COMMONPLACE NOTES. 



635 



to be planted between now and 1916, for some of these, especially 

 peaches, apricots, and the like, would be in practically full bearing, 

 maturing as they do in four or five years. 



If the rate of increase in acreage of orchard trees keeps up to the 

 present ratio of about 20 per cent, of the area already planted, then in 

 1916, without making any allowance for new sections of land not yet 

 put on the market, there will be some 33,000 to 36,000 acres of 

 planted orchard in the Okanagan Valley alone. 



From statistics furnished by a correspondent it appears that in 1910 

 the extreme range of temperatures for each month were as follows: — 





Min. 



Max. ' 





Min. 



Max. 



January. 



. -6° 



50° 



•July . " . 



. 42° 



107° 



February 



. -7° 



49° 



August . 



. 35° 



101° 



March . 



. 28° 



72° 



September 



. 35° 



91° 



April 



. 28° 



92° 



October . 



. 26° 



67° 



May 



. 33° 



99° 



November 



. 26° 



56° 



J une 



. 40» 



102° 



December . . 



2° 



50° 



* 



* * 



* 



* * 



* 





The following extract from a Fellow's letter will be read by many 

 with interest: — ■ 



Mount Tolmie, Victoria, B.C. 

 ... I have been very busy lately clearing 160 acres of forest land 

 and building a house. I paid $6,000 (£1,200) for it, and have got 

 20 acres cleared and drained and under crops, and 40 acres slashed 

 ready for the fire next summer. 



It seems such a pity to destroy such beautiful trees — Douglas 

 spruce 4 to 5 feet in diameter and over 200 feet high ! I sold some 

 of the best timber to loggers, but they only gave me a price which 

 was positively not worth bothering with, and they make an awful 

 mess, only taking the best trees and the best part only of those. 



It is very hard work clearing land and very expensive. We blast 

 the large stumps out, then haul them together with a team of horses 

 hitched with cable and blocks. We then burn them, cutting and 

 splitting logs to feed the big fires. My son and I worked at 

 the 20 acres already cleared all last winter and the spring before with 

 two men, and did all the blasting ourselves. 



Douglas spruce {Abies Douglasii, Picea grandis, Cupressus 

 nootkatensis, Thuja gigantea, and Acer macrophylla) are the principal 

 trees on the place. The Cypress and Maples are very beautiful. We 

 also have a small tree, very beautiful when in flower, Cornus Menzesii. 

 The shrubs and ferns also are very beautiful, and it seems hard to 

 ! destroy them all. I had a damp spot of about an acre covered with 

 i; nothing but ferns and thimble-berrys {Ruhus occidentalis). They 

 ; were lovely, but we had to cut them all down when they were in 

 bloom last spring, and it was a tough job ploughing that land — nothing 

 : but a mass of roots and ferns; they had been growing there so long 

 that they had formed a bed of peat several feet deep. We used to 



