The Canadian Horticulturist. 13 



but we are also usinp our brains and opening our eyes to do what nature 

 tells us can be done. A few years ago there was only one fruit tree where now 

 there is a hundred. Farmers came to Grimsby for miles after their winter 

 supply of fruit, while their own soil and climate called them to sit " under 

 their own vine and fig-tree." Some one said to Columbus : " It seems a very 

 easy matter to have discovered America;" but his reply was, "Can you 

 stand this egg on its end ? " and when he failed to do so Columbus gave the 

 egg a rap on the table and it stood — a thing easy enough when you know 

 how. Sixty years ago we had the same soil and climate ; but we said, 

 " Trees will grow placed in the corner of the fence, trimmed with the axe, 

 and browsed by the cattle." Why, trees are no better prepared to shift for 

 themselves than our domestic animals ; even Adam was to dress the garden 

 in Eden, and how much more it was needed outside where the thorn and 

 thistle grew broader and higher. Even the ancient poet Horace called the 

 careless man " the wretch that struck the tree down, leaving a miserable 

 stump of wood." 



When fruit growing was in its infancy there were men found to cherish 

 the enterprise. They looked not only at what it was then, but at the pos- 

 sibilities, proportionate to the energies of the soil and the power of man. 

 The nucleus was small when Judge Campbell, of Niagara, centralized 

 our gatherings; and the late Dr. Beadle, of St. Catharines, almost deserves to 

 be canonized for his efforts, both of faith and works, in the good cause. If 

 we fail to remember the words of these men, we at least caught enough of their 

 spirit in those early days to engage in the enterprise of fruit culture. Some 

 one has said, " Those who love virtue ought to teach their sons to love it 

 too;" so our late Secretary, Delos W. Beadle, took the youthful Society in 

 hand, and when he had us on the anxious seat, in the town hall, he began 

 in good old Presbyterian style to catechise us — not on "What is the chief 

 end of man," but " Where do you live ? What kind of fruit do you grow? 

 How do you cultivate your stock ? Where do you buy and sell to get gain?" 

 ' When he spoke of apples, A. M. Smith was on hand to reply; of pears, Mr. 

 Holton, of Hamilton, took the floor; and when, at a later date, of grapes, 

 Mr. Haskins, of Hamilton, ably discoursed on the fruit of the vine ; but 

 like MacKenzie, of '37, he did not reap a very rich reward from Navy 

 Island. Mr. W. H. Mills, of Hamilton, also gave us much information on 

 the plum, but time would fail me to tell of Messrs. Bruce, Leslie, Arnold 

 and others whom the fruits and flowers of Ontario praise, except to add that 

 the best wine was kept to the last, when our worthy Secretary, Mr. Beadle, 

 would sum all up and add his own experience. 



The Society, in those early days, was smaller and more sociable than it is 

 possible for it to be in these days, when the meetings are so large. Often 

 we were all invited to dine with one of the members, and as the wives often 

 accompanied their husbands, to aid in testing the flavor of the new fruits, 

 acquaintances were formed which we love to remember. 



