CANADA S GREAT PIONEER HORTICULTURIST 
W. T. MACOUN 
Dominion Horticulturist 
Editors’ Note: Just at this time when another author (E. H. Wilson’s “Travel Tales of a Plant Collector,” pages 33-37) is retracing the footsteps of the great 
first plant collectors who went into distant countries to bring back riches to their home lands (and incidentally to the world) with their discoveries of new plants, it 
is a pleasing diversion to look at the reverse workings of the man who, coming into the new world with the avocational interest of the intelligent amateur, won for 
himself the veneration of subsequent generations for his concrete gifts to Canada’s horticulture. This brief outline is appropriately from the pen of his long-time 
associate and ultimate successor in charge of the Dominion’s Farms, Dr. W. T. Macoun, whose winning of the medal of honor at the hands of a thankful people was 
noted briefly in our July issue. 
To know Doctor Saunders was to love him; never boastful of his accomplishments, he worked incessantly during a full life covering and re-covering the breadth 
of the Dominion each year. To the cold Northwest he gave the first hardy hybrid Apples, not much measured by quality, but as he himself observed to the present 
chronicler, “Any apple, be it ever so poor, is infinitely better than no apple at all.” Doctor Saunders also always had his heart in the esthetics of gardening and 
experimented greatly with ornamental plants, establishing at Ottawa a unique collection of shrubs suitable for hedge ttse, all in comparative lines, illustrating for¬ 
cibly the obvious fact that there is a host of hedge subjects superior to “California” Privet; in fact almost any shrub that can be sheared is superior. 
E name of Wm. Saunders is 
mm v familiar over all North America, 
fflsii ^ or fl 10 ^ w h° h ave not h ea rd 
of the Wm. Saunders whose 
name is a household word in Canada, 
and of whose life and work some slight 
account is here given, will recall that 
there was another Wm. Saunders, a noted 
horticulturist of the Department of Agri¬ 
culture, Washington, and especially 
known as the introducer of the Navel 
Orange into the United States. It is not 
often that there have been two such 
prominent contemporaries of the same 
name in the same field of work, and for 
this reason each will keep the memory of 
the other green. 
The late Wm. Saunders of Canada was 
a true amateur horticulturist, the love of 
plants for themselves and the pleasure of 
workingwith them beingmarked through¬ 
out his whole career. He loved plants of 
all kinds and was just as keenly interested 
in those of economic value as those 
grown for ornament alone. He began 
his career as a chemist and before he gave 
up his business to become Director of the 
Dominion Experimental Farms he had 
made a decided financial success of it. 
As a diversion from the confining oc¬ 
cupation of a chemist he planted a large fruit farm at London, 
Ontario, as a commercial venture in 1868, but soon he found the 
management of this too burdensome, and so devoted his spare 
time after business hours to the purely amateur side of horti¬ 
culture. He had a great passion for the improvement of plants 
and was one of the first hybridizers in Canada. 
In 1872 he read a paper before the Ontario Fruit Growers’ 
Association on experiments in hybridizing, in which he de¬ 
scribed the results of his work between 1868 and 1872. In 
these early years he worked with the Gooseberry, Grape, 
Raspberry, and Pear. Of this earlier work the Pearl and Josse- 
lyn (Red Jacket) Gooseberries are his most noted achievements. 
The Black Currant was one of his favorite fruits, and he has left 
some excellent varieties though they are as yet not widely 
known. Among the best of these are the Saunders, Eclipse, 
Magnus, Climax, Clipper, Eagle, Kerry, Success, and Beauty. 
These Currants are very productive and of good quality. Most 
of his work with Raspberries was in crossing the Red- and Black- 
Cap, and while many of the seedlings resulting from this work 
were very productive and of good flavor, they are not sufficiently 
attractive in appearance to make good market berries. His 
best Raspberry of this cross is the Sarah, which is a late purple 
suckering variety of excellent quality. The Brighton and 
Count are two early Red Raspberries of merit. His Grapes 
are not offered for sale, but his Emerald, a white grape, is of 
the highest quality and excellent for 
home use, and his Kensington is a fine 
white variety. 
A wider field for the development of 
work which was dear to his heart was 
afforded him when he became Director 
of the Dominion Experimental Farms 
in 1887, which position he filled with 
marked ability until 1911. His work in 
the improvement of bush fruits was con¬ 
tinued at Ottawa, where he came to live 
after his appointment. Among his in¬ 
teresting hybrids was a cross between the 
Gooseberry and Black Currant which, 
being sterile, was of no commercial value. 
Among ornamental plants he was especi¬ 
ally interested in Roses, and his Mary 
Arnott Rose (a cross between Rosarugosa 
and Prince Camillede Rohan), and Agnes 
(a cross between Rosa rugosa and Persian 
Yellow), while not yet well known, are 
two fine varieties. He originated some 
very interesting and ornamental hybrids 
of Thunberg’s and the common purple¬ 
leaved Barberries which are at present 
under test at Ottawa. Some of these have 
small purple leaves and are of more grace¬ 
ful habit than Berberis Thunbergi. 
His most important work in plant 
breeding was with Hardy Apples. The 
winters of the Canadian prairies are very cold and the Apples 
already in commerce in America do not thrive well there, being 
often winter-killed. It was found, however, by experiment, that 
the wild Siberian Crab (Pyrus baccata) was hardy, and with 
this material Saunders set to work to develop an Apple especi¬ 
ally suited for prairie conditions. So hardy are such crosses 
as Jewel, Charles, Silvia, etc. that fruit has been produced 
at the Experimental Sub-Station at Fort Vermilion, Peace 
River, in latitude 58° where the temperature frequently falls 
to between 50° and 6o° Fahr. below zero. Thus, though 
Doctor Saunders did not live to see Apples of good com¬ 
mercial size developed from his work, he laid the foundation 
of a hardy race. 
Wm. Saunders loved the beautiful in nature, and in the plant¬ 
ing of the Central and Branch Farms with ornamental trees and 
shrubs he was able to leave a fine memorial. He was ever 
looking for new things, and botanic gardens, nurseries, and seed 
catalogues were searched for plants to test and to learn how they 
would succeed under Canadian conditions. 
Dr. Wm. Saunders, C. M. G., died at London, Ontario, on 
Sept. 13, 1914, in his seventy-ninth year. He was born in De¬ 
vonshire, England, in 1836, coming to Canada with his parents 
at the age of twelve, and from that time continuing to live in 
Canada. When he died he left a record of useful public ser¬ 
vice that cannot soon be forgotten. 
WILLIAM SAUNDERS ( 1836 - 1914 ) 
Chemist and enthusiastic agriculturist who bred 
plants to meet the needs of Canada’s severe 
climate, chief among them being the Apple 
34 
