FRUIT GROWING IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



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FRUIT-GROWING IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 

 By the Hon. J. H. Turner, Agent-General. 



It must be of importance that those who take an interest in fruit- 

 growing in the Mother Country should be informed of the conditions 

 existing in the Colonies which in the future may have an important 

 effect on the industry in the old land, and that all people in this — the 

 centre of the Empire — should know much more of Britain beyond the 

 seas than they do at present. All the great colonies should be looked 

 upon, not as disconnected members of the Empire, but as practical parts 

 of the same country. Almost in the same way as the various counties of 

 this little island united make England, so these possessions beyond the 

 seas, bound together by common ties of language, law, and religion, 

 should be united with the Mother Land and make one Empire, not 

 separated, but made easily accessible by the ocean. 



I always look on British Columbia as the Britain of the Pacific : it 

 has, perhaps, a better climate than the great mother, it is much larger 

 than the old home, and it claims a share in all the historic glories of old 

 Britain. 



Treating of the province as a fruit country, not very many years 

 ago it was only known on account of its mines and timber, but about 

 1894 attention was gradually turned to its possibilities for agriculture. 

 It is true, however, that when the Hudson Bay Company took posses- 

 sion of the country in 1842, the English and Scotch families that 

 settled there, like all old-country people, soon commenced gardening and 

 planting orchards. These proved very productive, but were — so far as 

 fruit was concerned — not planted with much care or with proper selec- 

 tion of varieties, and, generally speaking, not much attention was 

 bestowed on them. But about eight years ago practical fruit-growers 

 were impressed with the suitability of land and climate for the 

 growth of fruit, and experimented accordingly, achieving good results. 

 Very soon the attention of the Government was called to the desirability 

 of aiding the industry, and accordingly Acts were passed to encourage it. 

 Practical men at once saw the importance of keeping the orchards and 

 gardens of the province free from the destructive insect pests that had 

 caused such heavy losses to the fruit-growers of Oregon, Washington, 

 and California in the United States. The Dominion and Provincial 

 Governments accordingly appointed officers at every port where fruit or 

 fruit trees could be brought into the country, who had full power to 

 examine all trees and fruit, and if found to be infected with fruit pests, 

 in the case of the fruit, to prevent its entrance, and either to compel the 

 importer to re-export or to have it destroyed, and in the case of the fruit 

 trees, after a thorough inspection if they were found to be infected, to 

 have them thoroughly fumigated and disinfected or to destroy them. 

 At the same time the Provincial Government inspectors went through 

 the province examining all the growing fruit trees, and where they were 



