HORTICULTURE IN CANADA. 95 



many of them being grown in perfection. This province has also 

 a Fruit Growers' Association, assisted by a grant from the public 

 purse, and exhibitions of fruits and flowers are held annually in 

 the larger towns and cities. Vancouver and Victoria have both 

 very fine public parks. 



The progress of horticulture, as well as agriculture, throughout 

 Canada has been greatly stimulated by the organization and main- 

 tenance of experimental farms by the Dominion Government. 

 Ten years ago this good work was begun, and while the greater 

 attention has been given to measures looking towards the im- 

 provement of farming, many lines of horticultural work have been 

 vigorously prosecuted. These experimental farms are five in 

 number, the central or principal farm being located at Ottawa, 

 the seat of government, — where, on the boundary line between 

 Ontario and Quebec, it serves the purposes of these tAvo important 

 provinces, — and the four branch farms in the more distant prov- 

 inces of the Dominion. A site was chosen for one of these at 

 Nappan, in Nova Scotia, near the dividing line between that Prov- 

 ince and New Brunswick, where it ministers to the needs of the 

 three Maritime Provinces. One was located near Brandon, in the 

 central part of Manitoba. A third was placed at Indian Head, a 

 small town on the Canadian Pacific Railway, in Assiniboia, one 

 of the Northwest Territories ; and the fourth at Agassiz, in the 

 coast climate of British Columbia. The climatic conditions pre- 

 vailing at these several points are all very different, and each 

 location in this respect fairly represents a large area. 



At each of these farms, orchards and fruit plantations have 

 been established and a large number of varieties of fruits tested^ 

 while similar experimental work has been carried on with many 

 different sorts of ornamental trees, shrubs, and flowers. The 

 selections made in each case have been of such varieties as were 

 thought to be most likely to succeed in the climates in which they 

 were to be tried. In the Maritime Provinces the climate resembles 

 that of many parts of New England, and the branch experimen- 

 tal farm at Nappan occupies a fairly representative position. 

 The climate is milder and more moist than that of Ottawa, and 

 all the varieties of trees and shrubs which succeed at the central 

 farm do quite as well, or better, at Nappan, and many varieties 

 of fruits which thrive in Nova Scotia are not able to endure the 

 more severe winters at Ottawa. At this eastern branch farm 



