle this mat- 

 ter as to which has the best fruit. Ontario has 

 moved along for years in the happy belief that 

 anything any of the other provinces has been 

 able to do in the line of fruit [jroduction must 

 have been largely due to an accident and as 

 such was unworthy of notice. Were any per- 

 son to inform a Nova Scotian that the Annap- 

 olis Valley was not the very best fruit section, 

 well yes, anywhere, something would probably 

 happen. Recently that cheeky little province, 

 Prince Edward Island, has insisted on making 

 itself heard; in fact, it does a little sixjuting in 

 this issue of The Horticulturist, even going 

 so far as to claim it has produced better fruit 

 than that grown across the channel in the val- 

 ley of Evangeline. This, of course, they be- 

 lieve, proves it is the best tliat could be grown 

 anywhere. Quebec has long contended that 

 there are no apples so fine as the Fameuse and 

 Mcintosh Red, and that these varieties are 

 grown to perfection within its borders only. 

 .\'ow, if you would beUeve it, British Columbia 

 persists in flaunting in the faces of her sister 

 provinces the fact that for two years in succes- 

 sion her fruit has captured the gold medal at 

 the big horticultural exhibition in England, the 

 country that is the market of the surplus fruit 

 of all the provinces. She even seems to think 

 that she is so up-to-date in her methods that 

 the other provinces, when they awake from 

 their Rip-Van-Winkle sleep, will have a hard 

 time to catch up to them — the band waggon. 



Now what are we going to do about it? This 

 discord among the members of Miss Canada's 

 family should cease. Why not arrange for a 

 national exhibition of fruit next winter, place 

 the best fruit from the different provinces side 

 by side and settle the matter — until the next 

 time? Of course the present situation has its 

 advantages. If I say I have the best fruit you 

 can't prove that such is not the case. At the 

 same time you can continue to believe that 

 yours is the best of all, while the other fellows 

 can laugh at us both. It is annoying, however, 

 to have one's assertions ridiculed and a national 

 exhibition seems the best solution of the diffi- 

 culty. Now, then, which will be the first prov- 

 ince to take the field with a challenge? 



OUR GROWERS SHOULD ACT 



Ontario farmers and fruit growers as well as 

 those in the other provinces, lose scores of thous- 

 ands of dollars every year through the careless 

 and wasteful manner in which a large propor- 

 tion of the apple crop is gathered and market- 

 ed. Improvement is needed all along the line, 

 . including the method of growing the fruit, the 

 picking, packing and selUng of it on this side of 

 the Atlantic and in the marketing in Europe. 

 The existing system is like a sieve being so full 

 of weaknesses, through which the money of the 

 growers slips, that it is a wonder they receive 

 as much as they do for their fruit. 



The main defect is the number of times the 

 crop is handled between the day it leaves the 

 orchards of the growers, and when it reaches 

 the hands of the consumers. In many cases 

 the grower sells the fruit to a packer who sends 

 men to the orchard to do the picking and pack- 

 ing. It is forwarded by the buyer to large 

 dealers in Great Britain who call in auctioneers. 

 The auctioneers dispose of the fruit to retailers 

 and wholesalers, who in turn sell it to the con- 

 sumers. It not infrequently happens that a 

 crop passes through the hands of five people 

 between the time the grower sells it and the 

 consumer buys it from the retailer. Each of 

 the intermediaries demand their fee, with the 

 result that it is not to be wondered at that the 

 grower frequently does not receive a quarter or 

 a fifth of the price the fruit finally sells for in 

 Europe. The remedy for the situation lies in 

 greater co-operation on the part of the growers. 

 Co-operation will make it jxjssible for the grow- 

 ers to sell direct to the retailers and thus save 



