236 



CANADA 



CANADA 



MANrTOBA AND THE NORTHWEST TEREITOEIES.— As 



far as the tree fruits are concerned, those which can be 

 grown successfully in these regions without extraordi- 

 nary care have yet to be produced. A few Russian 

 apples and Siberian crabs have survived and have pro- 

 duced some fruit in southeastern Manitoba. Pyrus 

 haccata (the berried crab of Europe) is hardy at the Dom. 

 Experiment Stations at Brandon, Man., and IndiauHead, 

 N. W. Terr. This has been crossed with the hardiest 

 Russian apples in the hope that the resultant seedlings, 

 of which there are now many thousands, will prove 

 hardy in tree, and produce fruit of edible size. 



With the protection afforded by belts of timber, small 

 fruits of nearly all kinds— grapes, however, being a no- 

 table exception— are grown with a moderate degree of 

 success. The natural obstacles are appreciably less in 

 Manitoba than in the Provinces of Assiniboia, Alberta 

 and Saskatchewan, where late spring frosts, high winds 

 and periods of summer drought and severe winter cold 

 make the cultivation of the hardiest fruits, such as 

 gooseberries and currants, difficult and precarious. Na- 

 tive types of these fruits are cultivated. Juneberries 

 are much appreciated. Without doubt the rancher and 

 wheat grower of these northwest provinces will be de- 

 pendent for his fruit supply upon Ontario and British 

 Columbia for many years to come. The chief sources of 

 horticultural information in this region are the Do- 

 minion experiment stations already referred to. 



344. British Columbia. The fruit regions are between the parallel series of dotted lines 



Beitish Columbia.— Pig. 344. I am indebted to 

 J. R. Anderson, Deputy Minister of Agriculture for the 

 province, for much of the following data. British Col- 

 umbia is wonderfully diversified, and has great fruit- 

 growing possibilities in its deltas, its coast line, its 

 valleys. Its benches, its irrigated lands. Great climatic 

 variation means a corresponding widening of the possi- 

 bilities of fruit-culture, and there is here undoubtedly 

 a more extended range of thermometric variation and 

 atmospheric moisture than'is found in any other prov- 

 ince of the Dominion. 



ffistorical.—RegaTdiDg the early history of fruit- 

 growing, and some of its later developments, Mr. An- 

 derson writes as follows : 



"It was soon discovered by the early settlers in and 

 about the old fiudson's Bay Company's forts of Victoria 

 and Langley, that apple trees would mature and bear 

 fruit. There was, however, a deep-rooted belief that the 

 greater part of the country would not produce fruit, or, 

 indeed, for that matter, crops of any kind. However, 

 gradually trials were made by adventurous spirits, 

 miners, packers, and others (probably never by practi- 

 cal farmers or fruit-growers ) , and it gradually dawned 

 upon the sparse population that apples and field crops 

 would grow in most parts of the coast line of the 

 province, and of that part known as the dry belt lying 

 between the Coast Range and the Rooky mountains. 

 Then it appeared to occur to the residents that other 

 fruits might do, and thereupon trees and plants were 



procured from California, and in most cases all were 

 found to be successful. Up to this time (between 1855 

 and 1860), most of the fruit was the produce of seed- 

 lings, the offspring of seeds procured from other coun- 

 tries, which being acclimatized, with a good climate, 

 freedom of insect pests and diseases, produced wonder- 

 ful crops without the trouble of cultivating, pruning and 

 spraying. Now, however, fruit trees of a superior qual- 

 ity began to be imported, and for some time throve 

 equally well as those of humbler origin, but by and by, 

 for some unaccountable reason, the trees did not bear 

 as well as formerly, nor was the fruit as good or as 

 large as it used to be, and old-timers wondered what was 

 the matter, and so things went on from bad to worse, 

 until people of a new generation began to settle in the 

 province, who soon ascertained the cause of failure to 

 be due to the inaportatiou with the trees, from the 

 neighboring states and provinces, of pests and dis- 

 eases hitherto unknown in the province. It was then 

 that the legislature enacted the Horticultural Board Act, 

 which provides for the appointment of a "Board," whose 

 duties are, inter alia, to inspect all fruit and fruit trees 

 entering the province, and orchards within the province, 

 and to make such recommendations in the interest of 

 fruit-growers as they may deem necessary. It has fol- 

 lowed, as a matter of course, that in consequence of the 

 stringent regulations, a better class of nursery stock is 

 now imported into the province, and although it is quite 

 Impossible, even with the strictest in- 

 spection, to detect all infestations, and 

 although people have been slow in 

 adopting even those measures best cal- 

 culated for their benefit which have been 

 recommended by the Board of Horticul- 

 ture, there is a marked improvement 

 in the state of the orchards of the prov- 

 ince, and of the fruit pro- 

 duced. 

 "^ — , The young orchards 



planted out since the inau- 

 guration of the newer and 

 more intelligent methods, 

 are likewise coming into 

 bearing. The production 

 of fruit is even now in 

 many lines in excess of 

 local demands, and hence, 

 in view of the line of action 

 pursued by the Board of 

 Horticulture, which nOw 

 prevents this province 

 from being the dumping 

 ground for the refuse fruit 

 of the neighboring states, 

 it may reasonably be concluded that the imports of 

 fruits will be restricted in the future to those early fruits 

 which mature in the south, or to the production of the 

 antipodes at a time when those of this country are not 

 in season. 



J'VMJis.— "The principal fruits produced in the 

 province are apples, pears, cherries, plums, prunes, and 

 all the small fruits. Other fruits, such as peaches and 

 grapes, have not been produced in sufficient quantities 

 to meet the demand, those like the first named having 

 been at first considered unsuitable to the country, but 

 are now found to do excellently in many parts." 



Fruit Sections . — Some of the best fruit lands are to 

 be found along the mountains and foothills on either 

 side of the numerous valleys of the province. This is 

 particularly true of the region along the Eraser river 

 between Chilliwack and Hope. The region along the 

 Eraser river from Agassiz to the coast is one abun- 

 dantly supplied with water and now producing large 

 quantities of plums, apples and berries. Some of the 

 interior valleys are eminently adapted to the require- 

 ments of the tenderest tree fruits. Peaches are being 

 successfully cultivated here and there on the lower 

 bench lands. The accompanying map shows the princi- 

 pal fruit-producing areas of the province. At Vernon, 

 in the Okanagan valley, the Earl of Aberdeen, a late 

 governor-general of Canada, has an extensive orchard 

 of 200 acres. Here an irrigation plant, while not deemed 

 absolutely essential to fruit-growing, is thought to be a 



