•326 POMOLOGY 



Great credit is due the amateur and professional horti- 

 culturists of Canada for the results of their efforts along this 

 line. Not only have they produced varieties of apples which 

 are hardy in sections where previously no fruit could be 

 grown, but they have also arrived at some conclusions which 

 will be of value to future plant-breeders. 



The Central Experimental Farms, where most of the work 

 is conducted, are located at Ottawa, but there are also several 

 substations at various points in the Dominion. At Ottawa, 

 734 named varieties of apples have been tested as well as 

 many unnamed seedlings; also 160 Russian sorts, though 

 many which were at first thought to be different have proved 

 to be identical. 



The first recorded apple breeding in Canada seems to be 

 that of Charles Arnold, of Paris, Ontario. He made several 

 crosses between Northern Spy and Wagener and exhibited 

 eighteen of the cross-bred apples in Boston in 1873. One of 

 these apples, which was named Ontario, has attained some 

 commercial importance. 



In 1869 Francis Peabody Sharp, of Upper Woodstock, 

 New Brunswick, began some crossing with apples, having 

 as his object the production of an apple of extreme hardiness 

 and productivity. He used as parents the New Brunswicker 

 — either Oldenburg or very similar to it — and Fameuse (as 

 the male). Several of his crosses have been propagated, but 

 Crimson Beauty is doubtless the best known and is most 

 widely distributed commercially. 



The first extensive work in growing seedling trees was 

 begun in 1890 by William Saunders when an orchard of about 

 three thousand seedling trees was planted. The seed from 

 which these trees were grown came from north of Riga, 

 Russia. About fifty of them began to bear in 1897. "The 

 number of trees was gradually reduced by winter-killing, by 

 fire-blight, or were removed on account of weak growth and 



