December, 1915. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



279 



crops of wheat in that ppovince. Several ex- 

 perimenters have been working for years 

 in the development of hardy strains of 

 apples suitable for prairie planting, and the 

 success their efforts have met .is very en- 

 couraging. Whether or not the apple will 

 be thoroughly acclimated to Western condi- 

 tions remains to be seen, but it has already 

 been proven that apples can be grown when 

 the conditions of soil and shelter are suit- 

 able. 



The opportunities for development along 

 horticultural lines In the Prairie Provinces 

 are infinite. Great progress has already 

 been made. The establishment of a horti- 

 cultural option at the Winnipeg College to 

 train men in horticulture under western 

 conditions will result in the acceleration of 

 that progress, and we may confidently look 

 for still greater development in the future 

 than has occurred in the past. 



Ontario Horticulturists Meet in Annual Convention 



The Work of the Town Planner 



In Canada, the tendency to divorce city 

 dwellers from nature is more evident even 

 than in the older countries of Europe. Not- 

 withstanding the unlimited amount of land 

 that we have for building and all other pur- 

 poses, the tenement, with its ugly little 

 back yard, is common in all our large 

 centres. To find the beautiful garden, which 

 we always associate with the ideal home, 

 we have to go five, or even ten, miles out 

 from the centres of our larger cities. 

 Speculative interest, with no other motive 

 than making money out of a rise in the price 

 if land, holds it at such prices that it is not 

 available for garden purposes, except on 

 the further confines of the city, and the 

 factory workers, who of all people are per- 

 haps the most in need of the health-giving 

 influence of a home garden, are excluded 

 from the use of enough land to serve for 

 that purpose. 



The address of Mr. Thos. Adams, of Ot- 

 tawa, at the recent convention in Toronto 

 of the Ontario Horticultural Association in- 

 dicated that the conservation of the health 

 of the people of Canada through the instru- 

 mentality of the home garden has not been 

 lost sight of by the Canadian Conservation 

 Commission. Mr. Adams is the head of the 

 Town Planning division of the commission, 

 and it would appear from his remarks that 

 in the future the planning of our cities will 

 not be left entirely in the hands of real 

 estate sharks, whose only motive is to cut 

 the land up in the way which will yield the 

 most money for them. The health and 

 comfort of the people will not be lost sight 

 of altogether in our future city planning. 



I WJJUMIIiJMIK mWMM 



PUBLISHER'S DESK ^ 



The front cover illustration on this Issue 

 of The Canadian Horticulturist will bring, 

 we hope, to our readers pleasant anticipa- 

 tions of the approaching festive season. 

 Never has the world needed the spirit of 

 Christmas more than now. Let each of us 

 do our part to make it as general as pos- 

 sible. 



• • • 



The January issue of The Canadian Hor- 

 ticulturist will devote special attention to 

 the proper use of fertilizers. There will be 

 articles for the fruit grower, vegetable 

 grower and amateur horticulturist. These 

 articles will be practical, interesting and 

 instructive. 



THE tenth annual convention of the On- 

 tario Horticultural Association, which 

 met in the Railway Committee Room, 

 Parliament Buildings, Toronto, on Novem- 

 ber 10th and 11th, was one of the most 

 successful held in the history of the asso 

 elation. The interest which prevailed was 

 characteristic of the amateur devotees of 

 horticultural science. There were present 

 137 delegates representing 37 of the 78 so- 

 cieties in the province. The programme in- 

 cluded several educational addresses of high 

 merit, two of which were delivered by two 

 lady delegates. 



The chair was occupied by President J. h 

 Bennett, of Barrie, who welcomed the dele- 

 gates. President Bennett stated that though 

 the war has made demands that interfere to 

 some extent with the programmes of the so- 

 cieties it had not had the effect of limiting 

 the supply of seeds and bulbs from Europe 

 as had been feared at the previous annual 

 convention. On the contrary, Holland had 

 been anxious to unload her stocks and Con- 

 sequently there has been an abundant sup- 

 ply for Canadian planters. Treasurer C. A. 

 Hesson, of St. Catharines, remarked that 

 the financial condition of the Association 

 was much improved since the last conven- 

 tion. During the year he had found it ad- 

 visable to send out a circular letter to the 

 societies urging upon them the payment 

 of the affiliation fees, with the result that 

 $80 had been added to the treasury from 

 this .source. The balance carried over from 

 last year had been $167.96 whereas the 

 close of the present financial year found 

 them with a balance on hand of $256.76. 



Secretary J. Lockie Wilson then present- 

 ed his annual report. On the average the 

 societies affiliated with the association had 

 had a successful year. Some had experi 

 enced a slight falling off in membership, 

 while two, viz., Caledonia and Paisley, had 

 discontinued operations. To offset this sev- 

 eral societies reported large increases in 

 membership, and seven new societies had 

 been organized, viz., Cayuga, Chatham, Dun- 

 das, Essex, Milton, Port Credit and Rich- 

 mond Hill. The St. Thomas society was 

 the largest in the province, reporting a 

 membership of 1,400, an Increase of 300 dur- 

 ing the year. The total membership of the 

 societies was now upwards of 14,000. Ap- 

 plications had already been received from 

 citizens in half a dozen places in Ontario to 

 organize societies during the coming year. 

 Though the necessity of economy had made 

 it advisable to restrict the number of lec- 

 turers sent out during the past season it was 

 hoped that this year the number would be 

 increased. Since last meeting death had re- 

 moved three members who had taken a very 

 live interest In horticulture. These were 

 Mr. E. P. Cook, Toronto; Mr. J. Thos. Mur- 

 phy, Simcoe, and Mrs. Allan Baines, To- 

 ronto. Resolutions of condolence to the be 

 reaved relatives of the deceased were pass- 

 ed by the convention. A long list of ex- 

 tracts from the reports of the various so- 

 cieties was then read and the energetic 

 manner in which the most of them were 

 taking steps to beautify their home towns 

 was very encouraging. 



In the absence of the Minister of Agricul- 

 ture who was on a recruiting tour in Sim- 

 coe, his home county. Deputy Minister 

 Roadhouse conveyed to the convention the 

 greetings of the Government. The Ameri- 

 can Civic Association was represented by 

 Mr. G. Wray Lemon, Secretary of the Cham- 

 ber of Commerce, Oil City, Pa. Mr. Lemon 

 is a native born Canadian, and was at one 

 time connected with town planning work in 

 Calgary. One of the many helpful sugges- 

 tions which he left with the delegates was 



the taking of before and after photographs 

 that would convey a correct impression of 

 the great improvement that could be made 

 In the appearance of a town by the work of 

 the horticultural society. 



The programme included several ad- 

 dresses by well known amateur and pro- 

 fessional horticulturists. Mr. John Dunbar, 

 of Rochester, N.Y., who addressed the con- 

 vention a year ago, again delighted the dele- 

 gates with a very able lecture on the his- 

 tory, development and propagation of the 

 lilac. After tracing the history of this fa- 

 vorite shrub, and stating that there were 25 

 species known to science, Mr. Dunbar dealt 

 at considerable length with the many new 

 varieties which had very much lengthened 

 the flowering season of the lilac. Some of 

 the best of these had been originated in 

 Canada. In dealing with the propagation 

 of the lilac Mr. Dunbar outlined the meth- 

 ods by which this can be accomplished, 

 favoring the grafting of green cuttings on 

 the root of the California privet. It was 

 his experience that the root of the privet 

 eventually died leaving the shrub on Its own 

 roots. In the discussion that followed, Mr. 

 W. T. Macoun, Dominion Horticulturist, 

 Ottawa, Ont., stated that in our severe cli- 

 mate it was not advisable to use the privet 

 for this purpose as it lacked in the essen- 

 tial quality of hardiness. 



Miss Yates, of Port Credit, gave a splen- 

 did paper on "Informal Planting of Home 

 Grounds." The chief advantage of this over 

 the formal method was that it did not de- 

 mand suitable areas but could be adapted 

 to any conditions. In designing the garden 

 the house should be the central feature, 

 while next In Importance should be the 

 lawn. This was no longer a lawn If It was 

 cut up with trees, shrubs, or flower beds. 

 The flowers, which should always have a 

 background, were best, planted so i s to do 

 away as much as possible with straight 

 lines. The vista should not be forgotten, 

 and If this was grand enough the foreground 

 should be designed so as to lead the eye 

 to it with no trivial things to drag the at- 

 tention away. 



Mr. Wm. Hunt, florist at the O.A.C., 

 Guelph, spoke on new plants and plants not 

 well known, and Mr. Mitchell, of Toronto, 

 gave a splendid paper on growing garden 

 roses, dealing with the subject from an ama- 

 teur's standpoint. 



Mrs. John Lome McDougall, of Halley- 

 bury, gave an account of what could be ac- 

 complished along horticultural lines In 

 Northern Ontario, claiming that the success 

 which was crowning the efforts of garden 

 lovers in that district was most encourag- 

 ing. The season, of course, was short and 

 things had to be rushed through, but dur- 

 ing the flowering season the perfection at- 

 tained by the majority of varieties, and es- 

 pecially by the annuals, was very gratify- 

 ing. Vegetable and fruit growing was also 

 touched upon, and Mrs. McDougall aston- 

 ished the delegates by showing them some 

 fall strawberries that had been picked the 

 previous day. 



R. A. Penhale, of St. Thomas, suggested 

 that the association might extend Its organ- 

 ization work Into the rural municipalities. 

 He strongly emphasized the point that In 

 the country the farmer must have an eye 

 to the economy of labor in maintaining his 

 home planting. He also suggested that 

 where good roads were being made the road 

 sides should be levelled In order- that weeds 

 could be controlled by the use of the mow- 

 ing machine. 



Speaking on the subject, "California In 

 Summer from the Horticulturist's Stand- 

 (Concluded on page 282.) 



