38 FRUIT RANCHING. 



At Vernon we witnessed a proof of the severity of 

 even a British Columbia winter. The preceding 

 winter had been one of unexampled rigour through- 

 out the west of Canada, and in the Okanagan the 

 thermometer had dropped to —28' Fahr. The con- 

 sequence was that at Vernon some of the peach trees, 

 in at least one small orchard, were killed down to the 

 ground level. This again did not appeal to me, any 

 more than did the dust of Summerland, especially as 

 at Summerland itself, despite its name, we had seen 

 other peach trees which had almost certainly been 

 killed back to within a few inches of the ground by 

 frost. 



It was, as I have already said, my object to erect 

 greenhouses and grow hothouse produce, including 

 flowers. For this object none of these Okanagan 

 towns appeared to me sufficiently favourable. In the 

 first place, water is a sine qua non of greenhouse 

 work — water in unlimited quantities. It would not 

 do to be restricted to the quantity that would be ap- 

 propriated strictly to my acreage. In the next place, 

 these towns were smaller than Nelson, and conse- 

 quently were not likely to purchase so large a quan- 

 tity of flowering plants and cut flowers. Thirdly, 

 places on the Okanagan Lake had communication 

 with the main line of the C.P.R. at Sicamous Junction 

 on three days of the week only — the boat returning 

 south on the other three days of the week. Now, 

 however, there is a daily service. 



For these various reasons, I would not settle in 

 the Okanagan Valley; I would return to Nelson and 

 the Kootcnays. I did so, and after very little further 

 delay I bought the Bonnington Falls ranch. I have 



