The Canadian Horticulturist. 



37 



SOMK PROMINENT CANADIAN HORTICLI/ILRISTS. -XI\'. 



MR. A. H. I'Kllll. 



R. A. H. Pettit, of Crimsby, the new President of our 

 Association, comes of one of those old famihes of U. E. 

 Loyahsts who settled in Western Ontario during the close 

 of the eighteenth century, choosing to leave the country 

 rather than live under a flag hostile to their own. 



It was a wise choice when the family settled at Grimsby, 

 in that favored fruit belt protected, on the one side, by the beautiful Niagara 

 escarpment, and on the other by the picturesque waters of Lake Ontario. 



Born in 1836 on such soil and with such favorable surroundings, is it any 

 wonder that Hamilton A. Pettit soon found that his farm was better adapted to 

 fruit culture than to ordinary farming? 



Leaving one side his experience in mixed and dairy farming, we notice that 

 his first large venture in fruit growing was in planting a ten-acre peach orchard, 

 some years ago, and at a time when few, as yet, had planted any large orchards 

 of that fruit. The large crops of fine yellow Crawfords, harvested as a result of 

 that venture, gave him a lift in financial matters and encouraged him to plant 

 more of his farm with fruit trees and vines. 



Some acres of grapes, mostly Concords, also made a good record, yielding, 

 one favorable season, at the rate of six tons per acre, at a time, too, when grapes 

 brought a much higher price in the markets than they do now. Since that time 

 he has engaged in the cultivation of pears, plums and small fruits, in addition to 

 a large orchard of apples and pears, of standard varieties. 



Mr. Pettit has also been active in advancing the interests of his fellow-grow- 

 ers, as is evidenced by the positions to which they have appointed him. 



In 1878, Mr. Pettit was instrumental in organizing the Grimsby F>uit Grow- 

 ers' Association, and he was elected the first president. For a long time this 

 Association was very active, and consisted of a large number of prominent fruit 

 growers in the Niagara district. Among the first things which Mr. Pettit did, as 

 President of this Association, was the calling of a meeting to discuss the question 

 of the yellows in the peach trees, and, as a result of this agitation, we have the 

 present Act for the destruction of this disease. 



In 1880 he formulated the basis upon which the Niagara District Fruit 

 Growers' Stock Company has since been operating, and he, therefore, might be 

 called the originator of that scheme. The first circular of this Company wa"* 

 issued on the 6th of May, 1881, the Company having been organized in April, 

 1880. 



When Farmers" Institutes were being organized throughout the country, the 

 Lincoln County Farmers' Institute was organized on January 25th, 1886, with 

 Mr. Pettit as its President, and this office he holds at the present time. 



