1 . Tree Fruits. 



Among what are commonly classed as the tree fruits are the apple, cherry, 

 peach, pear, plum, and quince. 



So confident are the Ontario fruit growers of the future of the industry and 

 the continued profits which will be obtained from the culture of these large fruits, 

 that many acres of trees are being set out annually. 



The great importance of the fruit interests may be fairly judged by the fol- 

 lowing figures for Ontario from the Dominion census of 1901 : — 



There has been a marked increase in the number of acres planted since the 

 1901 census was tak^n, the total number of apple trees, according to the last 

 report of the Ontario Bureau of Industries, being 10,201,766. 



THK APPLE. 



There is no part of the world where better apples are grown than in the 

 Province of Ontario, and owing to the hardiness of this fruit it can be success- 

 fully cultivated over a very large part of the Province. 



From the Ottawa River, which bounds the Province on the east, to the great 

 lakes on the west, a distance of about 500 miles, and from the St. Lawrence River 

 and great lakes on the south to latitude 45 degrees, and even 46 degrees, on the 

 north, a distance of about 280 miles, there are many flourishing commercial apple 

 orchards. These produce annually an average crop of about 35,000,000 bushels of 

 fruit. But apple-growing is not confined even to this area, for scattered here 

 and there over the newer parts of Ontario almost up to the Manitoba boundarv 

 are trees which are bearing good apples and supplying the settler with fruit for 

 home consumption. 



Owing to the material difference in climatic conditions between the extreme 

 southern and the northern parts of the Province, some varieties of apples are 

 more Edapted to certain sections than others, not only on account of their varving 

 degrees of hardiness, but because some kinds produce better fruit in certain sec- 

 tions than in others. Furthermore, as apples grown in the southern parts of the 

 Province do not keep as well as those grown in the northern sections, the fruit 

 matures earlier, and hence does not come into keen competition with, perhaps, 

 the same varieties from other sources. Each part of the Province, therefore, 

 where apples are grown can produce fruit which has a fair chance of commanding 

 the highest price on the market. As these climatic conditions cannot be changed, 

 it behoves fruit growers in the south-western peninsula to make a specialtv ot 

 growing fruit for the early markets, for there is no other section which can com- 

 pete so favorably in the production and sale of early apples, especially for the 

 rapidly growing market in the North-west. 



