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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



The Canadian Horticulturist 



Published by The Horticultur»l 

 Publiihinc Company", Limited 



The Only Horticultural Magazine 

 in the Dominion 



Official Organ of Britiih Columbia, Ontario, Quebec 

 and Prince Edward Island Fruit Qrowers' 

 Associations and of the Ontario Veg- 

 etable Growers' Association 

 H. Bronson Cowan, Uditor and Business Manager 

 A. B. Ctn-riNO, B.S.A., Associate Editor 

 , W. G. Rook, Advertising Manager 

 GREAT BRITAIN 

 Frank Fletcher. 135 Henrietta Street. Old Trafford. 

 Manchester. Eng.. Advertising and Circulation Manager, 



1. The Canadian Horticulturist is published the first 

 of every month. 



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

 strictly in advance. I'or all countries except Canada, 

 United States and Great Britain add 50c. lor postage 

 for each one year subscription. 



3. Remittances should be made by Post OflSce ,or Money 

 Expr^'ss 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 pai(i. 



5. Change of Address — When a chan.it- 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. cArticles 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 



SOMETHING SHOULD BE DONE 



It is lime the Dominion Department of Agri- 

 culture took action to afford greater protection 

 to fruit growers and other producers whose 

 products are sold in the markets of Great Britain. 

 The government has done excellent work in the 

 direction of improving the cold storage facilities 

 on the railway and steamship lines, but this is 

 not enough. Its care should follow the products 

 until they are in the hands of the consumers. 



Take the case of apples forwarded to Great 

 Britain on consignment to be sold by auction. 

 Should the steamer carrying the apples reach 

 the market at a time when there was not much 

 fruit on hand, the apples, if in good condition, 

 sell for a satisfactory figure. Should, however, 

 several vessels, either from Canada, the States 

 or elsewhere reach port about the same time, a 

 glut occurs. The result is that the apples are 

 sold at a loss. Some means of regulating the 

 quantity of Canadian apples placed on the mar- 

 ket each day is required. Were the government 

 to place a competent man in a market such as 

 London, and give him the assistance he would 

 require, it would be possible for Canadian grow- 

 ers to consign fruit direct to him. This fruit 

 could be turned over to reliable auctioneers im- 

 mediately, should the market ^eem favorable, or 

 it might be held in cold storage until any tem- 

 porary surplus in the auction rooms had been 

 absorbed. In this way many thousands of dol- 

 lars could be saved for our Canadian growers. 

 It might, even, be possible to arrange for buyers 

 to visit the warerooms, examine samples of the 

 fruit and make purchases at first hand. In 

 cases where growers shipped fruit direct to dealers 

 or commission houses, it would be possible for 

 them to arrange with the buyers that, should 

 they find the fruit in a damaged condition on its 

 arrival, they would have to call in the govern- 

 ment representative and secure a report from 

 him to that effect before they would have the 

 right to make deductions in the price agreed on 

 for the fruit. 



Were he of the right stamp, such a government 

 official would be able to advertise Canadian fruit 

 to excellent advantage. He could gain the con- 

 fidence of the buyers in the quality of the fruit 



and thus help to increase the demand. These 

 arc only sugge.stions. Some of them may be 

 impracticable. Something of this kind, however, 

 should be done and done soon. 



It may be argued that this is a matter for pri- 

 vate enterprise. The trouble is our apples are con- 

 signed in such small C|uantities it is not possible 

 for individual shippers to make arrangements 

 such as those outlined It is encouraging to 

 note, however, that the aims of the recently or- 

 ganized Ontario Cooperative Fruit Growers' As- 

 sociation includes the ])lacing of representatives 

 in the British markets. 



What is needed is that our growers shall have 

 some assurance that their fruit when it reaches 

 Great Britain is sold to the best advantage, that 

 steps be taken to prevent growers being de- 

 frauded by untruthful re|Jorts concerning the 

 condition of their fruit, and that our fruit be 

 more widely advertised in the leading markets 

 of the Old Country. This is a line of work that 

 should be handled by the Markets Division of 

 the Dominion Department of Agriculture, rather 

 than by the Department of Trade and Commerce. 

 The agents of the latter department are expected 

 to look after everything from pig iron to matches. 

 What is required is the extension of the work of 

 the markets division, whose employees now watch 

 the condition of the fruit until it is unloaded 

 from the steamers on the other side, by the ap- 

 pointment of some man in whom fruit growers 

 will have confidence, whose duty it will be to 

 attend to such matters as we have here suggested. 

 Dairy Commissioner Ruddick, who is supposed 

 to look after the interests of the fruit growers, 

 would do much to gain the confidence of fruit 

 growers in his ability to assist them, were he to 

 take action in this matter. 



GET BUSY NOW 



There are a number of towns and villages, 

 and even cities, in Ontario where there are no 

 horticultural societies. In almost every case 

 these centres show a civic lack of the love of 

 the beautiful in nature that is seldom evident 

 where a horticultural society exists. While 

 each of them have some citizens who take a 

 pride in keeping their homes beautiful with 

 flowers and shrubs, the proportion of attractive 

 homes is seldom as large in centres without 

 horticultural societies as is the case in other 

 places where these societies play an active part 

 in promoting a greater appreciation of muni- 

 cipal aesthetics. 



During the past season a visit to the town 

 of Strathroy, where a live horticultural society 

 exists, revealed the fact that its homes were 

 something of which to be proud. House after 

 house, block after block, and street after street 

 revealed homes with nice lawns and gardens 

 and flower beds. I^ovely evergreen hedges in 

 many cases were the only form of fence used. 

 Where lack of ground made a garden impossible, 

 a glance was almost sure to reveal flowers in 

 the windows or on the doorsteps. In the town 

 of Carleton Place, which is about the same size 

 as Strathroy, but which is without a horticul- 

 tural society, the same conditions did not pre- 

 vail. While Carleton Place has some lovely 

 homes, and in writing thus we hope it will be 

 understood that we are expressing the views 

 of a lover of horticulture to whom even a cot- 

 tage is lovely if it has flowers and vines — they 

 were the exception rather than the rule. A 

 considerable proportion of the houses had no 

 grounds in front. In the case of others, fences 

 were all that divided lawns and gardens that 

 showed the lack of care. Window boxes were 

 an unusual sight. In a few years a live hor- 

 ticultural society, through lawn and garden 

 competitions, the distribution of plants, flowers 

 and seeds to its members and to the school 

 children, as well as by public exhibitions, could 

 work a wonderful improvement in Carleton 

 Place. 



There are many other places like Carleton 

 Place, which need horticultural societies. Pem- 

 broke, Amprior, Alexandria, Cornwall, Mor- 



risburg, Brockville and Gananoquc, ..it „ icw 

 in that one small section of the province east 

 of Kingston. In some of these the formation 

 of horticultural societies has been blocked in the 

 past by the agricultural societies. This source 

 of opposition has Ixen removed in the new act 

 governing horticultural societies, as in future 

 horticultural societies will receive their grants 

 separate from agricultural societies. Surely 

 there are enough lovers of nature in progrcs.sive 

 centres such as these, with sufTicient public 

 spirit to lead them to take the few simple 

 steps necessary to launch a society. 



If you would like to form a society now is 

 the time to start work. A httle de'lay now 

 may make it impossible to do anything for 

 another year. The act governing horticul- 

 tural societies retjuires that new societies must 

 complete organization by alxiut the middle of 

 January or they will not be entitled to partic- 

 ipate in the government grant. You should, 

 therefore, start work now. Talk the matter 

 over with a few of your friends, interest youi 

 local editors, and finally ascertain how manv 

 people will be willing to pay one riollar to join 

 the society for a year. If there are more than 

 200 ratepayers in your town you will have to 

 secure .50 members, but if the numlx-r of rate- 

 payers is less than 200, then 30 members will 

 be sufficient. Get these people to sign a peti- 

 tion for the right to form a horticultural society 

 and send it to the Department of Agriculture 

 at Toronto before the first of the year. You 

 will then be given permission to hold a meeting 

 for organization purposes, after which you will 

 have a horticultural society which, if con- 

 ducted on right lines, will result in untold good 

 to yourself, your fellow-citizens and your town. 



[DISSATISFACTION PREVAILS'" 



The manner in which the express compani^ 

 of Canada have handled the tender fruits duriT:_ 

 this season is deplorable. The fruit grower in 

 most localities is at the mercy of these companies. 

 On innumerable occasions fruit has tjeen refused 

 for lack of car room and made to lie for hours in 

 the sun waiting for a train. The fruit deterior- 

 ated and the grower lost money. In most i: 

 stances there is little or no chance of redrew- 



Besides lack of car space at the proper time, 

 the express companies have failed at times to 

 dispatch fruit that was delivered at the stations, 

 even though there was plenty of room. The 

 Horticulturist can cite cases where frtiit 

 consigned to northern points, lay at Toront 

 express offices for hours. These companies d 

 not employ enough men. They will not pay 

 decent wages. Employees are forced to work 

 harder than they should. With only half a st.i 

 of employees it is no wonder that the companii 

 fail to dispatch fruit. While both companies 

 operating in Canada are lax in this respect, the 

 Canadian Express Company is most at faul' 

 Many complaints have reached this office res pet ■ 

 ing the carelessness of this company in particula: 



This is work for the Railway Commissidi 

 through which fruit growers can now tak. 

 action. Examples of the loss caused grower 

 by neglect of this nature should be broug! 

 to the attention of the commis,sion. It will be tlu 

 quickest method of bringing about an improve- 

 ment. 



ATTEND THE EXHIBITION 



There is no place where a person interesti 

 in horticulture can spend a few days early in 

 November to greater profit than at the On- 

 tario Horticultural Exhibition. In no way 

 can he better learn to distinguish one variety 

 of fruit, flowers or vegetables from another, 

 or to get a correct idea of what constitutes a 

 first-class specimen. Those on exhibition are 

 the choicest specimens. They may be con- 

 sidered even better than what is commonly 

 known as first class. The proper methods of 

 packing, also, may be learned. There are 

 many things that are worth seeing and oli- 

 serving. 



