490 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



that such officers, if fully qualified, would be of great advantage in the 

 Mother Country. In my short trips here in the old country I notice 

 hundreds of acres of fruit trees that would not be allowed to stand in 

 British Columbia. They are simply waste of ground and opportunity. 

 They remind me of some small orchards in British Columbia where 

 the trees were stuck in without system, perhaps forty years ago, and 

 have been left entirely to their own sweet will ever since — the result 

 being that they have grown up worse than uncared-for gutter children, 

 no use to themselves and a detriment to their neighbours. It seems 

 almost a disgrace that this beautiful land of England, which is 

 thoroughly suited by climate and soil for the production of the 

 finest Apples, Pears, and similar fruits, should be so neglected in this 

 respect. There is no doubt about its capabilities, as they are fully 

 demonstrated by the magnificent English-grown fruit exhibited at recent 

 shows of this Society. 



Now it may be thought that with the very rapid increase in the 

 acreage under fruit in British Columbia there will be an over supply ; 

 but there is little fear of this for very many years, for the market grows 

 far faster than the fruit. The rapid increase of population on the vast 

 fertile Wheat-lands of the North-West Territory and Manitoba, approaching 

 200,000,000 acres in extent (of which not one tenth is yet taken up, but 

 on to which farmers from all parts of the world are pouring by thousands, 

 all of whom are or will become large consumers of fruit), provides an ever- 

 increasing market ; for while these lands can produce the finest possible 

 Wheat at an average of twenty to twenty-five bushels an acre, and in a few 

 years will grow millions of bushels more than are required in Great 

 Britain, the country and climate are not adapted for fruit-growing. The 

 Province of British Columbia adjoins these Wheat countries that are 

 now so rapidly filling up, and is already connected by one railway with 

 its great towns, and in a short time two more railways that are now 

 being built will still further facilitate the transport of fruit to these 

 markets. In addition to this, British Columbia does not yet fully supply 

 her own wants or the wants of the shipping or of the countries on the 

 Great Pacific connected with her by these steadily growing lines of ships, 

 so that British Columbian fruit-growers may work by day and sleep by 

 night in the full confidence that they will for a very long time have fairly 

 profitable markets. As indicating what the present conditions in this 

 respect are, I may mention that a friend in British Columbia who is 

 thoroughly informed on fruit-growing and a successful grower himself, 

 and knows all the orchards in the country, informs me that the fruit- 

 growers in 1904 made a net profit of £20 to £40 an acre. He can 

 thoroughly vouch for the higher figure in some cases. 



In visiting the fruit shows in this country one is impressed with the 

 difficulty the growers must experience in deciding, out of the enormous 

 number of varieties of Apples that are shown, what are the best ones 

 to grow ; for it is important in a mercantile orchard to have only a few 

 really good varieties, so as to be able to supply in quantity those 

 which are the favourites with the public. I notice that what appears 

 to be the favourite Apple in London this year is the Newtown 

 Pippin. This taste seems to me to be either a fad or a change in 



