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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



The Canadian Horticulturisl 



Published by The Horticulturftl 

 Publishins Company^, Limited 



The Only" Horticultural Magazine 

 in the Dominion 



Official Orsan of British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec 

 and Prince Edward Island Fruit Growers' 

 Associations and of the Ontario Veg- 

 etable Grov/ers* Association 

 H. Bronson Cowan, Editor and Business Manager 

 A. B. Cdttino. B.S.A., Associate Editor 

 W. G. Rook. Advertising Manager 

 GREAT BRITAIN 

 Prank Fletcher, 135 Henrietta Street. Old Trafford. 

 Manchester, Eng., Advertising and Circulation Manager 



1. The Canadian Horticulturist is published the first 

 of every month. 



i. Subscription Price 50 cents a year, three years $1 .20, 

 strictly in advance. Kor all countries except Canada, 

 United States and Great Britain add 50c. for postage 

 for each one year subscription. 



3. Remittances should be made by Post Office or Money 

 Express Order, or Registered Letter. Postage Stamps 

 accepted for amounts less than $1.00. 



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. 



5. Change of Address — When a change of address is 

 ordered, both the old and the new addresses must be 

 given. 



6. cAdvertising Rates quoted on application. Circu- 

 lation 5,500. Copy received up to the 23rd. Responsible 

 representatives wanted in towns and cities. 



7. c.ArticIes and Illustrations for publication will be 

 thankfully received by the editor. 



8. cAU Communications should be addressed: 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



507 and 508 Manning Chambers 



TORONTO, CANADA 



A GREAT NATIONAL ORGAN 



In pursuance of our declared intention to 

 make The Canadian HoRTictn-TURisT a paper 

 of national influence and of international 

 renown, we hereby announce an important 

 change in policy. In future the regular sub- 

 scription price will be 50 cents a year instead 

 of one dollar a year. New or renewal subscrip- 

 tions will be accepted for periods of three years 

 for $1.20. This means that our regular price 

 for yearly subscriptions has been cut in half, 

 and that the reduction, in the case of three 

 year subscriptions, is even greater. In spite 

 of this great drop, it is our intention to not 

 only maintain the present standard of the 

 magazine, but to further improve it in several 

 important respects. 



The decision to lower the price of subscrip- 

 tion was reached unanimously at a meeting 

 of the shareholders of the Horticultural Pub- 

 lishing Company held early in August. It was 

 the feeling of all present that it would be better 

 to obtain a circulation of 10,000 to 12,000, 

 within the next couple of years, at the 50 cent 

 subscription rate, than to have a circulation of 

 5,000 to 6,000 at the one dollar rate. 



The facts are these: Most of the leading fruit, 

 fJower and vegetable growers of Canada are 

 already subscribers for The Canadian Hor- 

 ticulturist. These men have not hesitated 

 to pay one dollar a year for the magazine, and 

 have considered it cheap at the price. On the 

 other hand, there are thousands of people in 

 Canada who are interested in horticultural mat- 

 ters in only a small way. These include thou- 

 sands of farmers with three to ten or more acres 

 of apple orchards as well as many people in 

 cities, towns and villages who are growing 

 flowers on an amateur scale. But few of this 

 class of people are now taking the paper. We 

 desire to reach them also. 



Experience has demonstrated the fact that 

 these people will not pay one dollar a year for 

 a magazine that is published only once a month. 

 It is necessary, therefore, if their subscriptions 

 are to be gained and retained: first, that we 

 shall offer The Horticulturist to them at a 

 price that will lead them to subscribe, and, 



second, that the quality of the paper be such 

 that they will be glad to renew their subscrip- 

 tions when they expire. It is this that we 

 intend to accomplish. 



In adopting these new subscription rates we 

 are following a ix)licy that has proved success- 

 ful with the leading fruit pai>ers of the United 

 States. The Western Fruit Grower and the 

 National Fruit Grower, both of which are 

 monthly fruit papers, having a circulation each 

 of over 35,000, both built up their subscription 

 lists by accepting subscriptions at the rate of 

 50 cents a year and at still lower prices for 

 long term subscriptions. The Southern Fruit 

 Grower and American I'ruits, two other well- 

 known United States publications, are circu- 

 lated on the same basis. We have decided, 

 therefore, that The Canadian Horticul- 

 turist shall not be outdone by the fruit papers 

 in the United States. Instead, its circulation 

 will be pushed on the new basis from one end 

 of the Dominion to the other, until we have 

 built up a subscription list that will make the 

 magazine not only a decided financial success 

 but one of great influence and power. 



The growth of The Canadian Horticul- 

 turist during the past five years has been 

 phenomenal. No other magazine in the Do- 

 minion has made more rapid progress. Not 

 only has it been doubled in size, but for five 

 years in succession its receipts from advertis- 

 ing have doubled each year. This progress 

 has been most gratifying to the management. 

 The only fX)int in which improvement has been 

 slow has been in that of circulation. On the 

 new subscription basis it is believed that the 

 solution of this difficulty has been found. A 

 bright future for the magazine, therefore, is 

 anticipated. 



At the shareholders' meeting it was decided 

 that to enable the making of further improve- 

 ments in The Horticulturist, and to permit 

 of an energetic subscription campaign, it would 

 be well to issue $10,000 more stock. A con- 

 siderable portion of this stock was subscribed 

 at the meeting. The remainder will be reserved 

 for one month to give the present shareholders 

 an opportunity to increase their holdings, 

 after which the balance, if any, may be off^ered 

 to our readers. 



The fruit industry of Canada, during the past 

 few years, has shown phenomenal development. 

 The next few years promise to show even greater 

 progress. New markets are opening in the 

 west with great rapidity. The in-rush of popu- 

 lation is so immense that the consuming capa- 

 city of our eastern centres is showing a marked 

 increase. The better standing of our fruit in 

 the British markets, and the improved cold 

 storage arrangements on our railway and 

 steamship lines, will greatly extend the Euro- 

 pean outlet. All this means that Canada needs 

 a live, aggressive paper dealing with horticul- 

 tural matters, and it is our aim to fill this need 

 by means of The Canadian Horticulturist. 



A NEW COOPERATIA^ MOVEMENT 



The organization of an Ontario Cooperative 

 Fruit Growers' Association is an event of more 

 than ordinary import. It marks another step 

 in the movement that is helping to obtain for 

 the growers full value for their crops. Being 

 founded on a strictly commercial basis, it will 

 assist the local cooperative associations to 

 eliminate many of the evils that beset the Cana- 

 dian fruit trade. 



One of the greatest of these evils is the irre- 

 sponsible buyer. Every year many growers 

 are defrauded by sharpers. They sell their 

 fruit to men who have carefully and deliberately 

 laid plans to rob them. These men buy as 

 many barrels as they can secure, making only 

 a small advance payment, ship them to the 

 Old Country, and go back to the grower with 

 tales of disaster, injury in transit, a glutted 

 market and others equally false. The grower 

 is forced to accept whatever he can get, because, 

 unfortunately, he can get no redress. The 



buyer is irresponsible; he has no property in 

 the .section by which the grower can obtain 

 recompense. The buyer, rejoicing in the ease 

 with which it was done, moves ofl the next 

 year in search of a new field to exploit. 



Tliere are <jther defects in the condition of 

 our fruit indu.stry. Having no storage facili- 

 ties, growers, acting individually, are forced 

 to rush their fruit to market. This tends to 

 glut the market and the grower suffers. He 

 should be in a position to obviate this feature 

 of the trade, but he is not, so long as he acts 

 alone. 



The individual grower seldom has fruit in 

 sufficient quantity to warrant responsible buy- 

 ers visiting him. The fruit may lie good and 

 well packed, but, as no two men in a locality 

 have equal ideas on what constitutes a correct 

 pack, the packing of fruit in such a locality is 

 not uniform. Buyers know this, and steer 

 clear of such localities, or gather in the fruit 

 at ridiailously low prices. 



Even when buyers do visit him, the indi- 

 vidual apple grower is, as a nile, at his mercy. 

 Having little or no definite information re- 

 garding the condition of the market and (4 

 prices being paid, the grower, generally, is 

 forced to accept what is offered. Frequently 

 apples that net the grower $1.50 a barrel, yell 

 on the market for five, six or seven dollars. 

 Between the grower and the consumer there is 

 a line of middlemen that appropriate to them- 

 selves the profit that proper management 

 would bring to the growers. Sr>me of these 

 middlemen should be eliminated. 



These are some of the evils that cooperation 

 is helping to overcome. Cooperative asso- 

 ciations, usually, have large quantities of fruit 

 at their disposal. This enables them to store 

 their fruit when it is advisable to do so, to sell 

 direct to responsible firms and to demand cash 

 for every sale made. They are in a position 

 to put up and offer a uniform pack, and to ask 

 a high price for it. 



The cooperative movement in Ontario is of 

 recent origin, but it has shown wonderful ad- I 

 vancement. This year one-tenth of the crop J 

 of the province will be handled by the co- 

 operative associations; five years ago, it is 

 doubtful if 5,000 barrels were put up in this 

 way. The increased interest is due to the 

 soundness of the principle having been demon- 

 strated by the larger profits that have been 

 realized on fruit thus handled. 



A number of the cooperative associations 

 in Ontario have been eminently successful. At 

 first they found no difficulty in disposing of 

 their crops. More recently, through lack of 

 cooperation between them, their salesmen 

 have competed against each other, and prices 

 thereby have been affected injuriously. This 

 has shown the need for still another and a more 

 advanced step in the cooperative movement' 

 namely, cooperation among the cooperative 

 associations. This now has been accomplished. 

 In future, instead of several associations send- 

 ing salesmen to the west or to Great Britain, 

 and where possibly they might compete with 

 each other, the central organization will be 

 able to send one man, who thus will be able to 

 maintain prices. In the past the local asso- 

 ciations have had no means of knowing what 

 the other associations were asking for their 

 crops, or the prices being paid in the different 

 sections. Through the new provincial organ- 

 ization each association in future will be kept 

 informed in regard to the prices prevailing in 

 the other parts of the province. Through the 

 influence of the newly organized Provincial 

 Association, the larger associations now will be 

 able to help the smaller, and therefore, weaker, 

 organizations. 



The value of the Ontario Cooperative Fruit 

 Growers' Association will be far-reaching. 

 Other provinces may fall in line. British Col- 

 umbia, for example, has a number of local 

 associations. It is probable that she will 

 follow the example of Ontario and organize a 

 provincial organization. Thus will be welded 



