FORTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Fruit Growers' Association OF Ontario 1916 (PUBLISHED BY THE ONTARIO DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE) PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO TORONTO: Printed by A. T. WILGRESS, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty 1917 Printed by WILLIAM BRIGGS Corner Queen and John Streets Tobonto To His Honour Sir John Strathearn Hendrie, C.V.O., a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Militia of Canada, etc., etc., etc. Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Ontario. May it Please Your Honour : I have the honour to present herewith for your consideration the Forty- eighth Report of the Fruit Growers' Association of Ontario for the year 1916. Respectfully yours, W. H. Hearst, Minister of Agriculture.. Toronto, 1917. [3] CONTENTS PAGE Officers for 1917 - 5 Treasurer's Report 6 Annual Meeting: President's Address: Dr. J. A. Grant 7 Varieties of Apples for Planting: H. T. Foster, G. Mitchell, F. B. Love'kin, Chas. M. Macfie 11 The Necessity for New Apple Orchards in Western Ontario: Prof. J. W. Crow. 16 Heport of the Historical Committee: A. W. Peart and W. T. Macoun 20 Care of the Orchard During the Labor Scarcity: A. W. Peart 22 Fall Plowing: W. F. Kydd 25 Does the Inspection and Sales Act Protect the Consumer? A. S. Chapin 27 Dusting as a Substitute for Spraying: H. H. Whetzel 37 Dusting for Tender Fruits and Apples: L. Caesar 47 The Railway Situation: G. E. McIntosh 51 Orowing Strawberries in the Clarkson District: C. R. Terry 61 I^ight Crops and Their Causes: W. T. Macoun 65 Report of Resolutions Committee 74 Sweet Cherries : G. A. Rorertson 75 The White Pine Blister Rust in Canada: W. A. McCubrin 81 The Marketing Situation in the Niagara District: F. A. Sheppard 87 M Fruit Growers' Association of Ontario OFFICERS FOR 1917 President F. A. J. Sheppabd, St. Catharines. Vice-President R. W. Grierson, Oshawa. Secretary-Treasurer P. W. Hodgetts, Parliament Buildings, Toronto. Executive Officers, together with W. F. W. Fisher, Burlington; Thos. Rowley, Leamington. * Transportation Agent G. E. McIntosh, Forest. Auditor D. Cashman. Directors. Div. l. R. B. Whyte, Ottawa. Div. 8. F. A. J. Sheppard, St. Catharines. 2. E. Casselman, Iroquois. 9. Chas. Howard, Hagersville. 3. Howard Leavens, Bloomfield. 10. Thos. Rowley, Leamington. 4. J. G. Wait, Colborne. 11. A. Stephenson, Longwood. 5. R. W. Grierson, Oshawa. 12. J. C. Harris, Ingersoll. 6. W. F. W. Fisher, Burlington. 13. W. Mitchell, Clarksburg. 7. J. R. Hastings, Winona. Ontario Agricultural College: Prof. J. W. Crow. Vineland Experiment Station: E. F. Palmer. Representatives to Fair Boards and Conventions. Canadian National: W. F. W. Fisher, Burlington. London: Albert Stephenson, Longwood, and Thos. Rowley, Leamington. Ottawa: Messrs. F. A. J. Sheppard and D. Johnson. Committees. Horticultural Publishing Company: P. W. Hodgetts, Toronto. New Fruits: W. T. Macoun, Ottawa; Prof. J. W. Crow, Guelph; E. F. Palmer, Vine- land Station. Historical: A. W. Peart, Burlington; W. T. Macoun, Ottawa. [5] TREASURERS' REPORT, 1916 Receipts. Expenditures. Balance on hand, Dec. 31, 1915. $307 59 Fees 246 50 Grant 1,700 00 Miscellaneous 42 24 $2,296 33 Annual Meeting $206 00 Committees 14 85 Periodicals 299 15 Printing 9 50 Transportation 1,254 97 Miscellaneous 30 99 Balance on hand 480 87 $2,296 33 DETAILS OF EXPENDITURES. Annual Meeting. G. H. Webster (Canadian Pas- senger Agent), deposit $25 15 H. A. Emerson 45 25 S. O. Blunden 6 30 John Kirkpatrick 7 00 M. A. P. McFarlane 6 45 Fred Carpenter 5 30 J. R. Hastings 2 55 J. G. Wait 3 60 R. A. Stephenson 5 60 Alex. Jamieson 12 65 W. E. Palmer 12 15 F. G. H. Pattison 80 Jno. F. Donald 6 80 P. Hynd 6 40 M. E. Coo 60 00 Total $206 00 Committees. A. W. Peart $3 15 A. J. Grant 11 70 Total $14 85 Periodicals. Canadian Horticulturist . $299 15 $9 50 Printing. College Press, letterheads and envelopes (Directors) Transportation. G. E. Mcintosh $1,228 67 A. J. Grant 26 30 Total $1,254 97 Miscellaneous. Canadian Express Co $0 60 Exchange '. 1 89 P. W. Hodgetts, expenses 8 50 Auditor 10 00 Insurance 10 00 Total $30 99 Audited this 7th day of February, 1917, and found correct. D. F. Cashman, Auditor. A. J. Grant, President. P. W. Hodgetts, Secretary-Treasurer. [6] The Fruit Growers' Association of Ontario ANNUAL MEETING The fifty-seventh annual meeting of the Fruit Growers' Association of Ontario was held in the Parliament Buildings, Toronto, February 8th and 9th, 1917. The President, Dr. A. J. Grant, Thedford, occupied the chair throughout the Convention, and the meetings were all very largely attended. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. Dr. A. J. Grant, Thedford. As President of the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association, it affords me a great deal of pleasure to welcome you to this our fifty-seventh Annual Convention. Any organization which can boast of having passed the half century mark with a consistent record of successful Annual Conventions must surely have established its worth, and I am satisfied you will all agree with me that the Fruit Growers' Association of Ontario has established its worth in large measure, and that the efforts of our older members, many of them passed and gone, cannot be too highly commended for having laid such a true and firm foundation. We should deem it a wonderful privilege to be enabled to meet as usual in this fair city of Toronto when our great Empire is one of the principals in the most titanic struggle that the world has ever known and it is indeed most fitting that we should discuss our problems at this time since greater responsibility rests upon our shoulders in keeping business at home in the most prosperous possible condition so that we may be the better enabled to contribute our share of the great financial burdens thrust upon us as a partner in the British Empire. Canada has done nobly in the great war and the spirit of our people is one of grim deter- mination to see things through, regardless of the cost until our efforts in the interests of right and justice shall have been crowned by a righteous and abiding peace. It is quite unnecessary for me to dilate upon the many advantages enjoyed by the fruit industry in general which were achieved as a direct result of the activities of this Association. It is most vital to our interests as fruit growers that these activities shall continue, and if we expect to speak as one with authority, expecting to be heard, then we must see to it that our organization is numerically strong and that it is really representative of the fruit industry of Ontario. Many of our local associations handle apples only, and owing to the experiences of the past three seasons, many of them are dormant and some have passed out of existence entirely. This has caused a decrease in the membership of our Pro- vincial organization which has reached rather serious proportions during the past year. A good apple crop would rejuvenate many of these local associations and bring them back to the fold, but the fact remains that there exists a great field for work among these erstwhile associations. Many of them met their first dis- couragements as far back as the season of 1914. There was a bountiful crop of apples of good quality, but the outbreak of the war, on the eve of harvest created m 8 THE EEPORT OF THE No. 44 such a condition of panic in the apple business that thousands of barrels were never picked and many associations received their " Baptism of Fire " in business reverses ; something entirely new to the older organizations and quite sufficient to- cause discouragement. Then followed the two lean seasons of 1915 and 1916- with their short crops and poor quality. I know of several associations which have not shipped any apples during these two seasons and some of them will have to be entirely reorganized. Every association should be an incorporated body, either with or without share capital, enjoying a permanent membership. New members should only be admitted by a majority or a two-thirds vote. Under such conditions members learn to appreciate the organization and will pay their annual dues even if a blank year, from a shipping standpoint, is experienced. A member wishing to withdraw should be required to give notice in writing before a certain date. I would like to see the Co-operation and Markets Branch undertake to get these associations on their feet, and then let our Provincial Association under- take an aggressive campaign for membership so that we may enjoy the affiliation of every active association in Ontario. It was considered advisable at the last annual convention to increase the membership fees from twenty-five cents to the mighty sum of fifty cents per annum. The reasons for the increase were well threshed out at the time, the chief one being that under the old order of things we were really losing twenty cents on each member enrolled, in the fact that for an annual fee of twenty-five cents, we gave him our official paper, The Canadian Horticulturist, at a cost of fifty cents. The new fee simply covers the cost of putting this publication in the hands of our members, leaving us dependent upon the Government grants for carryings on our transportation and other activities. It has been suggested that the in- creased fee has caused some of our associations to withdraw their affiliation, but I am sure you will agree with me that to entertain this opinion would be putting our fellow growers into a very niggardly class. On the other hand, if the addi- tional twenty-five cents has really deterred anybody from affiliation \t is simply another strong reason why we should get busy upon a membership campaign in order to show the growers that our institution means something of benefit to them. The transportation work which this Association has been doing during the past few years has put thousands of dollars into the pockets of the fruit growers of this Province. We all profit by this work, both in the Association and out of it, and there are hundreds of individual fruit growers throughout the Province of Ontario who would be glad of an opportunity to show their apprecia- tion of this work by becoming members of our Association. It is our business to get into touch with them. Financially, we have had a very successful year, closing with a balance on hand amounting to some $480. Our big item of expenditure has been the work of the transportation department, and Mr. Mcintosh will give you a detailed statement of his work in this connection. That a transportation expert is neces- sary is well borne out by the fact that most of the successful business associations in the world .find it profitable to have men in their employ whose sole business it is to look after the placing of their goods in the hands of the trade. If manufacturers and kindred interests find it profitable as well as necessary how much more so should it be to us as producers of the most perishable of all com- modities. In fact, we are absolutely dependent upon transportation. You may- deliver to the carrier a shipment of fruit in perfect condition but the condition at the other end of the route is the one of most vital importance. Profitable 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 9 growing of certain varieties of fruits depends absolutely upon proper train service to certain markets. Transportation companies are willing to reciprocate in every reasonable way, but they handle coal as well as fruit, and it is our duty to have a specialist constantly on the alert who understands the vital necessities of proper fruit shipment. And, after all, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating/' and the work of our transportation expert has proved to us abundantly that it •does pay to have him on the job. We in Ontario are not only interested in local markets but we are equally interested in the markets of the Canadian North-West and the various export markets. Our work in this regard should cover all these fields, but we are only -a Provincial Association, and to do this would be far beyond our means. Would it not be a reasonable request to ask the Minister of Agriculture at Ottawa to appoint a transportation expert in connection with the Department of the Dominion Fruit Commissioner? I am not so sure that we could then afford to abandon our local work, but this would be a broad step in the interests of every fruit grower throughout the Dominion of Canada. I claim no originality for this idea but I might say that I have already been in touch with the British Columbia Fruit Growers' Association, through their President, Mr. Thos. Abriel, .and he is heartily in accord with such a move, while we have every reason to believe that our Eastern Growers would see the advantage as readily as we do. A strong resolution from this convention would undoubtedly do much toward seeing its realization. The season just closed has been a very profitable one for the grower who had the fruit. Business conditions throughout Canada have been exceptionally good with abundance of money in circulation. Some of the prices being paid for good apples should be a great stimulus for us to produce more really good fruit. There never was and never will be any money in producing low grade fruit, and we are only wasting valuable time when we discuss methods of marketing it. Put the high class fruit on the market and send the rest of it to the evaporators and canning factories, or feed it to the hogs. You will frequently read " high-brow " articles in the press about the many poor people in the cities who would be glad to get this low grade fruit. No doubt there is a certain measure of truth in these statements, but they should be discussed in connection with philanthropic movements and not in connection with the business end of fruit growing. That there is a growing demand for more good apples than we are producing is a well recognized fact among progressive growers. The same may be said of many other fruits. Undoubtedly, more care in the grading and packing of tender fruits would make this line more remunerative. Some of our new districts require a lot of education in the putting up of tender fruits, and until they become educated their product will certainly spoil the market to a certain extent. This is not meant to belittle the efforts of new districts, for I class my own district as new in the matter of tender fruits; but there is a lot more to learn in the putting up of a tasty package of tender fruit than many of us are ready to admit. The :same line of reasoning might be applied to small fruits. Large quantities of berries are imported annually during our own market season, and only too often our Ontario grown fruit will not open up as tastily as the imported fruit which has come many times the distance. I am not in a critical mood nor am I assuming the role of a pessimist; on the other hand I am an optimist of the first order, but the fact remains that we Ontario fruit growers are not producing high class fruit in sufficient quantity to satisfy the demand. We must cater to a public which 10 THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 is becoming more discriminating all the time for the standards of living have advanced in the matter of fruit as well as in other commodities. I saw apples being sold in London, Ontario, one month ago at thirty cents per dozen. Were they Ontario apples? No, they were from the Western United States, and people even in this comparatively small city bought them freely and seemed to enjoy the novelty of buying these beautiful looking apples as they had been in the habit of buying oranges. Why not get after some of this trade with our Spies, Kings, Snows, Mcintosh, Wagener and other good re,d varieties ? Ontario apples carried off the honors at Rochester, N.Y., this year, in the box class open to all comers and this is not the first time that such a thing has happened. You must get color and finish on your apples to supply this trade, and I am fully convinced that at least certain sections of Ontario can produce the necessary color and finish. We have frequently wondered why people prefer oranges and bananas for dessert instead of apples. Simply because we are not putting up an apple suffi- ciently attractive in appearance to fill the bill. We have all been pained to see the retrogrest n of the average farm apple orchard. Thousands of trees of our very finest wintei varieties in blocks of three to ten acres attached to the 100-acre farm are being alio red to grow wild because the day has arrived when the trade demands fruit of qualify and to produce this requires special knowledge of spraying, etc., which the farmer :>nly too often does not possess, and being interested in other branches of farming, has no inclination to learn. Many farmers work their apple orchard as one of the branches of the farm, and are making a splendid success of it. In fact, some of the very finest apple orchards in the Province fall into this class. But what of the orchard that is being neglected, and is sometimes producing low grade fruit, which only too often gets packed and hurts our market? There are great opportunities for progressive men in the various apple districts to lease these orchards for a term of years, thereby yielding the owner a much greater financial return in the manner of rent and at the same time rewarding the lessee handsomely for his labors. I am not advocating a gigantic scheme of leased orchards such as some of those which have already operated in this Province, but it is possible in nearly every place to find a few men who are taking care of their orchards, and who are equipped with the necessary machinery for the work. Let us endeavor to show these men that good profits can be made by leasing an orchard or two in their own neighborhood, and thus turn the low grade product of these orchards into high grade fruit which will assist our market rather than damage it. A great deal could be done in this respect if the representatives from our Provincial Fruit Branch were supplied with practical data covering the matter, and such could readily be obtained from practical growers, for the idea of leasing orchards is not new by any means. These men come across orchards such as I refer to almost daily, and are usually well enough acquainted in the neighborhood to know the men who might take hold and make a success of them. That the scheme is practical I know from a limited personal experience and a wide application of it would assist in bracing up many a local association by placing thew good orchards in the hands of men well equipped and trained for orchard work. I would like to remind our good friend, the Dominion Fruit Commissioner, that we are anxiously awaiting the proposed improvement in the Fruit Marks Act relative to the grading of apples. We must have our number two grade more explicitly defined, and we must have a third grade with the standard specified and subject to inspection. The latter would include well matured apples affected with 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 11 scab but being subject to inspection should give the consumer a run for his money. Some of the No. 3 apples packed this last season were a disgrace to all concerned in the deal and I think most of us would welcome the advent of a law making it impossible to market such trash in a closed package. In closing permit me to thank you for your assistance and co-operation throughout the year. Fruit growers in Ontario have a glorious heritage. Pro- vidence has blessed *us with the best possible conditions for the production of high class fruits. Let us make the most of these opportunities, and strive hard to reach such a standard of excellence in our products that they will win their way into the markets of the uttermost parts of the earth. VARIETIES OF APPLES FOR PLANTING. H. T. Foster, Burlington. What I have to say will refer solely to my own district, as I understand there are three or four speakers to address you on this subject, and they will take up the other parts of the Province. In speaking to the question of varieties to plant, my remarks will have to do with planting for commercial purposes, as that differs somewhat from the small planting or the home garden. I have always felt that it is a disadvantage to have too many varieties when it comes to packing and marketing, especially if some of them are not of the best. The question of varieties is a very important one for the planter to consider, for it means. the difference between success and disappointment, so I say again that varieties best suited to the various districts of Ontario should be planted, also having in mind our possible markets for the fruit. There is a considerable variety of soil in our district, running from light sand to heavy clay, but the soil that suits apples would be a sandy loam. There are one or two orchards that are on sandy loam — and not a very deep loam — with a hard bottom, and they certainly produce good fruit, plenty of it, and of a good color. A soil that is too heavy is not good for the best production of apples, but a moderately heavy clay loam will produce good fruit, there is no question about that. I am not sure that I have a choice as to what soil is best adapted to the different varieties. I hardly feel that I am qualified to go into that feature of /the business. I would first recommend the Duchess. This apple, I believe, is the best early apple, and the most profitable if handled properly. It also allows of dif- ferent methods of marketing; we can put it in baskets, boxes or barrels, and it finds a ready sale. Second, I would take the Ribston Pippin as the best fall apple. I have been told that the Ribston of our district is second to none in the Province. The Blenheim Pippin is a good second being larger in size than the former. Third comes the King which does very well if top-grafted on some hardy stock, such as Baxter or Stark. This has a tendency to make it bear earlier and more regularly, and that is its bad fault. Fourth is the Northern Spy which is called by some " The King of Apples," but certainly it is the best seller in Canada, although not always in the British market. The King very often outsells the Spy, and very often the Spy does not 12 THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 sell as high as the Baldwin or the Greening. Some claim there is no difference in Spies, but there is certainly a great difference in them. We want to get the Spy with the color, and the nearer our nurserymen get to the point of producing a Spy variety that will give us a good rich color, the better it will be for the growers. Fifth is the Baldwin which is one of our good standard red varieties, and is a good cropper and shipper. I understand that several people have discarded it, but in our district it has been successful, and we feel we cannot do without it. Sixth is one of our standbys — the Greening, which is really a better quality of apple than the Baldwin, but is objected to on account of color and being subject to scab. Red apples will sell better than green apples, but for quality the Greening is ahead of the Baldwin. • Seventh is the Mcintosh Red. It is in favor with many growers as a fancy or dessert apple, and if we are inclined to cater to this trade it is one that ought to be used. Eighth is the Snow Apple, which is also a very desirable dessert apple, and is one of our oldest of this class, and a really well-matured, good specimen of Snow Apple is hard to beat. Ninth is the Wealthy. This is a very good cropper and a good seller. Tenth is the Wagener, which is a very desirable apple, and perhaps should be better known than it is. It is an early bearer, and the fruit is high in quality and has good keeping qualities. It seems that our local markets do not know the Wagener as well as we think they should. My own opinion is that the Wagener is just as good as the Spy for quality. For home use, we prefer the Wagener instead of the Spy. These last two varieties can be used as fillers very profitably, as they are early bearers and the trees do not get to be a large size. Now, while I have named ten varieties as the best for this district, it must still be decided by the grower how many of them are likely to isuit his conditions as to soil, season and markets. Finally it is presumed that the most thorough cultivation, pruning, spraying, etc., will be given the trees, because it is only by combining all that the orchardist can expect to produce a satisfactory crop. And then the all important question of marketing has to be solved before the grower receives the price he should, to pay for the cost of production. G. Mitchell, Thoenbury. The market as it is and has been for the past few years is demanding apples of good size, and we consider that nothing hut the best varieties should be planted, as there are too many of the poorer clasises now. For this northern section, for fall varieties would say Duchess, Gravenstein — which does well here — St. Lawrence, Alexander, Wolf River — all red fruit with the exception of the Duchess. For late fall, possibly a few Ribston and plenty of Mcintosh and Snow. ¥or winter, the Spy, Baldwin and Greening. They are standards always. F. B. Lovekin, Newcastle. I live down near Bowmanville on the Lake Shore. Our land down there is pretty heavy, and possibly the varieties of apples that would do well at Burlington would not do as well with us, but I can tell you which are the best apples for our district in a commercial way. 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 13 To begin with, in the commercial orchard, a man may have too many varieties. I think seven or eight varieties are enough. I have 10,000 trees, and there are too many varieties among them. If I had to plant again what I did .ten years ago, I would concentrate on fewer varieties. If we are going to make any money out of apples, we have to grow the best quality of fruit to be put on the market. We do not want to take second place to the man from Washington, Virginia, British Columbia, or any place in the world. We have the variety of apples that will grow on the lake shore of Ontario and will hold their own any place. Again, there is not much use in our district planting a great deal of summer fruit, because all this country to the west of us is three or four weeks ahead of us, and they supply the city trade, and can ship their fruit by boat to Winnipeg and the West which is a cheaper haul. So I do not think it is worth our while growing Red Astracans, because we cannot put them on the market early enough. In my opinion the Duchess is a splendid variety, because it is an apple that will sell any time on any market, and commands a big price at any time. We are perfectly safe with the Duchess, but the principal trouble is to get enough of them together of good quality to make a carload shipment. After the Duchess, the Alexander is a good apple, but I would not put it in the same class. It is the alternative. It is a good apple, and will always sell in the Old Country market. Then I would take the apple which has not been in cultivation as long as the Alexander, and that is the Wealthy. I think it is a world beater as a money maker. It is an early bearer. It is as hardy as a Siberian tree, and it will bear heavy crops of fruit alternate years, that will sell at good prices. I would plaut a considerable number of the Wealthy. After the Wealthy, I take the Mcintosh Red, which is another kind of Snow, and I think it is perhaps the coming apple for the man who caji get it on the market in good shape. But it is an apple that has to be well cared for and well sprayed. For my part, I think the old Snow is the best apple in the world, and I believe a good quality of Snow is better than the Mcintosh. After these varieties, we strike the winter fruit. I believe the Baldwin has raised more mortgages and cut off more debts than any other apple planted in this country, and it will continue to do so. It does well in our heavy clay soil where we can dig six or iseven feet and find nothing but clay hottom. The Spy does remarkably well with us, and they grow as large as Alexanders on young trees. The Spy is not planted as extensively as it should be. There is nothing like it grown in North America, and there is nothing that can beat it in the world, and we should have ten or fifty times more Spies than we have- to-day. The Spy apple is a long liver. If you. have a tree that will bear fruit when it is two or three years old, you have a tree that will die when it is young. The Ben Davis are dying out all over this country, and it would not hurt any- body if they all died. They have made a lot of money for many people, but they have not built up our reputation as growers of fine fruit, and that is what we want to do. These are about all the varieties I would plant. I would plant nearly half the orchard of Spies, and use the Duchess or Wealthy as quick bearing varieties — or anything you can get going until your Spies are ready ; and with twenty acres of Spies you have the best thing you can get. You must dig up the ground and give them plenty of air and sunshine, and the Spy tree also needs a great deal of persistent pruning. 14: THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 Q. — What is your system to keep the Spy bearing? Mr. Lovekin: Give them light soil, and they will bear more quickly thar on heavy soil. I know of Spies that will give good apples at ten or twelve years of age. Me. W. F. W. Fisher: Has the system of pruning anything to do with the bearing ? Mr. Lovekin: A young man came down from the College and worked for several years on some young trees of mine. I have not seen the apples, but they will come along and bear after awhile ; but ivhen the Spy tree starts to bear, you will have plenty of apples. If you want to add to the list, you might plant the Russet, Ribston Pippin, Greening and King. I would not advise planting that many varieties. Q. — Would you recommend planting out 5,000 Spies in one block, or would you put some other variety with them? A. — I would suggest something with them. I would not plant them alone, because they are so long coming to bear that I would plant some quick bearing varieties with them. Q. — If you planted them alone, would they mature and bear all right ? A. — I have no good Teason to think they would not. I know a little Spy orchard that turns out $2,000 net, and there are nothing but Spies in the orchard. Q. — Does a No. 1 Spy command more money than No. 1 Mcintosh? A. — The Mcintosh would bring a pretty good price. I know the Mcintosh in the Montreal market for the last ten or fifteen years has always brought a good price. Of course the market is usually at a different time of the year from the Spy. The beauty of the Spy is that it will keep, and you get the best price in March and April. Q. — The Mcintosh won't keep? A. — Yes, they will keep. Mr. Fisher: How much do you prune? Mr. Lovekin : I do not prune for* three or four years. Maybe I prune too much. I think myself that probably persistent pruning has a tendency to make the trees run to wood and not to fruit. Chas. M. Macfie, Appin. There seems to be a uniformity of opinion on the part of those who have addressed you as to the number of varieties to plant. The previous speakers have referred to apples which I have on my list as being recommended for plant- ing in the district from which I come, and our experience in connection with the marketing of these is that theTe is a demand for the apples which have been referred to, and that demand on the part of the consumer is one of the great factors that we ought to consider in connection with our planting. Two or three years ago last fall, when we had a surplus crop all over the Province, I might say that Mr. McCarthy, whom we all know, if not personally, at least well by reputation, was trying an experiment in his own orchard, and what he could not sell he turned over to the Association to which I belong. If the demand from the individual consumer is a criterion as to what we should plant, then what has been said with reference to the Spy is certainly true. We can make no mistake in planting the Spy now or for years to come, and need have no fear of overdoing it. 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 15 I have nothing to say in reference to the Mcintosh Red. We do not know it in our immediate locality. 1 believe in some districts not far from us, like the county of Middlesex, there are orchards in which it is produced successfully with the care that any variety ought to receive. We can grow the Snow successfully, athough not very many of the trees arc producing. A large producer in our locality, and perhaps the largest from the commercial standpoint, is the old standby, the Baldwin. • We never have any difficulty in connection with the marketing of the Baldwin, and we have perhaps less difficulty in growing them of good color than any other I'm it, although I believe in the Baldwin, as in the Spy, there are different strains of fruit. My experience would lead me to believe that on the lighter soils you get a richer and better color in the Baldwin, and of course that renders selling easier. I have a word of commendation for the Wagener, although it is not a thrifty tree, but it is a good apple in filling a young orchard. It comes to maturity quickly, and being a quick maturing tree, it is a quick dying tree as well, and goes out of production just when the Spy is coming to its best. Consequently it finds a place in the orchard. As far as our personal experience is concerned, we use the Wealthy and find it a splendid apple for home use, and it is too bad for the sake of the variety that it is not better known among the consuming public. I have made a list, as the former speakers have, of the varieties in the order of their production. The first is the Duchess, then the Wealthy, the Alexander, the Blenheim — which is a good producer with us and a good seller, and an apple that is more easily kept clean than any other variety in our locality. Then follows the King. One great objection to the King is the fact that it is not as prevalent a producer as some of the other varieties. For the quality of the apple and from the standpoint of production, I think the King has not in the past commanded a sufficient prominence on the market. We have one other apple that is perhaps not very widely known, and that is the Jonathan. It is an apple of rich color, is a splendid dessert apple, a good producer and a very attractive apple in every respect to put on the market. The man who buys it will come back for it. So far as individual requests for apples to-day are concerned, I might say that some of those to whom we sold apples two or three years ago have come back, and it might interest you to know what have been the requests from the individual consumer. I have just taken a list from our list of sales: Spy, Rhode Island Greening, King, Baldwin, iGolden Russet, Tolman Sweet, Milwaukee, Bellnower and Snow. We did not get very many requests for the Bellflower, yet there are some people who seem to like it and think it is a splendid dessert apple. There is a prejudice against it because of the tenderness in the way of marketing. Our own experience is that a long-stemmed apple will remain on the tree perhaps longer than any other apple in the orchard, and should not be pulled until the last apple in the orchard, and it does not become so tender and presents a better appearance in packing. However, I would not recommend it as a commercial apple for packing. There is one other apple in connection with these varieties and that is the Chenango. With us it is an apple beautiful in appearance, superb in its quality, and once placed on the market will lead the consumer back to it. It is almost as good as the Wealthy in its keeping qualities. It has a little tendency to grow in clusters, and it responds to thinning admirably. It is an easier apple 16 THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 to produce than the Wealthy, and you will get more Chenangoes from year to year than Wealthies. With reference to the Wolf River, I think they have been pulled too early in the season. There is a little tendency on the part of the Wolf River to decay on the tree, but that can be overcome by cultivation. I have seen an orchard that looked to me to be deliberately neglected and yet produced an abundant crop of Wolf River of uniform size, and it happened in a season when the grower had no room for them. They were holding to the tree — a magnificent apple — in the middle of October, and in marketing condition at that time. The dealers used to pick our Wolf Rivers in September when the apple was not fit to go on the market in condition to attract the consumer. The appearance was attractive, but the quality was anything but attractive and not calculated to bring the con- sumer back for the apple, but if it were given a little longer time to mature before marketing, it would produce better results. THE NECESSITY FOR NEW APPLE ORCHARDS IN WESTERN ONTARIO. Prof. J. W. Crow, Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph. It has been apparent for some little time that the apple orchard industry in the western part of Ontario, and in fact, in some other parts of Ontario as well, is not prospering as it did some years ago, and I suppose one of the lessons we learn from that is that time, places and conditions change. However, I think perhaps there are very good reasons why the orchard situation in Ontario is as it is to-day, and one of the important reasons which I would like to bring to your attention is what you might call u reaction." I think perhaps most of us have had enough experience and opportunity of observing the changes in the business to realize that there is a tendency in the production of apples, as in other things, to pass through certain cycles of over production and under production. Going back to the year 1896, we find that year gave us the heaviest crop of apples we had experienced in this country up to that time. You may remember, too, that the crop of 1896 rotted on the ground — a record crop that sold for very, very low prices or were not sold at all. 1896-7 were the two years when the prices of farm products generally over North America were at their lowest point. That was twenty years ago. About the year 1900 a few wide-awake men in the Province of Ontario saw the opportunity of making money in apple orcharding. They went to work mostly by renting other people's orchards which were standing idle and producing little or nothing. Some few men in the Province made money out of that business, and their example stirred up other people to do likewise, and growing out of that, in a very natural way, came a sort of boom or widespread propaganda in apple orcharding. That began about the year 1900, although it did not resume marked proportions until about 1905. From 1905 to 1910 everybody talked apples, and most people planted them, and there were thousands of apple trees set out in this Province. That was, I think, a boom condition and not a permanent condition of affairs at all, because it is obvious to anyone that the apple orchard industry cannot continue on that basis indefinitely. 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 17 We find that in the year 1912 we again reached a point when apples were produced in abundance and rotted on the ground. 1914, if I remember correctly, gave us somewhat of the same condition. The years since 1914 have not blessed us with abundant crops. 1915 and 1916 were two very bad seasons, known as the worst that ever happened from the standpoint of weather conditions and fungus pests and so on. Now the point I want to make is this: Twenty years ago, 1896, we were at the point of over-production with a limited market, and' while since that time the markets have extended a very great deal, we are pretty nearly all the way around the cycle again. We have had the boom condition and the fall, and we have been up to the top in 1910 and pretty nearly at the bottom again. I do not think it is out of the way to say the apple orchard industry has declined and is in a more or less neglected state. I think that is the truth, and 1 want you to realize that this thing goes in cycles of ups and downs. We are now at the point where if there came a real record crop, it would not go to market. We could not handle it. Do you realize that the years we call the most disastrous years are the years of the heavy crops? Do you ever think of that? We like to have a big crop, and if you have a big crop when nobody else has one, you are all to the good; but usually when you have a big crop everybody else has a big crop, and we have just about reached the stage when a big crop would not go to market. We could not handle it, and we are nearly to the point when people are going to begin again to take a big interest in apple orchards and plant- ing trees. Another factor which has to do with the present condition of the apple industry in Ontario is the fact that most of the orchards throughout Western Ontario are small in size. If you will look carefully over the orchards in the Province of Ontario from one end to the other, you will find that the orchards to-day which are receiving care and attention are good sized orchards — orchards big enough to make it worth the owner's while to look after it. And the orchards which have passed into a state of neglect are the small orchards. I believe that is the correct diagnosis, and if it is correct, it means there is something about the small orchard which is not economical and not conducive to keeping that orchard in a state of productivity. I believe, therefore, that our orchards are too small. There are numbers of men who have temporarily dropped apple growing. The trees are standing there, but they are not sprayed or pruned. Q. — Where would you draw the line? Prof. Crow ; With the man who runs the show. There are plenty of men who at the present time have dropped the orchard temporarily, but who if they had more trees would be better off. They may think they have too many when they have three or four or five acres, but if they had ten or twenty, they would have enough to make it worth while caring for. One point in which perhaps we have erred and gone wrong is the way we went at it to stir up this boom in apple growing. There was as you know a great deal of talk about apple orcharding, and emphasis was given to the profits certain men had made in fruit growing. That is all right if you take it right, but it may be very misleading, and that is where we made a serious error. During the years from 1905 to 1910, there was too much of a tendency to look at the orchard on a farm as the unit. We have gone after the man with the small orchard and preached into him that he ought to take care of his orchard as if.it were the principal end of farming, whereas the farmer is thinking & F.G. JL8 THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 of his whole farm as the unit of production and not the apple orchard that occupies one corner of it. I want to base this statement on the remarks I have made up to the present : I believe that the present is exactly the right time if a man is properly situated, to plant an orchard, and if there ever was a necessity for a campaign in produc- tion we have an instance of it right here, because from a national standpoint, if we do not look after our apple orchards and encourage the planting of more orchards, our apple orchard industry is going to fade — I won't say out of sight, but it is going to fade. We want to persuade men to plant apple trees, but we must pick the men who are rightly situated to do it, and who are in a position to plant a large enough orchard to make it worth their while. Five years from now under normal conditions and even under war conditions, should they con- tinue that long, the public generally will be waking up to this opportunity in the apple business. That is self-evident and is no prophecy. For some years in Ontario, there has been a sort of campaign in marketing. We have thought, and it has been freely stated, that the problem in fruit growing was not the growing of the fruit but the marketing of it. I would bring to your attention the fact that great progress has been made in the marketing of all kinds of fruit in this Province in the last ten or fifteen years. We have pro- gressed so far in marketing that we have come to the point where the problem is once more the growing of the fruit, and my impression is that the general fruit grower and apple grower in this Province has much more to learn about the growing of the fruit #nd the selection of the varieties and the management of his orchard. We have made tremendous strides in marketing. We are doing things now that ten or fifteen years ago would not have been attempted, and which under those conditions would have been out of the question. Just as an instance of that. The Niagara District peach crop of 1913 was a bumper one, and if it had come ten years previous, it would have spoiled on the ground, but the peach crop of 1913 went to market, and although the prices were not as high as they might have been, it was moved and sold — the biggest peach crop the country ever had. We are marketing apples in the West by co-operative methods through the various Associations and the Central organization, in a manner that we would not have thought possible ten years ago. And the problem to-day is the growing of the fruit. That point is emphasized somewhat by the character of the season of 1915 and 1916. It was very difficult to get spraying done, and yet there were clean apples grown in the Province in fair quantity in both of these seasons. I would like to direct your attention to some of the causes which have played a part in bringing about the present condition of affairs in the apple industry. The first is the small orchard. I believe the day of the small orchard is over, and perhaps it would not be too much to say that the small orchard is the curse of the business. When conditions get down to a certain point, the -men with small orchards stop caring for them for ten or fifteen years, and then when they want to, they can bring them into cultivation again. There can be no more disturbing element in fruit growing. Another point is the matter of varieties, and I have listened with much interest to what I have heard of the discussion of varieties. I do viiot need to add anything to that at the present time. For my owju part, I want to say that I do not believe the Northern Spy apple is half as profitable as some have stated. I believe it is the most difficult to grow and one of the most expensive. 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 19 There is another point I would like to mention which has been a source of very great difficulty. You know the extent to which trees have been winter killed in various fashions. One .of the principal means by which trees go out in this way is root killing. An interesting point in this connection is root killing is worse in the southern counties than in the northern where they have more snow. There is more root killing in the county of Kent than in Huron or Bruce or Muskoka, because in the latter there is a heavy blanket of snow. I believe this can be avoided by growing trees on hardy roots, either on their own roots or grafting then on to some other variety. The Spy is a very hardy tree. It will grow in a country where the Baldwin or the Greening will not. The Baldwin is not satisfactory on its own roots, but I will guarantee it will live longer and thrive better top grafted, because we have thousands of Baldwin trees going out with root killing. This is a problem for our nurserymen, however. If you want a tree on strictly hardy roots, and if you want to pay the price, there is no reason why you should not have it. There is an important way by which all this root killing can be avoided, and connected with that is the matter of top grafting such varieties as the Baldwin. When the Baldwin tree goes out at twenty-five years .of age, there is something radically wrong. There are a great many places in Ontario where the Baldwins are going out at twenty-five years where they ought to live longer, and where they would if they were top grafted. You want not only hardy roots, but hardy trunks. Q.— How old should a tree be for top-grafting? Prof. Crow: You can top graft a tree at almost any age from three years planted up to as far as you like, but my impression is that the best time to top graft a tree would be seven or eight years planted. The Chairman : I am sure you will agree with me we have listened to a very excellent address from Prof. Crow. I am ready to agree with Prof. Crow that the fruit industry has reached that stage when we have gotten over this panicky attitude, and we are ready now to go ahead and profit by the lessons we have learned. Prof. Crow: Mr. Carpenter, who is a nurseryman, has asked me what I mean by a tree on its own roots, and wants to know whether I am talking of the growing of trees from seed. The point is if a nurseryman would use short pieces of root and a long scion and plant it deep, the scion will develop its own roots eventually. Mr. W. F. W. Fisher: There is one point I would be interested in hearing developed. Is there any way of treating an orchard that will lead to its early pro- ductivity? My observation in the West is that one of the reasons why they get early productivity of trees is because they do not prune them. They plant a tree and go away from it, and leave it for eight or ten years, and then they have a tree in full bearing for its size, and then they prune them very heavily. I have never seen their orchards pruned very heavily in the West. We have been pruning some- what heavily on all the varieties of fruit we grow— apples, pears, plums and cherries— for the last few years. We have started off on that principle, that we are going to leave the tree without any branches that come in the way of working the land. We have known that the lower buds, are the ones that are the best to bear fruit, and by the system of pruning we remove those buds and it keeps de- laying the trees, according to this theory, from coming into bearing. Now, we hope that will establish the bearing habit earlier in life, and after that is once established fruit bearing spurs will come on more regularly. 20 THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 Prof. Crow : I would say that it does on general principles. I have been interested in the varieties that have been discussed, and to my mind the only thing new has been the recommendation to plant Chenangoes. They are not grown in our district, but I think it would be well to include them in our varieties. Prof. Macoun : Prof. Crow does not think there is a place for the small orchard, but I am a great believer in the small orchard near the city or town. I believe the time is coming when the market gardeners are going to grow more apples than they are now. Quite a number of market gardeners have a number of early bearing varieties, and these are the best«kind that market gardeners should handle, and I believe there is a great opportunity for market gardeners all over Canada in this respect. I agree with Prof. Crow that the average farmer with the small orchard does not look after it, but the market gardener and the truck gardener will look after it. Mr. Patterson : I believe Mr. Fisher is absolutely right about not pruning. Certain experiments have been conducted at the Vineland Farm for the last five or six years, and comparison was made between the trees that were pruned severely, pruned very moderately and not pruned at all. The trees not pruned at all were away ahead of all the others; there was no comparison both in girth of trunk, in size of branch and size of tree. " Experiments along this line are almost conclusive in regard to the early bearing, and I think it is right not to prune trees at all until they have had six or seven years of growth. Mr. Palmer, Vineland: I would like to qualify the remarks of Mr. Pattison. The biggest difference is between the winter pruned trees and the summer pruned, but between the well pruned and unpruned trees there is not the same big differ- ence. Taking everything into consideration — the shape of the tree and the general health of the tree — I think that the semi-pruned is perhaps the better state, the trees are a better shape and not leaning away from the prevailing winds, and are not as straggly as the unpruned trees, but as far as the experiment is concerned, unpruned trees are out-bearing the summer pruned and winter pruned, and out- growing them in length of branches and girth of trunk. Against that must be set the fact that the unpruned trees are straggly and the branches are very thick. In two or three years there won't be any buds in the centre of these trees; there is too much shade. The Chairman : The tendency will be that we will go too far the other way. REPORT OF THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE. A. "IV. Peart, Burlington, and W. T. Macoun, Ottawa. In 1914 and 1915 the report of this Committee set forth the more important events connected with the growth of the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association. As the main features of that field have been, for the most part, well covered, we pro- pose to confine ourselves this year very briefly to the remarkable season of 1916 as it affected the fruit grower. It has been well, said that everything has been abnormal and out of gear. The war was and is still raging and assuming even larger proportions. The spring and summer were phenomenal in their destructive effects on the fruit grower and farmer. Incessant rains until the last) of June waterlogged the soil and largely prevented the usual work on our farms. Orchards if ploughed at all were ploughed wet — if cultivated, were cultivated wet — and in 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 21 any event the soil was lifeless, chilled to death and with it trees, bushes and vines. Then came a drouth of three months, with intense heat. The soil baked quickly, and probably within the memory of man land was never so stubborn and hard to handle. The rains interfered with the setting of the blossoms of the larger tree fruits, and as a result there were short crops of apples, pears, and plums. This was aggravated by the impossibility of effective cultivation, so that the apples were small, defective and of low quality. Strawberries on light and well drained soils were a fair crop. Raspberries, poor; cherries in too many orchards were destroyed by the cherry fly; pear trees were attacked by the Psylla, and the San Jose Scale spread rapidly. Aery seldom, if ever, was the apple scab so bad as tl lis year. But amid the general desolation there was one bright spot — prices were good, as well they might be, for the grower had little or nothing to sell. Cherries climbed to old time prices 75c. to $1.50 per 11 qt. basket; plums 75c. to $1.00; pears brought good prices in our home markets, and if you could get them across to Great Britain, sold "at record prices; apples $1.25 to $1.75 per box f.o.b. for No. 1 and' 2, and $2.50 per barrel for No. 3. Winter Nelis pears sold in Glasgow last October as high as 13 shillings per one-half standard box, and King apples at 16 shillings per box. During 1916 commercial dusting was tried in a few orchards instead of the usual spraying to destroy insects and fungi. The results were such as to inspire the hope that this method might become generally effective. The relative lightness of the outfit and the rapidity of the work are strong factors in its favor. In the winter of 1915 and 1916 thousands of young fruit trees were girdled by mice, involving a heavy loss to many growers. Those who promptly protected the wounds with burlap, then bridged them with scions when vegetation started and used grafting wax freely, were able to save many good trees. This is the third annual meeting since the beginning of the war. During the past year many of our sons have seen active service at the front. Some have been wounded, others again have paid the supreme price. We all fervently hope that this dreadful nightmare, this foul blot on civilization, this brazen challenge to Christianity itself may soon be ended, and that the British Empire with her allies may emerge successfully on a basis of permanent peace rooted in honor and justice. During 1916 two strong men officially connected with the fruit industry have passed away. The Hon. James S. Duff, Minister of Agriculture of Ontario, died near Cookstown on June 20th. He represented West Simcoe in the Provincial House for eighteen years, and was one of the most able Ministers the Province has had. Mr. Duff was a successful farmer and a practical man, bringing to the re- sponsible duties of his position as Minister, useful progressive ideas and shrewd common sense. He introduced the system of County Agricultural Representatives, School Fairs in rural districts, the merging of Farmers' Institutes into Clubs, Agricultural Travelling Demonstration Trains, various acts for the betterment of the live stock and dairy industry and was a good friend of the fruit interests of the Province. Both his public and private life were marked by simplicity, rugged honesty, and devotion to duty. He was genial and sympathetic, and his demise which was universally regretted was doubtless hastened by the shock of the news of his son having been killed in France while fighting for Canada and the Empire. Dr. C. C. James, Canadian Commissioner of Agriculture, died suddenly on June 24th. From 1891 to 1912 Dr. James was Deputy Minister of Agriculture 22 THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 of Ontario. During the latter year he was transferred to the wider Dominion field. At the instance of the Hon. Martin Burrell, Dominion Minister of Agri- culture, he directed the Patriotism and Production Campaign in 1915 throughout Canada, and the Production and Thrift Campaign in 1916. Dr. James was a close student, and a man of wide sympathies, which, directed by a certain resistless energy and enthusiasm, gave his life a broad- usefulness. He was pleasant ajid approachable, and the fruit as well as other agricultural industries were materially advanced through his work and influence. Dr. James was a member of the Senate of Toronto University, Past President of the Ontario Historical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. The news of his death was received generally with "deep regret. CARE OF THE ORCHARD DURING THE LABOR SCARCITY. A. W. Peart, Burlington. This subject, " The Care of the Orchard During the Labor Scarcity/' I con- sider is a very difficult matter to handle. The care of an orchard under normal conditions is hard enough, but when we strike conditions such as we are likely to confront and have been confronted with during the last year, it makes it very much more difficult to try to say anything about it. Last year we had a hard season from the standpoint of the weather. There was a vast amount of rain during the early part of the year, succeeded by intense heat and drought from July on. That made it so 'that the fruit grower could with no satisfaction whatever work or handle his fruit plantations and orchards; and, besides that, there was a labor scarcity. I dare say that in our part of the country the farmers are short from 25 to 50 per cent, of the usual quantity of labor they keep. As time goes on men are getting scarcer and scarcer. Recruiting is taking more and more of our men. as also are the munition factories. Then there are public works going on which absorb numbers of men and which offer higher wages. The farmer cannot profess to compete with the munition manufacturer in the payment of wages, nor can he compete with the wages offered by commissions of various sorts and by private contractors. In Burlington district to-day, hired men ask from $2.50 to $3.00 a day, and they would point to sewer works and other public undertakings where they pay laborers 30c. an hour. That is the situation that confronts us, and it is up to us as fruit growers to meet that situation as best we can. I do not know that I have any special suggestion to offer to you so far as that situation is concerned. We had a very hard }rear last year due to the season and the scarcity of labor, and if we have normal conditions this season even though wages are higher, we cannot have a worse year than what we have recently passed through. It seems to me there are at least three things which are indispensable, and which we should make a big effort to try to do on our farms. The first is keeping up the fertility of the soil in order to produce a good crop of any sort. The next indispensable operation is cultivation. We must look after the cultivation of our orchards; at least that is the experience in our district. I understand in some districts the orchards are situated on such exceptional soil that they require no cultivation.: but if I were to handle my orchard that way I would produce a very 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 23 inferior quality of fruit. I have not only to keep up the fertility of the orchard, but I have to cultivate it as well. The third point is in regard to spraying. These three operations must be looked after — the fertilization of the soil, cultivation of the soil and spraying of the trees. In regard to the fertilization of the land, my practise is, so far as I can carry it out, to plough all the orchard I can in the fall. What I do not get ploughed in the fall, I plough in the spring. I would rather plough all the orchard in the fall for the general reason that I find with all sorts of crops, grain, corn, mangels, the ground ploughed the fall before retains the moisture better throughout the succeed- ing year than if it is ploughed in the spring, and I find the same reasoning will hold true in regard to orchards. Last fail I left three orchards unploughed, and at the present time I am drawing stable manure out to those orchards. I got two car loads of manure in December and I am spreading it out under the trees as far as the branches reach. Q. — Do you plough towards the tree or away from them in the fall? A. — I prefer to plough towards the trees unless the ground is very uneven. Q. — You would not be afraid of tearing the roots ? A. — As I say I prefer to plough to the trees; the orchards I ploughed last fall I ploughed away from the trees and left three or four rows to the old trees. I would not care to tear the roots. Q. — What depth do you plough? A. — Five or six inches. Q. — Depending on cover crops in adding humus to the soil, what would you do? A. — If I find time to plough it in the fall, even with a cover crop on, I would do so for the sake of keeping moisture in the soil. If I plough in the sprinsr I do not seem to be able to keep the moisture in the soil. Q. — You would have to turn your cover crop in pretty early ? A. — In the middle of July. Q. — That would not do for a young orchard? A. — In a young orchard we expect to grow something else besides trees, of course. Q. — Take an orchard 18 or 20 years old, would you advise ploughing right up to the trees or would you leave three feet or a greater amount next to the tree? A. — I always plough right up to the tree. Q. — Some people find it an advantage to leave 10 or 12 feet? A. — I daresay there are some grounds and some lands where a person can do that without sacrificing the size of the apples, and it might tend to make the apples a better color to leave a strip of 10 or 12 feet in width. Some people say it tends to make a better color in the apples, but whether that is true or not, I do not know. Q. — I did not mean that exactly. The small feeding roots in the trees are not very close to the trunk, and according to the size and age of the tree, would you plough close to the tree or leave a strip? That is, with a young tree would you plough close and as it grew older leave a little more ground? A. — Some say that is an advantage ; but I plough right up to the tree, though not deep, and the farther I get away from the trunk, the deeper I plough. But your point is leaving a strip of sod that you do not plough at all. That would not suit my orchards. I require to cultivate all I can to get any sized apples. In regard to cultivation. I like to put the roller around as soon after I plough as possible, and then put the harrow over the ground. 24 THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 Q. — What kind of soil have you? A. — Clay loam and gravel loam. As soon as the ground is fit to work in the spring I like to get on it with a disk and then the harrow. I give it the same treat- ment as a field I was going to sow with oats, as far as the harrowing is concerned. If we leave it as the disk leaves it, there is greater evaporation in the surface than when left after the harrow. In regard to spraying, I believe last year was a great revelation in some parts of the country in regard to the quantity of injurious insects and fungi we have to combat. In my own orchards for the first time to any great extent, the aphis did as much damage as it possibly could. The fruit was small and the leaves were black- ened, and in cultivating that orchard crosswise with a team during the months of July and September, a certain amount of water or honey dew would be swept off the trees on to the horses. Then again, the Cherry Fly developed very largely in the cherry. The San Jose Scale developed very rapidly, and we were also troubled with apple spot or scab. So in addition to these other two operations, spraying is absolutely essential. I have not had any experience with the new dusters, but the fruit growers are hopeful that the dust method of treating trees for fungi will be satisfactory. Last spring and summer it was practically impossible to spray our trees properly on account of the soft ground and the rain, and I have no doubt that is one reason why the fungi and the scab in the apples was so prevalent. Orchards have also to be pruned in order to get fruit worth picking. Rasp- berries and blackberries should be pruned, and I think young orchards generally should be gone over and a. little taken out of them, but at the same time, I agree with the opinion expressed here that we should not do too much pruning on young trees. Q. — If you do not prune a young Spy tree what kind of a tree are you going to have? It will grow 20 feet higher in the year? A. — Every rule has exceptions, and I dare say the Spy tree is the exception. I agree with you that young Spy trees make a vigorous growth in a single season, and it has been my practice to cut those growths back always. There were thousands of trees in the Burlington district ruined with mice. Some of us went to work and tied up the wounds with burlap so that the sun and the wind would not dry out the tree. We tied the top and the bottom of the scion with twine, and then we packed the wound up with grafting wax and in that way we saved a number of good trees which would have been ruined. Q. — Is there a particular time for doing that work? A. — I do that about the middle of June. Mr. Falen: If you have clean cultivation and your fences clean, you would not have any mice. Mr. Peart: Unfortunately our fences are not always clean, and we cannot always have clean cultivation, but I agree with Mr. Falen. A Member: Even with clean cultivation the mice worked through on my orchard ? A. — They were certainly very bad. I know orchards where hundreds of trees were destroyed. I think it would be well for us to go over our trees and put on tar paper. Prof. Crow : I do not see where you are saving a great deal of labor on that orchard. Mr. Peart : The point I want to make is this : We are up against a situation. 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 25 There are certain indispensable things to do, but we could cut out thinning, although the thinning of certain varieties might be profitable in normal times. I do not think I would consider that this year at all. So far as possible, the fruit growers and farmers should confine their energies and work to things absolutely indispensable. Leave out the non-essentials, and just get along the best we can under the conditions we are up against. Our boys are fighting at the front, and they are making a good fight and bringing honor to Canada. It is up to us who are here and not at the front to also make a good fight in our work whether it be in our orchards or on our farms, and be a credit to our boys who are at the front. \ The Chairman: The question has just come up in regard to mice damage. Has anybody had any experience in the application of a strong lime-sulphur solution applied to the trees as a preventative? Father Leopold: I tried that out in the fall, and where we have put that on the mice have not touched, but this is the first year of using it. Proe. Macoun : There is a method of cultivation called the Johnston System "which saves half the expense of the operation of cultivation, but whether it is practicable to this part of Ontario or not, I cannot say. In this method every other row is cultivated. Supposing you have a cover crop of clover in your orchard, next spring instead of ploughing up the whole orchard, you plough up between every other row, and in that way you save half the seed, half the expense of plough- ing, and half the expense of cultivation, and they claim in Nova Scotia they get a better quality of apple and sufficient moisture to produce apples of good size. The Chairman: Mr. Gibson, would you mind explaining to us the system you have of leaving the trees with a strip of sod ? Mr. Gibson: Our object in doing it is saving labor. We keep the orchard in clean cultivation until the tree is nicely in bearing, and then we sow a strip of clover perhaps 10 or 12 feet wide. If the rows are 35 feet apart, that leaves 25 feet for cultivation out from the branches, allowing the branches to drop down over this sod strip. A lot of the apples are low down and within reach of the pickers, and so far I have had sod strips that have been in continuous sod for 15 or 16 years and the trees are making plenty of wood. By the cultivation of the centre, we get plenty of moisture, and I am sure I" am getting a better quality of apple, and the trees go into winter with wood better ripened by having this portion of sod around them, and there is apparently no winter injury. Mr. Terry: How would you cut the grass if the trees are so low? Mr. Gibson: With the mower. We cut back the limbs pointing sideways so as to allow the horse to go past. Q. — Have you any injury from the mulch? A. — No, but it has a tendency to harbor mice, but so far we have had very little injury from mice. FALL PLOUGHING. W. F. Kydd, Toronto. At many meetings like this the question has been often asked about fall ploughing, and not so very long ago there seemed to be a great difference of opinion about it. I am glad Mr. Peart spoke the way he did, because it makes me stronger in my ideas on the subject. 26 THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 For a number of years the Fruit Branch has had orchards in different parte of Ontario. In three of these orchards from the very beginning some fall plough- ing was done every year. We find in the spring cultivation the labor does not cost half as much if the orchard has been fall ploughed, and it is easier to keep the ground clean. We also found we had greater wood growth with fall ploughing than with spring ploughing. I suppose the reason for that is that we were able to keep the ground moist during the summer. I would advise fall ploughing to be done as late as possible so that there will not be any chance of any growth starting in the tree. Of course fall ploughing does away with the cover crop for winter protection, but if you have your ground ploughed in the fall and harrowed, you have five or six inches of mulch, and I believe that is a good preventive from winter injury to those roots. Another thing I would advise is ploughing towards the trees. I do not believe in leaving anything resembling a dead forest around those trees. Mr. Peart has covered the ground so thoroughly that I can hardly add any- thing to what he has said, but I would be pleased to answer any questions. Mr. Falen : Do you ever plough away from the tree ? Mr. Kydd: No; never away from them. Q. — What kind of plough do you use? A. — Any kind, as long as it is easy to handle. Q. — How many furrows ? A. — Generally one. Q. — That would be pretty slow if you had a great many trees? A. — I would use two, then, or more than one plough. Q. — Would you advocate ploughing every fall? A. — If I am going to do spring cultivating every spring I would advocate fall ploughing every fall. Q. — How deep do you plough? A. — Pretty shallow, because as a rule these orchard trees have not been cultivated, and if you plough five or six inches you are apt to give them an awful shock. There are a few orchards that are never cultivated at all, and they have splendid results. I know of an orchard near St. Thomas where there are splendid crops of Snows and Mclntoshes every year, and it has not had a horse work on it for the last twenty years. Prof. Crow: Would you fall plough sand? Mr. Kydd: Sandy land would not need fall ploughing nor spring ploughing. A disk would do all that was necessary. Mr. Allen: As far as I am concerned I am never satisfied unless I have all my ploughing done in the fall. I find with the land ploughed you are no more susceptible to frost than the man who has his mulch. As Mr. Kydd has stated it' certainly lessens by 50 per cent, or more the labor in the spring. When you plough up your land you have a loose mulch, as Mr. Kydd has stated, and the road adjoin- ing your orchard may be frozen hard, but your orchard will not have nearly the depth of frost in it. The reason for late fall ploughing is to get rid of the mouse trouble. If you plough early or not at all the mice will have their homes in there by the scores, but if you go in as late as possible in the fall to plough you are going to be pretty hard on the mice, as Bobby Burns said, and clean them out to a very great extent. And we find also when we plough to our trees we eliminate this difficulty with mice. 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 27 Mb. W. H. Bunting: In the last few years I have practised all kinds of methods. I have given mulch a trial, clover as a cover crop, and also fall plough- ing, and 1 have found that they have all been good, but when I come to my work in the spring, if I have done a good deal of fall ploughing I am very much ahead. Me. Robertson, St. Catharines : I have a little farm, and it is in an exposed position. Practically all my loss has come from allowing the land to become bare during the winter by the snow blowing off, and I would never advocate fall plough- ing on my farm. I lost 90 per cent, of one orchard with fall ploughing, whereas in another orchard with a cover crop I lost practically nothing. Mr. Kydd: Is it necessary to cultivate absolutely close to the trunk of a. full- grown bearing apple tree? Is there any need of going within three feet? Is not that the most expensive part of the cultivation? Me. Robertson : It is the most dangerous. Mr. Kydd : You can almost have anyone do the cultivating if you do not have to go within three feet of the trunk of the tree. I know of several orchards in Ontario where they are not going within three feet. There is one near Oshawa, and the owner has as fine foliage as you could desire, and he is one of the best fruit growers I know of. What is the use of our bothering with that expensive labor? We have tried this thing out in the orchard in Paris. We have some trees stand- ing in 14 feet square of sod, others in ten and others in 3^2 and 5 feet square, and last year there was no difference in the color whether they were in the large squares of sod or had only three or four feet each side of the tree. Q. — Could you see any difference in the blossoms? A. — We could not see anything of the kind. Mr. Fisher: Would it depend on the size of the tree? Mr. Kydd : It does not make any difference at all. Mr. Fisher: I never made a very great success of growing apples, but the practice we follow and propose following is to plough our orchards both fall and spring with a shallow two or three gang plough, and we find it is the cheapest form of cultivation. Prof. Macoun : We adopt the spring ploughing at Ottawa for the reason that our soil is sandy loam, and we had one very bad experience many years ago which we do not want repeated. A very large proportion of our trees were killed in the winter by fall ploughing, and since then we have grown cover crops continually. Of course we adopt the method of growing most of our trees on hardy roots, but for our section of the country — Eastern Ontario — I would certainly not advise fall ploughing. DOES THE INSPECTION AND SALES ACT PROTECT THE CONSUMER? A. S. Chapin, Toronto. In any successful business the chief aim of the management is to give satis- faction to the person using the products of that business, because if the person using the products is satisfied with the products he will use more of them, will in- crease his orders for them, and the business will benefit thereby. How can we apply this principle to the apple business? Simply by giving the consumer satisfaction so that he will use more apples and pay higher prices. 28 THE EEPORT OF THE No. 44 Does the Inspection and Sales Act, as it is to-day, accomplish this ? Let us see. Consumers. — There are two- classes of consumers. The first class is com- posed of those who buy their apples in barrels, such as the farmers in the North- West; and the second class is composed of people in cities, towns and villages who buy their apples by the basket or small measure, or even by the dozen. In order to ascertain if the Inspection and Sales Act protects the first class of consumers, I must take up the grading of apples under the Inspection and Sales Act as it is to-day. Grading. — In regard to No. 1 grade, 1 will say very little, as it is nearly what it should be, but in regard to No. 2 grade I have much to say. If there is any man in this meeting, including inspectors, who can tell me what a barrel of apples marked No. 2, contains, I wish he would stand up, and I will willingly go to the expense of having his photograph taken. I admit that I do not know, and I do not believe it is possible for any person to know, simply because it is a barrel of mixed grades. If we who pick and inspect apples do not know what a No. 2 barrel of apples contains, how is the consumer to know? Therefore, I claim that the Inspection and Sales Act, as it is to-day, affords absolutely no protection whatever to the consumer, especially in regard to No. 2 grade. - I also claim that it is grossly unfair to the inspectors to ask them to inspect the No. 2 grade, under the wording of the Act as it is at the present time. If you will permit me, I will offer for your approval a method of grading apples which I have proven to give protection and satisfaction to the consumer, and at the same time to give the highest prices to the producer. ' Under the Inspection and Sales Act we pay absolutely no attention to the grading of apples as to uniformity of size and color, and these are two of the most important things in connection with the grading of apples, because we all know that high prices depend, to a very great extent, upon the appearance of the fruit and package. Therefore, instead of mixing small and large No. 1 apples together, and thus injuring the appearance of the small apples, I would make two grades of No. 1, and mark them Large No. 1 and Small No. 1, but both barrels must contain No. 1 apples in quality. Next I would take the apples off color, and apples with a few spots, and I would put them in a package by themselves, and mark them just what they are, namely, " Seconds." We then have nothing left except apples with worm holes, apples covered with fungus or scale, and ill-shaped apples, which are nothing more nor less than dead culls. It is a great pity our Government cannot prohibit the marketing of culls, as no man can estimate the amount of injury to our first and second grades that is done by the marketing of this rubbish, which should go to the evaporator. The Government can prohibit the sale of fruit, if it is unfit for consumption, and I honestly believe that if our worthy Commissioner would take a wormy apple to the Government analyst and have it properly analyzed, the analyst would at once pronounce the apple unfit for consumption, owing to the poison injected into the apple by the insect. However, if the Government cannot prohibit the marketing of culls, it can compel the package to be branded just what it contains, namely, " Culls," in large letters, so that the word could be distinguished in the dark. 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 29 As to the cost of grading under the system I have suggested, as compared with the cost under the Inspection and Sales Act as it is at present, I claim that under the system of grading I have just suggested, a man will grade apples in three- quarters of the time he takes under the present system. Unde? the present system a great deal of time is lost in the men deciding where the apples should go. For instance, a sorter picks up a good apple with a few spots, and is undecided what to do with it. He holds a discussion around the table, and finally decides to slip it into the No. 1 barrel and take a chance. Under the system I have suggested, a man knows what every apple is as soon as he sees it. If it is a perfect apple, it is a No. 1 ; if it is off color, or has a few small spots, it is a second; and if it is a wormy apple, or covered with large spots, or ill-shaped, it is a cull, and he knows just where to put every apple, and can go along with the grading without any discussion and any fear that he may be sent to prison. By grading the apples as I have just suggested, we are giving sufficient pro- tection to the consumer who buys by the barrel, because when he buys large No. Ts, he gets large No. l's; if he buys small No. l's, he gets small No. l?s; and if he buys seconds, he gets seconds ; and, therefore, he will be satisfied with what he buys, and will use more apples, and will pay higher prices, because he will have more con- fidence in the grading of our apples. But what about the consumer in the cities, towns and villages who buys by the small basket or small measure, or even by the dozen ? Are the apples we have so carefully graded going to reach him in the same grades as we graded them ? No. And why ? Because the retailer goes down to the wholesale market, buys your apples branded " Seconds " or " Thirds," takes them to his store, takes the head out of the barrel and sells them to the consumer in small lots as first class Ontario apples, because the Inspection and Sales Act does not cover apples in open packages. The result is that when the housewife telephones her grocer to send her a small measure of good Ontario apples, he delivers your seconds and thirds, and charges her a good price. The consumer is displeased, blames the dealer and grower, and uses far less apples than she would if she had been delivered the quality of apples that she had purchased. Therefore, I claim that the retailer should also be governed by the Inspection and Sales Act, and be compelled to brand with a rubber stamp, every package, open or closed, in the same way the packages are branded in the orchard and in the packing houses. I believe in British fair play, and if the growers and dealers are to be governed by law in regard to the grading of their fruit, and taken to court and fined if they transgress the law, then I say that every person handling apples should be governed by the same law, taken before the same courts of justice and subjected to the same fines as the dealer and grower. This is only fair. If we bring the retailer under the Inspection and Sales Act, the consumer will then receive the apples under the same grading as they leave the orchard, and the grower will then receive the credit and prices he is justly entitled to for his hard work. But, you may say, how is the consumer to know anything about the grading of apples ? To this I would reply, let the Government advertise in the papers what firsts, seconds and culls are, and if graded as I have suggested, the language would be 30 THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 so simple that any man, woman or child could easily understand that firsts are perfect apples, seconds are apples off color and spotted, and that culls were culls, which every person already knows. The consumers are here and are willing to pay the price; they are in the Canadian West, and are willing to pay the price; they are in England and Scotland, and are willing to pay the price, if we will only give them what they want. The old idea of compelling the consumer to accept any old thing we see fit to send him is bad business, because he does not have to buy our apples, and he will not pay us the price unless we give him what he wants. You can easily see the proof of this by looking in the shop windows in To- ronto, and see the large quantities of Western apples as compared with the small quantity of Ontario apples, and the quantity of Western apples is increasing every year. This fact alone proves that our methods of handling this apple business are wrong, and we must adopt new and up-to-date methods which will give the con- sumer what he wants and is willing to pay for, and what he is justly entitled to. I beg to thank you and the members of the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association very much indeed for giving me this opportunity of addressing you, as I consider it a great honor. In conclusion, I want to impress upon those present that we are losing our apple trade, and that we must discard the old ideas and adopt new ones, if we are to retain it. And above all things, let us do away for ever with the great uncertainty in the grading of our fruit. I did not know you were going to have this splendid array of apples here this afternoon, but it is right along my line. You have a box of large apples and one of smaller apples, and I claim those two boxes of apples packed in that way will bring you more money than if you mixed the two sizes together. I have brought with me some apples that I took out of a barrel of No. 1 Spies that a man in the city paid $7 for. There we have the large No. 1; here we have the small apple, perfectly clean, and in my opinion just as good an apple as the other, and it also should be marked No. 1. If you pack those apples together, then the large apple will destroy to a certain extent the value of that small one, because it makes the small apple appear smaller. So I would pack those separately, and then you would have a very nice package of apples. What have we next? We have this large apple which is off color. If our first apple was No. 1 grade, what should this be? I think we must call that a Second. We have another apple here with color but with some spots, and I would put this one along with the one off color and make a barrel of Seconds. Now we have another grade here. Here is one which is very small and has two worm holes, and these all came out of a No. 1 barrel. Apples like this are Culls, and they should be marked what they are. I think any man ought to be ashamed of himself to ship such apples to people in a city like this and expect them to consume them, and you men are the ones who are suffering for this. It is coming back on you. Some might object to making two grades of No. 1, but it will make more money for you. If you put No. 1 apples in a No. 1 barrel, and if you put apples off color and those with a few spots in a No. 2 barrel, you will have a good barrel of No. 2's. Q. — How many spots would you allow? A. — I would draw the line pretty close. Q. — How would you define it? A. — Spotted apple as a second. 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 31 Q. — Covered with spots? A. — That is a third. Somebody will say, " Oh, labor is too high for us to grade our apples in that way; there is too much expense, we cannot do it?" I honestly believe that by this system of putting the 'apples where they belong, the packers will pack the apples in three-quarters of the time that they do under the present system, and with three- quarters of the expense. Why ? The packer has a law hanging over his head, and it is worded so that it would take a Philadelphia lawyer to understand it. He starts sorting apples, and he does not know what {*> do with an apple like this. He starts a little discussion around the table which will take up ten or fifteen minutes, and then the inspector comes along and the discussion continues, and an- other ten or fifteen minutes is lost finding out where to put one apple. Under this other system, you know the minute you see an apple where it belongs. la packing apples in this way, I think we would be giving satisfaction to the consumer who buys by the barrel, because he knows just what is in the barrel. D. Johnson, Dominion Fruit Commissioner, Ottawa: I am very glad to know the charges are no worse than they are. I was under the impression that possiblv Mr. Chapin was going to charge the Fruit Commissioner and the Fruit Inspectors with all kinds of graft, and that we were going to be held up as most awful fel- lows, but I am pleased that the charges are directed more particularly at the Act rather than at the administration of the Act. I am free to admit to you that much of what Mr. Chapin has said to you is perfectly correct. What he has stated in regard to No. 2 grade is very largely correct. The Act as it now reads gives very little direction to the packers or con- sumers as far as No. 2 apples are concerned, and I think I have voiced that senti- ment time after time. I have brought that to the attention of the fruit growers and various committees, and asked them to define in some way No. 2 grade, which will give the inspectors some real line of work. To say the Fruit Marks Act is of no value whatever to the consumer is some- thing I cannot agree with. I am going to give you a case in point. In the State of Maine, they have no Fruit Marks Act, and this year we received in Canada many thousands of barrels of apples packed in the State of Maine, marked No. 1, and all kinds of marks, and when we investigated these apples, we found on the face, they were beauties, but the contents were trash, and we had many of the wholesale men get to work and repack the apples in order that the consumers might be protected. It is only necessary to go to the State of New York to look over this matter. There are splendid fruit growers and packers over there, and yet a large percentage of the apples packed in the State of New York are very much overfaced. While in Ontario we do have people who will not pack their apples properly, yet some apples will get out like this barrel of apples Mr. Chapin got hold of here. ' I would not wonder but that he searched the whole city for this barrel of apples. Yon must remember that Canada is a big country, and we have only 65 in- spectors, owing to the fact that we are under war conditions and we cannot increase our staff as we would like to. The apple districts of Canada are fairly well defined. We know where the apples are produced, and in order to carry out the wishes of this Association, that apple inspection should be almost entirely at the point of shipment, we have instructed our inspector in charge of each section to go up and down the country in order to get to the people, and show them how to pack their apples. As they have found, as in hundreds of thousands of cases, apples not pro- 32 THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 perly packed, they have gently pointed out to the people that their fruit was not being properly packed, and they stayed with them and showed them how to pack, so that the consumer would be protected. The result has been having thousands and thousands of barrels marked at the shipping point before they have gone out into the market, and in that way we get the best protection we can get. But the question of open packages is altogether a different thing. We have no control of open packages, and, therefore, all this sort of stuff is put up on you. If there was no inspection or no Fruit Marks Act, your No. 1 and No. 2 would also be trash. To-day the Western dealers can buy with a reasonable amount of assurance that they are going to get their apples properly packed. In fact the great majority are put through on the condition that they should be packed according to Govern- ment standard, and if they are not, then as a rule the shipper or dealer has an opportunity of getting back at the packer. Our opinion has been that if we correct the evil at the shipping point — whether it be peaches, tomatoes, apples, pears or anything else — the consumer is better protected than by any other means. If we were to go into every town and village and city, and all the country districts of this country and tried to make the store keepers honest in the selling of their fruit, it would take a tremendous army of inspectors. We have inspectors who are doing excellent work in protecting the consumers by prosecuting some people. I believe if we can correct the evil at the shipping point, we are doing the greatest service we possibly can. I would be very glad to have any suggestions. We are willing and anxious to have suggestions at all times, and as soon as the opportunity is offered us, these suggestions will be put into force. At the commencement of my address, I admitted we have many holes in the Fruit Marks Act. No one knows that better than the inspectors, but until we have legislation in the Parliament of Canada, we cannot go further in protecting the consumers. The law says that the face of the open package shall represent the contents of the package. Me. W. F. W. Fisher: Is that not enough? Is not that sufficient for every- body ? Mr. Johnson: Mr. Chapin claims a retailer buys a barrel of No. 3's and he takes the head out and sells them for No. l's. We cannot stop it. Mr. Chapin: The consumer is the man who is suffering. Mr. Johnson : And if you can give us any suggestion as to how we can pro- tect you, we will be glad to do so. The dealers know we have no control over open packages just as well as we do. Mr. Bunting: Cannot the consumer examine the apples? Mr. Johnson: With open packages there is an opportunity offered for every- one to examine the fruit before taking it. The Inspection and Sales Act is for the purpose of protecting dealers and men who deal in large quantities. Mr. Bunting: You made the statement that on the other side it is the prac- tice to over-mark the apples. That cannot take place in this country. Mr. Johnson: No. I must say for the packers of Canada that as far as over-facing is concerned, they are very honest. It is very seldom we find an over- faced package. Mr. Bunting: When Mr. Chapin held up these cull apples, there was not a pair of eyes in this audience but recognized them as cull apples, and they could not be put over on us by any dealer or retailer as anything else. I think the average 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 33 consumer would have nearly as much intelligence as we have here, and the con- sumer buying that package would know it was not according to specifications. Of course if it was ordered over the telephone and the maid received it that is another question, and that is the point Mr. Chapin wants to make — that these inferior fruits are delivered at the house without the purchaser knowing exactly what he is getting or having an opportunity of making a protest. If the package is sold in the open market under the personal inspection of the consumer, he can see what he is getting. We know we have some inferior fruit in this country, and there is a trade that will take that class of fruit, and they should not be debarred from taking that fruit if they wish it. Mr. CHAPIN : I think your argument is right along in line with mine. I did not bar any class of fruit. I said it is a shame to have these culls put on the market, but the Government cannot stop any one from selling them. They should be put in a package so that the consumer knows what they are. I do not think a cull has any business in a No. 2 or No. 1 barrel. I did not mean to infer that the Fruit Marks Act had not done any good, be- cause it has done a great deal of good. The very reason this Act was passed in the first place was because our Canadian apple business had got so bad that we had lost our trade in England, and the Fruit Marks Act was introduced to save the apple industry. It has been of much benefit, but I think we can make it better. and if we take the culls out of the Seconds and out of the Firsts there won't be any trouble. Me. Bragg: It was only a few years ago that we saw the first apples from Western Canada in the stores in Toronto. Now you see them in every small town and village in the country, and they are very common in Toronto. If we had at- tained the high standard which we are trying to reach, these apples would not be in the stores to-day, and while they are coming here, they are displacing our Ontario apples. The people who buy these Western apples are not particular what price they pay, and that should be an incentive to fruit growers to try to improve their orchards and the quality of their apples. If I have anything to say in regard to No. l's, 2's, and 3's, I say eliminate the No. 3 entirely, and the people will pay good prices for the No. Ts, and fair prices for the No. 2's. Mr. Fisher: I wish to ask a question of Mr. Johnson. If I understand him right, he said his Department has no control whatever over open packages. That is not my conception of the Act. Here is Inspector Smith who has us all " scared stiff " around Burlington. If he sees an open package that is not full right up to the top or an open package that he considers is not up to specifications, he makes us come to time, and I am wondering if we have been enjoying all the privileges we ought to enjoy. Mr. Johnsox: I think I ought to qualify that statement. We have no con- trol as far as packing is concerned, but we have as far as facing is concerned. The Act says the face shall be a fair representation of the contents of the package, and unfortunately there seems to be a great tendency for many people to put the big peaches on the top, and we put our inspectors in the Niagara District and similar fruit districts, and the fruit growers work in harmony with the inspectors, and we have fruit going out which reflects great credit upon the fruit growers of Burling- ton, Niagara, and other districts. The Chairman: I was thinking that we have been saying about ourselves and listening to a great many things that are certainlv verv caustic. The truth is 3 F.G. 34 THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 what we want to get at. I think I made it this morning in my address, as Mr. Chapin has suggested to you, that there certainly is something absolutely and radically wrong with us, or the system, or something, when such a state of affairs exists as the increasing volume of imported apples. Some will say that this year it is on account of our poor crop. But in 1914 thousands of barrels of our apples hit the ground and stayed there, and the country was full of imported apples. The thing that is radically wrong is that we as growers are persistently blinding ourselves to the fact that there is a market for a lot of better fruit that we can grow. We are too easily satisfied. We grow too much ordinary stuff. If we grew more good fruit, I am perfectly satisfied we could get a very large volume of the trade that is now being supplied by the Western boxed apple. The people who patronize this trade are ready to pay fabulous prices so long as they can get an apple that suits them. Why cannot we get that trade? Here is a sample of apples on the table that have been grown under Mr. Kydd's supervision. I will defy anybody to beat those apples for color or texture or anything else. They will go up against any Western boxed apple for appearance and quality. They were grown in On- tario under ordinary conditions, and why cannot we grow more of them. I might say that was partly the object in having Mr. Chapin address you on this subject to-day. It was not to poke holes in the Fruit Marks Act. The idea was to bring Mr. Chapin as a representative of the apple trade to speak to us, so that we could get together on common ground to find out where we are losing the trade, and where we are standing in our own light. I am satisfied he succeeded very well in doing that. What he said with reference to the Fruit Marks Act as to the No. 2 apple not being well defined is quite true. I think you will find that just as soon as legislation regarding that can be taken up the No. 2 will be more definitely defined, and No. 3 grade of apple more clearly defined and subject to inspection. This is the last item on our programme this afternoon. It is a very important item for discussion, and if anyone else has anything1 to say in the matter, let us hear from him now. A Member: I might just say with regard to the small and large apple being packed together, and my friend Mr. Neil can tell you, that in the West they do not object to the small and large apple being in the same barrel, and they would rather have the two sizes together. Perhaps that would not do if yon are cater- ing to a high class city market, but for the Western market, I do not think it is necessary to go to the expense and trouble of separating them, and I do not think they would .command any higher price. With regard to bringing in Western apples. In the city of Brantford I warned the dealers ahead that they were going to be short of apples, and they have been forced, not by any choice of their own, to import apples from British Columbia or elsewhere. At the same time, some of our Ontario growers were getting nearly twice as much in the Old Country in competition with the Western apples. Mr. Allan, Grimsby: Regarding the retailer, as Mr. Chaplin stated, what does it matter whether we put up No. 1, 2 or 3 grade if when they get to the retailer, he sells them all as No. 1. I call that man a crook, and the law should get after him and punish him. The Fruit Marks Act has no hold on that man. I hope there are very few of those men in Toronto, and I believe there are not. I think the Fruit Marks Act is doing its work well. The inspectors are busier every year. Mr. Johnson says when normal conditions are restored again he will be able to put on a whole forest of inspectors, and the difficulties will be cut down to a minimum. 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 35 Mr. Pritchard: I think the difficulty is that there is no one looking after our local trade. It is a well known fact — at least that is the way I see it — that the apples of this country largely go into the hands of the speculator, and he puts them into store houses and repacks them. He is looking after the foreign trade, or where he can get the most money. It has not occurred to him that he can get the most money in our local markets. The speculator gets the best apples, and we have nothing but culls to give our own people. Mr. Carey : I wish to say a few words about the No. 3. I attended a meeting in Nova Scotia a few weeks ago, and a committee was appointed to endeavour to define the No. 3 apple. You all know the difficulty of defining the No. 3. We spent two days trying to define the No. 2. We took up the Act, and I found something in it that helped us out. The definition of a cull reads something like this: "A cull is an apple either very small for the variety or with the skin broken so that the tissue beneath shows, or so affected with fungus, worm holes and other defects which render it unmarketable.7' At the beginning of each grade, in the first paragraph it says, " It shall include no culls," and then it defines the No. 1 and the No. 2. After discussing the matter of the No. 3 for a few hours, we came to the conclusion that to put at the beginning " Shall include no culls " was the only feasible thing to do ; and I want to submit it to this meeting, as Mr. Johnson said I might, and ask you what you think of that definition. It certainly would keep out bruised apples, broken apples, scabby apples or very small apples, and that is as good a definition as we could arrive at for No. 3. All inspectors will back me up in saying we are all very careful how we deal with the No. 2 grade when it comes to valuation. Last year at this Convention, we decided on a grade called " Domestic," and included such apples as Mr. Chapin showed here with a little off color or having a few spots. But that has not gone through Parliament yet. Prof. Crow : Was anybody ever prosecuted under that phrase " Shall in- clude no culls " for the No. 1 or No. 2 ? Mr. Carey: I do not think that question ever came up in a Court. The other defects were so apparent that it overshadowed anything of that kind. Prof. Crow: It might as well not be in the book? Mr. Carey: In the No. 3 apples the point would be raised at once, because three-quarters of the apples now put up under No. 3 are culls, and I think the question would be raised in that case. Mr. Pritchard: In regard to the No. 3 apple I believe in having free trade in regard to that matter. A person is not obliged to buy an apple unless he wants it. As to the No. 1 and No. 2, I think the suggestions made by Mr. Johnson last year to make No. 2 a better grade, and possibly Mr. Chapin's idea in dividing the No. 1 into two sizes, are very worthy of consideration, especially for the local market. But the lower grades of apples ought to be left in the hands of the people who buy them, and allow them to stand on their own merit. If you sell a man a lot of culls for No. 3 apples, you cannot do it the second time. You may keep on selling to other people, but you will lose your name. Let the man who grows inferior apples sell them to the best advantage he can, and let the buyer buy them to the best advantage he can. Everybody knows a good apple from a bad apple, and they are not compelled to buy what they do not want. I think the less you try to govern people in a matter of this kind, the better pff we will be. 36 THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 A Member: There is a matter in connection with this discussion that has not yet been touched on. In a season like the past, a large number of dealers who had voluntarily eliminated themselves from the market because they could nor pack No. 1 and No. 2 grade have come back, and have bought a large number of apples and graded them as " Orchard Pack No. 3." The buyer has a right to expect something better even though it is marked No. 3, and No. 3 ought to carry something better than orchard apples. There is another fact that I have noticed. Some man with a small orchard, unsprayed and more or less neglected, through a friend, gets an order for a few barrels of apples. He does not know anything about packing, and he puts every- thing in it, and he ships it out immediately, and it goes straight to the man who buys it. It is not subject to inspection on account of the circumstances under which it is shipped, although the law compels a barrel of apples to be marked with the name of the producer. I know of several cases where small orders have gone to men engaged in a small retail trade, and the Fruit Marks Act has been over- looked by them in every case of that kind. Mr. Chapin : Just to explain how I got these apples. That was only one barrel out of twelve which were just the same as that. They were in a wholesale house on West Market Street, and the wholesaler sold five barrels at $7 apiece and they were all brought back to him, and the packer had been in the business for twenty-five years. The reason I was called in was because I happen to handle that brand of apples for export. There were twelve barrels. Furthermore, I went down into the tail end of this barrel to get two clean apples, and I had to go to a barrel of Nova Scotia Spies to get those two No. 1 apples that I showed you. The inspectors were called in, and they got the men who packed the apples, and they were marked down to No. 2. Mr. Carpenter: I have listened with a great deal of interest to this discus- sion, and I think it is time you took some action on the Fruit Marks Act. It would be a good idea for a committee to be appointed to act in conjunction with Mr. Johnson in going into this matter, and have the law changed so that it would govern all cases. The Chairman: At the last Convention, I believe there was a committee appointed to confer with the Fruit Commissioner relative to the proposed changes in grading apples. The matter of green fruit was discussed, and did not reach a climax. Of course what we have been discussing this afternoon* was discussed last year, and I believe what the Convention carried last year in the form of a resolution about covers what we have been discussing this afternoon. Mr. Carpenter : Has that committee reported at all ? The Chairman: The committee has not been called into action, because on account of the war no action could be taken. Mr. Hodgetts : Ontario has been getting hit pretty hard this afternoon, and I do not think it is altogether square. Of course we know the conditions in the Province are the worst we have ever seen. I do not think anybody can remember when the scab has been so bad, and the orchards have had to be neglected on account of weather conditions. Consequently we have a lot of poor apples. Yet there have been a great many good apples go out of the Province this year. There are men like Mr. Fisher, Dr. Grant, Mr. Gibson, and many others, who are grow- ing thousands and thousands of barrels of splendid apples, that have gone out to satisfied customers. The poor apples are here, and they will always be with us, like the poor man. We shipped 23,000 boxes overseas this year that were bought 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 37 from various men in the Province, and these also were very satisfactory. I know that a great deal of fruii, was sent West that was quite satisfactory to the grain growers out there. While there may be cars here and there that were defective, on the whole, considering the difficulties that the Ontario fruit growers were up against this year, Ontario fruit was all right. Toronto gets the worst quality of apples of any market on the continent. I do not know eNactly why that should be. One reason undoubtedly is that the Fruit Growers' Associations believe that they can make more money supplying the export markets than they can by shipping to Toronto. I suppose they must have proved that by the prices they have got in the past. Undoubtedly our best fruit has been going to the West and to England and Scotland, but at the same lime Toronto has been getting some good apples. Anyone who has seen the orchards belonging to the Watsons at Port Credit, who bring large quantities of apples into the city, will back me up in this statement; but a lot of poor apples come into Toronto, I am told, because the dealers have been willing to pay the low prices, and bring that class of fruit in, knowing there is a big demand for it. Mr. Fleming: In 1913 there was some $800,000 worth of fruit, that is including duty, imported from the States; in 1914, some $1,200,000 worth of apples imported from the States. Those arc the most recent figures I have got. The competition used to be all from the States, but now it is coming from British Columbia, and I think that is a good sign. They are very wide awake in British Columbia. . DUSTING AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR SPRAYING: HISTORY AND PROGRESS. H. H. Whetzel, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Dusting is probably the oldest method of applying fungicides and insecticides. Long before Bordeaux was discovered, dry sulphur was dusted on grapes, roses and other plants to control the mildew, while various poisons and deterrents were like- wise applied against insect pests. The apparatus for applying these was very primitive: the hand, a thin cheesecloth bag, or a tin can with holes in the lid. Primitive dusters, modified forms of hand bellows, were also in use. With the discovery of Bordeaux mixture, and the resulting general adoption of the copper sprays, sulphur as a fungicide all but disappeared from the materia medica of the orchardist. The application of fungicides or insecticides in a dry form received but little attention from 1880 until the beginning of the present <<*ntury about 1902. The history of dusting as a substitute for spraying in the control of apple diseases and insect pests is not an ancient or extensive one. There have been two -lusting periods during the history of apple disease control in North America. The first extended roughly from about 1900 to 1908; and the second, the present <4-t S3 a o O t> >> ^ e5 tf C6S-. M o A 02 02 O -*> CO o«S P Perfe pies of >» g Pi A < CC 2 ft Is P,d Ph^ -* O LO© L.OO cvj © cvJ cm c\i © i-~ '© © ^ 55 CM ~H© — i © I— I- ■«* LO <*tli5NHO I ^- OOWMHH K-H oo -* t^ t- C r~lo I CO CO - 1 lO • ** - 00 © © -CM • t^- © CO • LOio©oo^cococoiot^»r^ioio LOoor^©©©oot^.CMt^-iO"^ ©io©ioi«©©r^»co©coc^ ©t»i>-©©r^ioooiO©co,>*' C\tt»t^»i— l©COlOCOlO©^fCO© ©COiO00©©©lOt-t-CM«!t<© OC^-^COl^COCVlOOlO©**)©©© l— ©©CO©©lOrH-*C\J©r-l •^•*t>-©^H©©rH0O©©©CM rH^©i^©©©©t^»-H©C\icO NSO<«aoOt*^Ot0O0)OO ^©©OOt-T-CVlOir-CMlO^lO ^■^©COt— «--0C-H©C\J'«*<© ©©0CrHC-0O^-CO"*© © 90 © CM © © © CO 3*1-0 g OO -^ © © lO 00 -4 © t^ 2-© 2lt^ .'"^■s n*i »^ .-*r*. ^^1 z-^ -^ /^v ^-^ /^s ^"^ or»» OOlO©CM-*'©r-IOOOO©r-00© H « t» -H »- h .2W I? ce o Am o o a a a 03h -rt *-i ! P 5 3 O S 6« *a.3 *}>;:§pp«og2s2 .J3cvc3- . m to" ;-i to" c3 C3 to1 c3 C3 • . ti rt M cj eS CQMCQCQCQHrHOmOCQD3 S3 L J TO °a p 2*p ' p p fe III 111: I j3 ^ L, o S II 5-o co J Co jj U O £^ o * : p . Sh tn H. S3 :: >;p- : •a to aj cm cc -^ 10 © © • • © - - © 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 41 It is to be observed that these thirteen separate experiments, covering the four years, "were carefully .planned t. On Currants. 1. On all wild and cultivated currants and gooseberries; black currants par- ticularly susceptible. 2. Leaves only affected; few or many small orange rust pustules are formed on the under sides of the leaves. 3. Spores from these pustules spread the disease during the summer to other currants (but not to pines). 4. In fall spores capable of infecting pines appear on the leaves. 5. Eust mostly dies out each winter on currants but may live over to start the disease in spring again under exceptional conditions. Origin of the Disease. This fungus has been known in Europe for many years, but appeared to have done little damage to native European pines. As soon, however, as our North American white pine was introduced into European forest nurseries, this rust found it a very susceptible host, and attacked it so severely that a great deal of damage resulted. It was on nursery seedlings of white pine that the disease found its way to our continent. Owing to cheap labor in Europe -these pines could be grown there, shipped here, and sold to us at a price lower than the cost of raising them here. A considerable trade of this nature sprang up, and several millions of these seedling white pine were imported into the United States and Canada from France, Holland, Belgium and Germany. The greater part of these importations took place in 1906-7-8, and in these years if not earlier the rust disease came in un- noticed on these young pines and established itself on our continent. As soon as the disease was discovered further importations were discontinued and the author- ities set themselves to the task of eradicating the pest. The Situation" in the United States. The disease was first discovered in New York State in 1909, and later on in 1910 other centres were located in several other States. 1917 FRUIT GEOWERS' ASSOCIATION. 85 It was then seen that the disease was more widely spread than had been sus- pected, and during the last three years special efforts have been made to local" all the centres of infection and destroy the infected pines. The present situation there is not very promising, the disease having now become so gone rally established in the north-eastern states that its total eradication can hardly be hoped for. The Situation in Canada. The disease was first discovered in Canada in the fall of 1914, at the Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, and a hurried and very limited survey during the remainder of the season showed that it was general in the Niagara Peninsula on currants. More extended surveys in 1915 and 1916 show that in addition to the large area of infection in the peninsula, there are a number of small isolated cases at Guelph, Brantford, Port Burwell, Dutton, Oakville, Cookstown, Lindsay, Bowmanville and Ottawa. While only two places in Quebec are at present known to be infected, Oka and St. Anne de Bellevue, it is probable that surveys in that Province will show a much more extensive occurrence of the disease. The Problem of Control. What can we do with this disease? Is it still possible to entirely eradicate it from the continent or will it continue to spread despite all our efforts? Failing complete eradication, will it be possible to keep the disease from the large areas specially adapted to pine growing in the north of the province? Even if this could be done, can a control method be worked out whereby the pine areas which will inevitably be planted out in future days may be kept free from the disease at a cost which will still leave the matured forest commercially profitable? The problem is a difficult one to solve. Fortunately there is now no danger of fresh importations of the disease from Europe since both Canada and the United States have already in force regulations absolutely prohibiting the entrance of European five-leaved pines; we are, therefore, concerned only with the already established areas of infection. Until recently it was thought that the problem of eradication could be solved very simply by destroying one of the host plants in a district. This method was based on the generally accepted belief that the currant stage dies out each winter, and must be started again each spring from some affected pine nearby, so that if the affected pines, or to make sure, all pines in the neighborhood, were destroyed the disease would be obliterated. Unfortunately the evidence already mentioned indicates very strongly that the disease may pass the winter on the currant and that the removal of affected pines will not prevent the continuance of the disease on currants from year to year. On the other hand the removal of currants from the neighborhood of diseased pines would also appear to be effective in stopping the spread of the disease. This is undoubtedly true. but in the areas where this method has been tried it is found to be both costly and uncertain. There is difficulty in carrying out the work so thoroughly that a perfect dead area is created about the pines. If a single currant plant or even roots or a small part of them are left, there is great danger that the rust will pass by way of this plant to the region beyond the dead area in much the same way as a man uses a stepping stone in a stream too broad to be crossed at a bound. One or two plants left in this way may render the whole work useless. It is obvious that the chief difficulty in this case would arise in connection with wild currants. The orderly rows of cultivated currants would be easily and surely disposed of, but wild currants and gooseberries grow in all sorts of sheltered and out of the way 86 THE REPORT OE THE No. 44 places in the woods and their complete destruction is a very difficult and, therefore, costly operation. Moreover, while this procedure may be advisable in the small isolated areas mentioned, it is scarcely practicable in the Niagara Peninsula where there are thousands of large commercial currant plantations. Yet if these cultivated currants which are now almost all affected by the rust are allowed to remain the rust will probably continue to live on them from year to year, and will doubtless spread gradually, so that any hope of finally eradicating the disease within the Province would have to be given up. It may be possible to adopt a suggestion made by the Dominion Botanist, and by denuding a broad belt of both pines and currants separate this affected area from the pine producing territory farther north. Such a measure would afford a tem- porary barrier to the spread of the disease and might arrest its progress until we are in a position to deal with the question in the light of greater knowledge. It is my opinion that this barrier belt would not be permanently useful — that in a few years the rust would pass over it as it might well do in a number of ways, and its chief value would be to give time for working out a settled policy. If we are unable to prevent the spread of the rust in the Province, we are then confronted with the problem : Can pines be grown in spite of its presence. I think an affirmative answer will finally be given to this question, though we are unable to give such at present. The answer involves a number of factors concerning which we have as yet but very limited data, such as the distance spores are carried from pine to currant and from currant to pine, the susceptibility of pines at various ages, the number of wild currants and gooseberries which may be permitted in and about a pine plantation without rendering it commercially profitless, and the cost of destroying wild currants in a given plantation. It may happen that after in- vestigation has been carried out along these lines, methods can be worked out by which white pine forests may still be grown with profit. It should be kept in mind . that this disease can scarcely be regarded as threatening to existing stands of mature or nearly mature pines. It is a danger which mainly concerns the younger . trees which ought to grow up into a future timber supply, and since reforestation will in the natural course of things become a vital necessity for Canada, the problem is one that pre-eminently pertains to a reforestation policy. The situation may be shortly summarized by a series of alternatives, thus : Eradication, if possible ; failing that Segregation, if possible; failing that Regulation, if possible ; failing that Resignation — the giving up of white pine altogether as a commercial forest tree. It is not yet possible to say at what stage in the above series we shall be able to stop. So little is known about the disease in America that we cannot foretell the future with confidence. The experiences with the same disease on our white pine in Europe are helpful to some extent, but it is quite possible that under different climatic conditions the course of the disease and the amount of the damage done in the American continent may not be at all comparable to the European situation. The recent activities of the various states and the aroused interest of the pro- vinces of Canada lead us to hope that within the next year or two at most, sufficient data will be available for determining with a fair degree of accuracy just what policy it will be wise to pursue in future. 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 87 THE MARKETING SITUATION IN THE NIAGARA DISTRICT. F. A. J. Sheppard, St. Catharines. The theme that your committee has chosen for me to speak to you about for a few minutes this afternoon, " The Marketing Situation in the Niagara Dis- trict," has been the subject of a lot of discussion and the source of a lot of anx- iety and worry both by the growers themselves and by the buyers and dealers and shippers throughout the district for the past three years. A number of meetings have been held and a lot of time spent by growers and dealers, assisted by officials of the Department of Agriculture, discussing the various phases of the situation in the hope that some scheme could be devised which would materially assist in the marketing and distribution of the tender fruits of the district, whereby an adequate return would be assured to the grower for his labor and expenditure in producing good fruit. One of the great drawbacks in the marketing of our fruit is the lack of uni- formity in our packing, almost every grower has a different idea about what con- stitutes a No. 1 package of fruit. I have on several occasions attempted to load cars of peaches that would be uniform in size throughout, but it is seldom that you can get 1,200 11-qt baskets from one man in a day, and if you have three or four different growers' fruit in the car, you are sure to have a great variation in pack and size of fruit, and adjustments often have to be made because our cus- tomer in 99 cases out of 100 will fix the standard of No. 1 stock by the largest in the car, and will often maintain that there are a certain number of baskets of No. 2 fruit, simply because it did not come up to the standard of a few baskets of fancy stock put in by some grower at the same price. In order to satisfy our customers and get repeat orders, it is of the utmost importance that we have some standard of pack whereby the dealer may know what he is to receive when he orders a certain grade of fruit. At the present time outside of apples, we have nothing to go by for grade in the tender fruits except what we find in the baskets which as most of you know in some cases run from No. 3 up to fancy. The result of this kind of packing is that a large amount of our fruit has to be shipped on commission and thrown on the open market to bring what it will because the pack is so indifferent that the dealer cannot buy it to send out to his customer at a fixed price. My own idea of a remedy for the existing conditions lies in the central pack- ing-house system. A system whereby packing houses would be established at all the large shipping stations where the growers could bring their fruit fresh from the trees and have it packed and graded by expert packers whose only interest in the business would be to make a uniform pack and give a square deal to everyone. The fruit could then be precooled and shipped out on order with a definite guaran- tee of grade and quality. In connection with these packing houses, I would establish a central selling agency, managed by a man of high ability, who would gather around him a staff of salesmen sufficient to cover the territory in which it would be profitable and possible to ship tender fruits. With such an organization as this, I believe every basket of our fruit could be profitably marketed, and at a cost very much less then we are paying at present. Our chief competitors in the business at present are our friends in British Columbia and the Western States, and were it not for co-operative packing and selling, they could not stay in the business a year. I might also mention that in one of the large grape belts of New York State, a selling association such as 1 THE REPORT OF THE No. 44 have mentioned handled 90 per cent, of the grapes at a cost to the growers of 1 cent per 12-qt. basket, and y2 cent per smaller package, and' netted the growers an average of $40 a ton and better. It would appear from efforts put forward last year, that our fruit growers are not yet ready to adopt the above system, and while nothing up to the present has been obtained in a co-operative marketing scheme, I am glad to report that through the efforts of the Niagara District Sellers' As- sociation organized last season, and which was composed of about 90 per cent, ol the co-operative company's buyers and dealers in fruit of the district, we were able to realize for the growers an advance of at least '20 per cent, over prices obtained in 1915. Some of you will remember that at our meeting last year, one of the speakers mentioned the fact that the fruit grower of late years had not been receiving his just share of the prosperity which our people in other lines were enjoying, and went so far as to say that some of the fruit growers had ceased to wear "the smile that won't come off." This condition reached the climax in 1913, when thousands of baskets of peaches and plums were left to rot on the trees because the price realized on the commission was not sufficient to pay the cost of package and transportation. It was realized that with a tremendous number of young trees coming into bearing in the next two or three years, something must be done to further the distribution and sale of our fruit if we were to avoid disastrous results. With this in view, The Niagara Peninsula Fruit Growers' Association of St. Catharines in the spring of 1915 organized the Niagara Peninsula Publicity campaign, and spent between $3,000 and $4,000 in advertising the tender fruits of the district, and in trying to stimulate the consumption of Niagara Peninsula fruit in the smaller towns thus giving a wider distribution. While the prices realized in 1915 were not large, it was felt that the advertising did a lot of good, as we were able to dispose of all of the crops. This work was carried on again in 1916, and we hope will be further extended in 1917. The growing of tender fruits in the Niagara District has assumed large propor- tions in the last decade, it being estimated that in 1915 approximately 100,000 tons of fruit were shipped, valued at about five and one-half millions of dollars. To market and distribute so large an amount of fruit as this in the short season allowed us requires the earnest co-operation of growers, shippers, transportation companies and retail dealers to make it a success. Good work has been done in the last few years by the transportation companies in arranging their schedules so as to give special despatch to fresh fruit shipments, and by making special fruit rates on car loads and half car loads to the smaller towns. We ask that these rates be fur- ther extended. The company that I have the honor to represent — The St. Catharines Cold Storage and Forwarding Co., Ltd., ship each year a large number of cars of tender fruit to Winnipeg and the Canadian West. Tn June last I made a trip to Winnipeg to study conditions and try to find out why Niagara District fruit sells for such varying prices on the Winnipeg market. I spent considerable time dis- cussing the business with the wholesale dealers, and also spent a couple of days interviewing the retail dealers for the purpose of finding out what condition our fruit arrived in, and also how the quality compared with the Western fruit. In every case I found that when Niagara district fruit arrived in good con- dition, it was considered superior in texture and flavor to the Western fruit, and that the people of the middle West would be glad to handle our fruit; but on account of the large percentage of loss caused by indifferent packing and so many inferior specimens being placed in the baskets, the Winnipeg dealers found it 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 89 more profitable to buy the product of the Western States ami only want to handle our fruit on commission. In conclusion, let me urge our Ontario fruit growers not to be satisfied with the present conditions, but to rise nobly to the occasion and use every effort to overcome it, and not be satisfied until they have grown their fruit so good and packed so uniformly that all the dealers in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and all our other cities and town will be asking for Ontario fruit, and will become boost- ers for the sale of it to the great advantage of both grower and consumer. F. C. Hart: The question of mobilizing the growers and co-operative associa- tions and dealers in the Niagara district and the marketing of fruit there is a large proposition. We have been working at it for some time. Difficulties in the way seem to be cropping up at all times, and the work seems rather slow for many reasons. Everybody seems to be of the opinion that with a proper business or- ganization, the solving of this question of the advertising of the grading and stand- ardization of packages will be effected. The main difficulty is to create a busi- ness organization that can handle a business of that size. Possibly this is not the place to go into the details of such difficulties, but the old question is not shelved at the present time. We are still working on it and hope to be able to soon take in the growers, co-operative associations and dealers on an equitable basis so as to handle the fruit of the Niagara district. We may have to start with a little less ambitious scheme in the near future, but ultimately the fruit of the Niagara dis- trict will go out under one ..organization. That is what we are working for, and it will come sooner or later. How soon it will come depends largely upon the growers and dealers in the district. Mr. Fleming: I would like to ask Mr. Sheppard if he thinks the labelling system was a success? In the Niagara district they issued a label, and there was no direct supervision over packages upon which the label was placed. The ques- tion is whether the label is a good thing unless there is supervision. Mr. Sheppard: In answer to Mr. Fleming's question, I might say I was not very favorable to the label, just for the very reason that he has given. The idea in having the label was that people who secured fruit under that label would be looking for it again. The question Mr. Fleming has brought up was one which came into my mind very strongly that people would use a label on poor fruit. If we do not put the right kind of stuff under the label, i-t has an adverse result; because if the people do not get a first-class article with the label they would not ask for it any more. I am pleased to say that in St. Catharines the people who use the label put it on their best fruit only, but it was not used sufficiently to get it properly before the public. A number of the growers bought the label to help on the advertising scheme simply to give us money to carry on the work, and after they got them, they put them on the shelf and did not use them at all. I can- not say wh ether the commrttee will adopt the label system next year or not, but if we do it is up to us to see that the goods that go under that label are sufficiently £Ood to warrant the people coming back and asking for more. Mr. Smith: I examined a great many packages of fruit with the label on, but I did not find that they were any better than a great many other packages that came from the Niagara district without the label. I did not find any pack- ages with the label that were in violation of the Act, but there were a great many packages in violation of the Act from Niagara district this year. I could not say that the packages with the labels stood out very strongly. Mr. Carey : I noticed in a half dozen cases the label on very inferior fruit. 90 THE KEPOKT OF THE No. 44 It was not in violation of the Act, but the quality was very poor, and it struck me that that was cutting the ice the wrong way. The Chairman : If these labels get into the hands of thoroughly conscienti- ous growers, then it would be all right, but if they get into the hands of unscru- pulous people then the reverse will be. the case. If the label is put on a very ordinary basket of fruit, then it does more harm than good. Mr. Craise: I used about 10,000 of these labeis last year, and as it was a new thing, and as I was in touch with Mr. Sheppard in regard to it, I tried it out as •an experiment, using them on part of our shipment each day for two or three weeks at a time, shipping some with and some without the label of the same quality of fruit. We ship entirely to one commission man and he knows our goods. We asked him to keep a separate account of the baskets that went with the label and without the label, and his returns gave us about 5 cents a basket more during the season for fruit with the label, and it was all the same class of fruit. Mr. Fleming : I used these labels entirely for the late packages of fruit, and I found it created quite a demand for the fruit, and I think it was a boon for the district. I was very careful as to the kind of fruit that went into these baskets. I was told at the end of the season by the manager of one of the large co-operative companies that he had seen fruit shipped with this label on the baskets that he would not handle. It seems to me that is advertising the wrong way, but if we can have some supervision and only a certain standard of fruit with the label on, I think it would have a very beneficial effect. I would like to find out if there was any way in which the Government could help us to see that fruit with the label on was up to standard. Mr. Johnson, Fruit Commissioner: I would not like to commit myself on that just now, but I can assure you that my sympathies are with you in your work, and I would be very glad to consult with you and talk the matter over with you, and if it does -not interfere with our work, we would be very glad to help you out. I. can assure you that you could have my co-operation and sympathy in every way. ... Mr. Eobertson: I think the opinion in our district was that the label, like a revolver, was not to be placed in every one's hands, because it miffht go off the wrong way and do some damage. MR. Sheppard: My idea and the idea of the committee two years ago was that the growers themselves should help to do this advertising. We had a system- atic canvass of our section for subscribers. We asked the large growers to give $10 and the smaller ones $5, and others to give a lesser sum. We felt that every- body should do something to help. We raised considerable money but we found we could not go back and get it again. A great many people claim that they did not receive any direct advantage. They were looking for something in which thev could put $5 and get back $10, and we- thought the scheme of selling the labels to be put on their baskets of fruit would be a good one. Mr. Craise says he realized 5 cents more a basket for his fruit with the label on, and the label cost him less than half a cent. I do not think there is anybody here who would not pay out half a cent if they were going to get 5 cents for it. We feel that if the right kind of fruit is used that this label will be a great advantage, and the people will come back and ask for more. A Member: I think the time has come when every man should stamp his name on the package. Every man who sends fruit to the market should put his name on the package, and then the people would know where it came from. I believe that would be better than the labels. 1917 FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. 91 Mr. Terry : I had the pleasure of being on the fruit market one morning when berries were being sold. While I was standing there, three or four gentle- men came up inquiring for my berries. I always stamp the crate with my own name. I said to these gentlemen, "Why do you ask for that man's berries?" and they said, " Because he always puts them up nice ; he fills up his crate." I am not trying to blow my own horn, but I am telling you that is why these men were coming back for my berries. If I had put them up in a poor way, they would not have been there asking for my berries, and I think if we put up our fruit pro- perly it will be sure to find a good market. The Convention then adjourned. S?CL SB 25H.6 C2 P78-3 H/6