16 



fruit and of comparing it as well as I could from recollection with Ontario samples, 

 they impressed me as being very good, and if they were at all inferior in quality to 

 similar varieties grown in the east the difference was not sufficiently marked to 

 enable me to detect it. I took such varieties as the Spitzenbei-g, Eibston Pippin, 

 Fameuse and Gravenstein, and several other highly flavoured sorts for test, and in 

 point of size they much surpass those grown in the east. The climate is of that 

 character which induces slow and regular growth all through the season, and the 

 growth is continuous during a long period. As a rule, the high flavoured varieties of 

 fi-uit are produced of better quality as we get further north, and with the proportion 

 of cold they get in British Columbia they are able to grow fruits of higher flavour 

 than can be produced in the more southern districts of California. We sometimes 

 produce large crops, but I have never seen anywhere else trees so heavily loaded with 

 fruit as I liave there. They are also free from most of the insect pests and the pear 

 blight. They have the twig blight on the apples, but this is not a very serious 

 trouble. I think that with a climatethat will produce such cropsof thefruits named, 

 and grow, also, peaches, apricots, walnuts and many other products to advantage, 

 which may be shipped to different parts of Canada as well as to Asiatic_ ports, Bri- 

 tish Columbia must soon become a fruit exporting Province. The climate is not 

 warm enough in any part I have visited to grow good grapes; it is probable that in 

 many localities the earlier ripening sorts may mature, but there is not enough heat 

 dui-ing the summer to ripen the higher flavoured varieties of grapes. There will, no 

 doubt, be a great opening there for the canning industry and the drying of fruits. 

 Should the supply at any time exceed the demand, the surplus can easily be disposed 

 of by the use of fruit evaporators' as the dried fruit will bear shipment to any part 

 of the- world. The object in view at all the Experimental Farms is to encourage the 

 people to grow the very best quality of grain, and fruits and do the very best for 

 themselves, so that they may have products of high quality to sell, which will com- 

 mand good prices. At the present time, while they grow plenty of pears in British 

 Columbia, there are not very many of them that are of very good quality. People 

 usually want, at first, something showy and big, and in almost every garden 

 you will find such varieties as the " Belle Angevine," specimens of which will some- 

 times weigh as much as two pounds. By boiling a long time they may be made ser- 

 viceable as a cooking pear, but as a table fruit it is a worthless sort. Better 

 varieties are now being rapidly introduced, and the people there will, no 

 doubt, soon be supplied with the veiy best sorts obtainable. An active 

 fruit growers' association has been recently organized there, and a repre- 

 sentative of that association, Mr. Henry, is with us to-day. I visited Mr. Henry's 

 place last September, and was astonished at what I saw. He had Cuthbert rasp- 

 berries which had made nine feet of growth in a season, and he told me that they 

 had been gathering fruit all season off those bushes, and there was fruit still on them. 

 I saw grape vines that had made fifteen and twenty feet of growth, while trees in- 

 nursery rows showed an annual growth of four to six feet. From this it may be 

 inferred that orchards could be got into bearing in very much less time than can be 

 done in the east, and that the progress of fruit-growing may reasonably be expected 

 to be very rapid. A large orchard has been started at the Experimental Farm in 

 British Columbia, where it is proposed to test all varieties of fruit which give pro- 

 mise of success, so that we may be prepared to give information with respect to the 

 growing of fruit and other products, so thai we may help the settlers to make the 

 most of their products, and cultivate their land with the greatest advantage and 

 profit to themselves and to the country. 1 have now given you a very brief outline 

 of some of the features of the work being undertaken at the Experimental Farms 

 bearing on the advancement of horticulture. 



The convention then adjourned until 8 o'clock. 



