^6 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



there are now nearly four hundred varieties of large and small 

 fruits under trial and about three hundred varieties of ornamental 

 trees and shrubs, and most of these are making satisfactory growth. 

 Many additions are made to these lists every year. Already these 

 plantations are proving a useful guide to the people in the Mari- 

 time Provinces, Avhether they desire to grow fruit or to beautify 

 their homes by ornamental planting. 



Passing now at one bound over a distance of seven hundred 

 and forty-two miles west of Nappan, we find ourselves at Ottawa, 

 the capital. Three miles from the centre of the city lies the cen- 

 tral experimental farm, consisting of four hundred and sixty- 

 five acres. Ten years ago this land was liberally sprinkled with 

 stumps and stones, and encumbered with one hundred and forty 

 acres of second-growth timber and forty acres of swamp. This 

 has all been cleared and reclaimed, and brought into a fair con- 

 dition of cultivation. About three hundred and thirty acres are 

 devoted to agricultural work, thirty-five acres to the testing of 

 fruits and vegetables, twenty-one acres to experiments with forest 

 trees, nine acres to ornamental planting along the margins of the 

 roads and about the buildings, and sixty-five acres to an arbore- 

 tum and botanic garden. 



There is an office building with chemical laboratory below, and 

 overhead a museum of farm products, in which the fruits grown 

 at the several farms make a striking display. Near by are the 

 houses of the chemist, botanist, and horticulturist, about which 

 there are some pretty groups of trees and shrubs. 



The conservatory consists of two glass structures, each 

 seventy-five feet long, in one of which there is a fair collection 

 of economic and ornamental plants. In the list of the former 

 will be found tea, coffee, cinnamon, camphor, pepper, cinchona, 

 cocoa and other plants serviceable to man. There are also col- 

 lections of orchids and cacti, with palms and ferns and many of 

 the commoner house plants. Another house is used, during the 

 early months of the year, for testing the vitality of seed grain 

 for farmers and for general propagating purposes. 



The barn with adjacent planting shows that the surroundings 

 of even a barn may be made attractive by a judicious use of trees 

 and shrubs. 



Orchards have been planted and are used for testing fruits, and 

 the number of varieties of large fruits under trial here is about 



