I 



24. Vhh Canadian Horticulturisi 



CI. I. MATH AM) IKLTI" ( LLTC Ki:. 



PROPOSAL, the importance of which to the fruit growers of Ontario 

 is not easily exaggerated, is set forth in the report recently jjublished 

 by Parliament, of the evidence given by Mr. (iordon Mowat, before 

 the Agricultural Committee of the House of Commons, on the Rela- 

 ':i.X' tion of Climatology to Agriculture and Horticulture. A climatic 

 ^ survey of the Dominion —a careful study and mapping in detail of 



the characteristics of our very many different local climates -seems scarcely 

 second in economic value to the great work being done by our experimental 

 farms. To know the average temperature of the growing season in each locality, 

 the average cold of winter, the ordinary and extra-ordinary extremes of the cold 

 season, the rainfall, the average length of time between killing frosts of spring 

 and autumn, and such other details of local climate as have a direct bearing on 

 fruit culture, is to have at the command of the fruit growers and others, the 

 means of determining at once, what kinds and varieties of fruit can or should 

 be grown in any locality. The information, which would of course be mapped 

 as accurately as possible, by lines winding and twisting with the varying climatic 

 conditions, would be based upon the records accumulated by our Meteorological 

 service, aided by the facts of altitude, slope and local topography supplied by 

 our railway and geological surveys, facts, the bearing of which on climate, it is 

 in the province of climatology to measure the influence of, even where meteor- 

 ological records are scanty or absent. Whh the light thus brought to bear, the 

 experience gained in Ontario and elsewhere, as to the fruits that grow or fail to 

 grow in j)articular localities, could at once be applied to all localities, even where 

 fruit culture has never been attempted, and this, too, with a certainty of conclu- 

 sions otherwise to be attained only by a costly process of actual testing, requiring, 

 in many cases, years of time, and involving an incalculable waste of money and 

 effort. 



Our experimental farms can never test the adaptability of certain fruits to 

 local climate. They represent only a few varieties of our climate. There are 

 but two farms — those at Nappan, N. S., and Cuelph — that represent any of the 

 points in the great range of climate between that of Niagara and that of Ottawa, 

 a range as great as exists between Niagara and North Carolina. Suih farms 

 would have to be multiplied many-fold, to test the climatic capacity of this 

 province for fruit growing, and spend many years" time to arrive at conclusions 

 which may be immediately known by the means ])roposed. 



.\s it is an axiom, that on similar soils and with like culture, any variety of 

 plant that succeeds or fails in a given locality, will succeed or fail in all other 

 localities having essentially the same conditions of climate and soil. The survey 

 Ijrofjosed would give the experimental farms and the fruit growers' associations 

 valuable aid in deciding wIutc to test Canadian. Russian and other fruits, etc. 



