THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



67 



ers, such as the changing conditions of trade 

 and markets, transportation, cold storage, co- 

 operation and numerous other questions, render 

 it necessary that we should have a department 

 and chief who could give his time and special 

 attention to the requirements of the industry, 

 having at the same time the direct ear of the 

 minister without the interference of the chief of 

 another department whose sympathies and en- 

 ergies are given more to the department or class 

 of work congenial to his tastes, training and 

 education." 



Mr. S. C. Parker, Berwick, N.S., secretary 

 Nova Scotia Fruit Growers' Association: — 

 "Fruit growers in Nova Scotia are feeling very 

 strongly the injustice of making the fruit de- 

 partment subservient to the dairy branch of 

 the Department of Agriculture." 



TKe Horticxiltural Department at GuelpK 



Constitution Changed 



At a general meeting of the Niagara Peninsula 

 United F'ruit Growers' Association, held in St. 

 Catharines, Feb: 17, the principal business dealt 

 with was the amendment of the constitution as 

 proposed by a committee at the last regular 

 meeting. After considerable discussion on all 

 clauses of the constitution a few changes were 

 made. It was decided to drop the word "Unit- 

 ed" from the name of the association. The 

 work and area of the association was extended 

 from Welland and Lincoln counties, as hereto- 

 fore, to include also the counties of Wentworth 

 and Haldimand. The membership fee in future 

 will be $1.00 per annum, which sum will include 

 membership not only to the Niagara Peninsula 

 Association, but also to the Ontario Fruit Grow- 

 ers' Association, with its many privileges, in- 

 cluding a year's subscription to The Canadian 

 Horticulturist. 



It was decided to hold a series of meetings at 

 the same points as last year, and on the following 

 dates: Stoney Creek, Mon., March 12; Grimsby, 

 Tues., 13; Beamsville, Wed., 14; Jordan Station, 

 Station, Thur., 15; Queenston, Fri., 16; St. 

 Catharines, Sat., 17. 



The association is now in communication with 

 Prof. Craig, of Cornell; Mr. Geo. T. Powell, of 

 Ghent, N.Y.; Prof. Van Deman, Rochester, 

 N.Y., and others, and of these one will be secured 

 to address the meetings. Local practical men 

 also will deliver addresses and lead the discus- 

 sion.— (A.B.C. 



Dominion Fruit Conference 



The Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Prince 

 Edward Island Fruit Growers' Associations 

 have appointed the following delegates to at- 

 tend the Dominion Fruit Conference to be held 

 in Ottawa, March 20, 21, 22. The list of dele- 

 gates appointed by the British Columbia As- 

 sociation has not been announced yet. 



Ontario — Harold Jones, E. Lick, W. H. 

 Bunting, Robert Thompson, M. Pettit, A. W. 

 Peart, J. L. Hilborn (?), (W. D. A. Ross), D. 

 Johnson, A. E. Sherrington. 



Nova Scotia — Ralph Eaton, R. W. Starr, 

 G. C. Miller, W. H. Sangster, S. C. Parker. 

 One N.S. delegate will have to be left off, and 

 it will probably be Mr. Sangster. 



Prince Edward Island — Reverend Father 

 Burke, A. E. Dewar, Professor Ready. 



Quebec — G. Reynaud, La Trappe; J. M. 

 Fisk, Abbotsford; N. E. Jack, Chateauguay 

 Basin; R. W.. Shepherd, Como; Robert Brodie, 

 Westmount. 



An Omission. — In the report of the annual 

 meeting of The Horticultural Publishing Co., 

 Limited, published in our last issue, the name 

 of Mr. A. W. Peart, of Burlington, was omitted 

 from the list of directors appointed for 1906. 



Please accept my congratulations for the 

 February Horticulturist, which is the first 

 issue I have seen in its new form, and I like it 

 very much indeed. It should be of much more 

 value to its readers. — (Prof. F. C. Sears, Truro, 

 N.S. 



THE editorial in the February issue of The 

 Canadian Horticulturist entitled "Im- 

 provement Needed at Guelph," and claim- 

 ing that the horticultural department at the 

 College has not been as valuable to the fruit and 

 vegetable growers of the province as they feel 

 it should have been, has attracted a great deal 

 of attention. One or two letters have been 

 received claiming that the editorial did net 

 do justice to the College, but among the rank 

 and file of the growers the editorial has been 

 generally commended. 



The following letter, which is referred to 

 editorially, has been received from a gentleman 

 who is well informed in regard to the work of 

 the horticultural department at the College. 

 This party requested that his name should not be 

 published. 

 Editor The Canadian Horticulturist: 



The editorial in the last issue of The Cana- 

 dian Horticulturist, in my opinion, does not 

 do justice to the work of the horticultural 

 department at the Guelph College. In the 

 first place, I think your criticism is likely to 

 mislead the public because they are not aware 

 of the nature of the manifold duties devolving 

 upon the horticultural department. Its first 

 duty, of course, is the instruction of students. 

 This part of the work has developed more 

 within the last few years than the public has 

 any idea of. When Prof. Hutt took charge 

 of the department 13 years ago, horticulture 

 was a minor subject on the curriculum, consist- 

 ing of but a few lectures in fruit growing given 

 to the second year. To-day it is one of the 

 major subjects, embracing fruit growing, vege- 

 table gardening, landscape gardening and flori- 

 culture, given throughout the year to the first, 

 second and fourth years, and to the lady students 

 and teachers' classes in attendance at the Mac- 

 donald Institute. Thirteen years ago the at- 

 tendance at the College was less than 300 

 students; last year the total attendance was 

 over 1,000 students. Yet in this time but one 

 assistant has been added to the teaching staff 

 of this department, and through necessity the 

 florist has been pressed into the work in addi- 

 tion to his regular duties. At the Illinois 

 Agricultural College two professors, two assist- 

 ant professors and two demonstrators are 

 employed to do the same work that three men 

 are doing at Guelph, and Ontario does not in 

 anyway have to take second place to IlHnois 

 in importance of horticultural matters. 



Second, the horticultural department, in addi- 

 tion to its teaching, has to maintain a large 

 catering department, furnishing fruits and 

 vegetables to the College boarding-houses, and 

 furnishing flowers and plants for the regular 

 decoration of tables, and almost weekly decor- 



E.xcellent Worh of tHe 

 Toronto BrancK 



That the monthly meetings held by the mem- 

 bers of the Toronto branch of the Ontario Veg- 

 etable Growers' Association will result in much 

 benefit to the' gardeners surrounding Toronto, 

 impresses those present more forcibly at each 

 meeting. On F'eb. 3, the executive reported 

 on the progress they had made in securing 

 lower rates by purchasing their supplies as an 

 association. Several firms had been seen, and 

 it was learned that a considerable reduction in 

 prices could be had on boxes, Paris green, etc. 

 The matter of deciding on what firms should be 

 dealt with was left in the hands of the commit- 

 tee. Several members referred to different 

 purchases of seeds and other supplies in which 

 they had been defrauded. It was suggested that 

 in future, if any firm misrepresented its goods 

 to the disadvantage of the grower the matter 

 should be reported to the executive, and the 

 matter be investigated. Judging from the free- 



ation of other buildings for public receptions and 

 meetings. This particular work has more than 

 doubled since the addition of the Macdonald 

 Institute. It has also to maintain greenhouses 

 for public display, and to keep over 40 acres 

 of lawn and grounds in a condition to be above 

 criticism ficm the thousands of visitors who 

 visit the College annually. For all of this work 

 the department has been barely able to get a 

 sufficient grant to employ the labor needed; 

 yet it has received no credit for anything of 

 this kind in the public accounts, and to but a 

 limited extent in the eyes of the general public. 



Third, the geneial public looks to the depart- 

 ment to carry on as much investigation work 

 as is done at the Ottawa Experimental Farm, 

 where the members of the staff have their. whole 

 time for such work, and are not required to 

 lecture or manage a catering department for 

 the rest of the institution. At many of the 

 American Experiment Stations they have a 

 separate staff for the college and one for experi- 

 ment station work. It is hardly to be expected 

 that with all the other work devolving upon the 

 staff at the College it can do as much investiga- 

 tion work as where they have nothing to do 

 but investigation work, as has been the case, 

 even in the Experimental Department at Guelph. 

 You will find by referring to last year's report 

 that much more investigation work has been 

 undertaken at Guelph than your editorial would 

 lead the public to believe; in fact, the staff has 

 undertaken as much as the funds at its disposal 

 would allow, for it has never yet had any 

 special grant for this purpose, and what has 

 been done has been squeezed out of tke already 

 insufficient labor grant. 



An effort has been made to overcome^ the 

 handicap of climate by developing the co- 

 operative plan of work. This has been done 

 through the Fruit Experiment Stations and 

 through the Experimental Union, both of which 

 the horticultural department was instrumental 

 in organizing. Last year there were over 2,000 

 experimenters engaged in this work. With a 

 promised increase in the grant for the work 

 this year, the work has been greatly extended, 

 and already over 1,000 applications from experi- 

 menters who wish to undertake the work this 

 spring have been filed. 



The crying need of the department is for 

 more assistants and more financial support to 

 enable it to undertake the work before it, and 

 it is up to the fruit growers, vegetable growers, 

 florists and horticulturists throughout the 

 Province to see that their department is as 

 liberally sustained as other departments of the 

 College which have a well-organized constituency 

 and good financial support at their back. 



A Friend of the College. 



dom with which the discussions were entered 

 into the members are gradually getting away 

 from the idea that the gardener's neighbor is 

 his greatest enemy. Each member seemed 

 anxious to let his brother gardener know all the 

 secrets that he had gained from his experience. 



The question of "Forcing Rhubarb" was 

 fully dealt with by Mr. Thos. Delworth, of 

 Weston. He had tried growing this crop from 

 seedlings, but found it difficult to obtain satis- 

 factory results. Better returns could be had 

 if strong, thrifty roots were used. 



In discussing celery-growing, Mr. Geo. Syme, 

 Jr., said that it was the most profitable crop a 

 gardener could grow. His experience with three 

 different kinds of soils had shown that sandy 

 loam was best. 



At 3 o'clock on March 3, in the Albion Hotel, 

 the following subjects will be discussed: Early 

 Cabbage, by J. Stevens; Celery Growing, by W. 

 Harris; Early Beets, by A. Shuter. The mem- 

 bers are requested to bring along any gardeners 

 who may be interested, whether members or not. 



