l62 



Canadian Agriculture. 



has been opened in New Brunswick with the object of 

 developing the dairying- industry in this province. 



Another branch of farming of increasing importance in 

 the eastern provinces of the Dominion is fruit-growing. 

 According to the census of 1891 the orchards of Canada 

 yielded in that year 7I million bushels of apples, 229,000 

 bushels of pears, 266,000 bushels of plums, 192,000 bushels 

 of cherries, 44,000 bushels of peaches, and 321,000 bushels 

 of other fruits. The production of apples for export is a 

 prominent, industry in the southern part of Ontario and in 

 Nova Scotia. In Ontario the area of orchards and gardens 

 devoted to apple culture has stsadily increased since 1891 

 and now amounts to 203,000 acres. Nova Scotia has for 

 many years exported apples to the United Kingdom, the 

 orchards in the Annapolis Valley, in that province, being 

 celebrated for the growth of apples of fine flavour and 

 brilliant colour. Here also plums are largely grown and the 

 cultivation of cranberries is becoming a large and profitable 

 industry. The principal orchard district in Quebec is the island 

 of Montreal where the soil is favourable to the production of 

 the finest varieties of apples. Farmers in New Brunswick 

 a,re also turning their attention to the development of their 

 orchards. In the remaining provinces of Canada, fruit- 

 growing is not yet extensively practised. Very little fruit is 

 grown in Manitoba and the North-West Provinces. The 

 culture of various kinds of fruit will, it is believed, form one 

 of the leading industries of British Columbia in the near 

 future, and the plum and prune industry is held to be 

 capable of almost indefinite extension here, as the soil and 

 climate are especially favourable. 



Apples are exported from the Dominion both in the raw 

 form and dried or evaporated in the shape of chips and 

 rings. The total value of the exports of this fruit in 1895 

 was ;£432,ooo, and of this sum ^^354,000 was debited to the 

 United Kingdom. 



To take a broad view of the characteristics of Canadian 

 agriculture discussed above, it may be said generally that in 

 the older provinces wheat-growing is gradually giving place 

 to a more diversified system of farming. Agriculturists in 



