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BRITISH COLUMBIA FRUIT-GROWERS' ASSOCIATION.
Sessional Papers of the Province of British Columbia
British Columbia. Legislative Assembly
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ANNUAL AND QUARTERLY MEETINGS BRITISH COLUMBIA FRUIT-GROWERS' ASSOCIATION JANUARY, 1907, TO JANUARY, 1908. *,_• ;■ *- PRINTED BY AUTHORITY OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. VICTORIA, B.C. Printed by Richard Wolfenden, I.S.O., V.D., Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty. 1908. To the Hon. R. G. Tatlow, Minister of Agriculture. Dear Sir,—I have the honour to submit for your consideration the proceedings of the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association for the years 1906 and 1907. I have the honour to be, ' Sir, Your obedient servant, W. J. BRANDRITH, Secretary-Treasurer, B. C. Fruit-Growers' Association. 8 Ed. 7 British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association. A 5 BRITISH COLUMBIA FRUIT-GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. Nelson, B. C, January 23rd, 1907. The seventeenth annual meeting of the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association was held at Nelson on the above date, and was called to order at 2 p.m. by James Johnstone, Esq., first Vice-President, who expressed regret at the unavoidable absence of the President of the Association, and called upon the Mayor of Nelson, W. G. Gillett, to address the Convention. Mayor's Address. Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Fruit-Growers' Association : I am proud of this opportunity to give you a few words of welcome at this your first Convention held at Nelson. I assure you, on behalf of the citizens of Nelson, it is gratifying to us to have a body such as yours come here for its Convention. I also wish to extend to you the very best wishes and the best time you can possibly have while you are amongst us in this city. I am sure you will enjoy yourselves, after the blizzards you have been experiencing recently at the coast, and will appreciate our mild climate. I wish you every success, and thank you for your attention. Secretary's Report. The Secretary presented his annual report, which was adopted, as follows : — To the Officers and Members of the British Columbia Fruii-Groivers' Association : Gentlemen,—I beg leave to submit my report for the past year for your consideration. The year just past has been fraught with matters of more than ordinary importance to fruitgrowers. First, there was the Dominion conference at Ottawa in March last, which did so much not only to make the East and West better acquainted with one another, but welded the fruit interests of the Dominion into one, the object of every delegate being to assist in the upbuilding and uplifting of the fruit industry of the whole country, without regard to provincial boundaries. That a large measure of success has attended their efforts will not be denied. The results more particularly affecting this Province are the establishing a fancy grade for apples ; the defining of what constitutes No. 2 apples; the substitution of the figures 1, 2 and 3 for XXX, XX and X in designating the grade ; the adoption of the standard box for inter-provincial trade, as well as for export; that the express companies be placed under the control of the Railway Commission ; and that the pure food laws be amended and enforced in regard to the manufacture of jams and jellies. As all the members of the Association have received a copy of the proceedings of the Conference I need not go into further details. Then we have the series of splendid successes won by British Columbia fruit in Great Britain, the beneficial results of which it is impossible to form an estimate. The thanks of the fruit-growers of British Columbia are due the Hon. R. G. Tatlow, Minister of Agriculture, for his kindly interest in and assistance to our infant industry. We are also indebted to Mr. R. M. Palmer for the painstaking manner in which he has carried out the details in connection with these exhibitions. The experimental orchards on Vancouver Island, in the dry belt, and in the Kootenays, for which we have been asking for the last three years, are still in the future, n6t yet having got beyond the " serious consideration " stage. In regard to the fruit crop of the past year, the strawberry crop was not equal to previous years. Prices, however, were fairly remunerative. The raspberry crop, too, was lighter than usual. Blackberries were an average crop and prices well maintained. Cherries were a full crop and were profitably disposed of. Owing to the dry weather on the Lower Mainland at the time of ripening, there was less loss from splitting and brown rot than usual in that section. A 6 British Columbia 1908. Taking the Province as a whole, the plum crop was above the average. Pears were also a full crop. Peaches, too, were good and proved to be very remunerative. Summer apples were light in some sections. Fall apples were abundant and winter apples were about an average crop. Fall apples matured from ten days to two weeks earlier than usual, on account of excessive heat during August, in consequence of which prices ruled low. Winter apples commanded good prices, and those who were in a position to hold them are realising very good prices indeed. Generally speaking, prices of all kinds of fruit have been much better than any previous year since our organisation was started. This is no doubt due to the increased demand at home and the rapid expansion of the markets in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is very gratifying for me to be able to report an increase of' 50 % in the membership for the past year. During 1905, 647 letters were written, while in 1906, 874 letters were written, showing the large increase in office work, a further evidence that the Association is growing. It is a pleasing duty to speak of the kindly advice and assistance rendered to me by the officers and members of the Association during the past year. W. J. Brandrith, Secretary. Treasurer's Report. The Treasurer presented the following report, which was adopted :—i Statement oe Receipts and Expenditure eor the Year ending December 31st, 1906. Receipts. By balance in Bank of Montreal, Dee. 31st, 1905 |410 00 Less amount oyer deposited by Sec. 17 90 $ 392 10 Members' fees, 25 @ 50c 12 50 Members' fees, 150 @ $1.00 150 00 Government grant 1,250 00 Sale of spraying material, blue-stone, etc. . 222 00 Sale of paper 206 24 2,232 84 Expenditure. To rent of halls $ 8 00 Interest on overdraft 2 15 Stenographer, annual meeting 35 00 J. C. Metcalfe, allowance, Ottawa 75 00 W. J. Brandrith, allowance, Ottawa 75 00 Spraying material, etc., paid 415 35 Paper account, paid 176 15 Haok hire 13 50 Subscription, Bradstreets 75 00 Printing 21 55 Postage 30 00 Secretary's salary 300 00 Secretary, pd. commis'n on members' fees 21 25 T. A. Brydon, travelling exp., exeo. com. 42 10 T. A. Brydon, allowance, exp., exec. com. 63 00 J. C. Metcalfe, travelling exp., exec. com. 40 50 J. C. Metcalfe, allowance, exp., exec. com. 79 00 H. Kipp, travelling expenses, exec. com. . 45 70 H. Kipp, allowance, expenses, exec, com.. 103 50 W. J. Brandrith, travel'ng exp., exec, com. 108 05 W. J. Brandrith, allow'ce, exp., exec. com. 101 00 General expenses 56 95 Ca3h on hand $ 25 34 Balance in Bank of Montreal 319 75 345 09 $ 2,232 84 Statement op Assets and Liabilities for the Year ending December 31st, 1906. Assets. By cash on hand' and in bank $ 345 09 Stock on hand, spraying material, etc 286 78 Stock on hand, paper 42 39 $ 674 26 Liabilities. To sundry accounts, owing, about $ 35 00 Excess of assets over all liabilities 639 26 $ 674 26 Audited and found correct. Victoria, B. C, 9th January, 1907. J. A. ANDERSON, Auditor-General. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 7 Report of Package Committee. The report of the Committee on the size of boxes for strawberries and other fruits was then read as follows :— We, your Committee, appointed to determine the sizes of the different berry baskets, crates and boxes, beg to recommend that the berry baskets for the 4-5 crate be 5J by 5^ by 2 inches inside measurement, and to have a depth outside of 2J inches ; the crate to be 23 by 16| by 5| inches, inside measurement, with a |-inch division ■ that the basket for the 2-5 crates be 5|- by 5| by 1 inch, inside measurement, the outside measurement to be 1J inches and the crate 23 by 16| by 3|, inside measurement, with -|-inch division; that the box for sweet cherries be 19 by 8f by 2-j-, inside measurement, with J-inch center ; that the pear box be 18| by 11 by 8|-, inside measurement, and that the J pear box be 18J- by 11 by 4| inside measurement ; that 4-5 crate be adopted for sour cherries; that 4d:>asket plum crate at present in use be adopted. W. J. Brandrith. N. G. Knotts. E. J. Abbott. Moved by J. W. Cockle, seconded by A. F. Venables,— " That copies of this report, as to the size of boxes, be published and distributed to all members of the Association." Carried. Mr. T. Morley : A large quantity of boxes were bought here last year, but owing to the failure of the crop, to a large extent, they were not used up. Mr. James Johnstone : I had that under discussion with the Chief of the Department in Ottawa, and while I have not official sanction, he said if any trouble arose it would simply be necessary to write and explain the situation. I told him that, owing to the shortage of the crop last year, it would be a great hardship if these boxes would have to be thrown away. He said they did not want to work a hardship, but in the future they must buy standard boxes, and all these packages must be marked " short," so that there will not be any trouble in using up the old boxes of last year. Mr. W. J. Brandrith: The Act was passed in the Dominion Parliament in 1902, and the British Columbia people knew nothing about it until last October, and we took it up with the Minister, who recommended us to go to the Deputy Minister, Mr. O'Haran, who pointed out to us that he could not give us authority to break the law, but that if the old boxes were used they must be marked " short." Mr. J. E. Annable : Is there any regulation as to the size of a tomato box 1 The Secretary: No. Sell tomatoes in anything. The Act applies only to berries, apples and currants, so far. Mr. W. M. Upcraft: Was any reply received from the Dominion Express Co 1 The Secretary : They came under the workings of the Railway Commission on the 1st of January, and I understand verbally that they have.not taken the matter up yet, so that the express companies are not in a position to say whether they will accede to our request. Probably the Railway Commission may raise the rates. Mr. Venables : We have had letters to that effect, that they were seriously considering the question. Mr. Upcraft : Have you any reason to suppose they will advance the rates. The Secretary : I have every reason to believe they will be brought into uniformity with the rates in other parts of the country- Mr. Upcraft: Would a united protest avail anything ? The Secretary : Yes. We will take it up to-morrow morning—the subject of express rates. Report of Executive Committee. The report of the Executive Committee was read and adopted, as follows :— To the President and Members of the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association : We, your Executive Committee, beg to report: That a meeting was held in Victoria, February 26th. All the members present. The spraying material ordered from England not having arrived, the Secretary was instructed to procure half a ton of copper sulphate from Trail, and failing the arrival of the English goods, to procure what was required from Trail. That half a ton of sulphur be ordered for the use of members. The Secretary was instructed to go to Revelstoke and assist in organising a Local Fruit- Growers' Association. He was also instructed to write to the various local associations asking for their co-operation in maintaining uniform prices. An itinerary was arranged for Vancouver Island, to be held during the month of May, the principal speaker to be J. C. Metcalfe, the subject " Small Fruit Culture and Shipping." It was also decided that meetings should be held at the following places, if possible : Lillooet, Penticton, Fairview, Keremeos, Kaslo, Creston, Cranbrook, and any other place decided on by the Committee. It was decided to hold meetings, for the purpose of securing uniformity in prices, at Mission City and Maple Ridge, on the 9th March. The Secretary was instructed to have price list of spraying materials printed and sent to members. He was also instructed to write the Superintendent of the Dominion Express Co., asking that a ventilated car be put on the route from Vancouver to Winnipeg without change, during the small fruit season. The Secretary was instructed to write to the Hon. the Minister of Agriculture asking for an increased appropriation, giving reasons why it was necessary. Also to write to the members of the Legislature asking for their support for the same. On May 20th the Committee met in Victoria; present, T. A. Brydon, J. C. Metcalfe, H. Kipp and the Secretary. It was moved by Henry Kipp and seconded by J. C. Metcalfe,— " That the members of the Executive be allowed $3 per day for expenses, when travelling in the interests of the Association." Carried. Meeting adjourned to 25th. On the 25th the Committee met in Mr. Palmer's office. All the members present. By previous arrangement, they waited on Hon. Captain Tatlow, and preferred their request for an increase in the appropriation. Satisfactory assurances were given. On resuming, the itinerary for the interior was mapped out as follows :— Messrs. Brydon and Metcalfe, to be accompanied by Maxwell Smith, to go to Kaslo, Nelson, Creston and Cranbrook. Messrs. Brandrith and Kipp, to be accompanied by Thos. Cunningham, to go to Fairview, Keremeos, Penticton, Summerland, Kelowna, Enderby, Armstrong and Salmon Arm. Messrs. Brydon, Metcalfe, Kipp and Brandrith to meet at Revelstoke and Kamloops. On October 3rd the Committee met in New Westminster. Present: Thos. A. Brydon, Metcalfe, Kipp and Brandrith. It was decided to ask the local associations and sections where none existed to send delegates to a meeting to be held in Vancouver on November 2nd, to discuss the question of uniformity in packages, crates, etc.; and that the local associations be asked to endorse a resolution asking that the Staple Commodities Act be amended by making the standard apple box legal for inter-provincial trade, as well as for export. The Committee—present, Brydon, Metcalfe, Kipp and Brandrith—met again in Vancouver on the 2nd November, to make arrangements for the annual meeting. A letter was read from C. Carlson, of Bella Coola, asking that a practical man be sent up to that settlement, to give the people some information about fruit-growing. This was laid over until the annual meeting. It was decided that in future hall rent and local transportation must be borne by the citizens of the place where the meetings are to be held. It was decided that the annual meeting should be held in the City of Nelson on Wednesday and Thursday, January 23rd and 24th, 1907. The meeting then adjourned to meet at 8:30 a. m. next day. In the interval the meeting of delegates had been held and also an informal meeting at which a number of questions had been discussed, the principal ones being uniform prices and reduced express rates. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 9 Meeting resumed at 8:30 a. m., November 3rd. It was moved by Mr. Metcalfe, seconded by Mr. Kipp,— " That the Secretary be empowered to give effect to the resolutions passed at the meeting last night." Carried. Moved by Mr. Kipp, seconded by Mr. J. C. Metcalfe,— " That the Secretary purchase two tons of copper sulphate and one ton of sublimed sulphur." Carried. The meeting then adjourned. Your Committee recommend that the system of holding meetings in the different fruit centres, for the purposes of education and co-operation along proper lines, be continued. ; and that fruit exhibits for advertising purposes be sent to such places in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as will best suit the purpose. We also recommend that the subscription to Bradstreet's be continued. Respectfully submitted, W. J. Brandrith, Secretary. Election of Officers. The meeting next proceeded with the election of officers for the year 1907, Mr. J. T. Ferguson in the chair. Mr. James Johnstone was unanimously elected President, and in returning thanks said : " I cannot find words to express my appreciation of this honour. No greater honour could be conferred upon me, because fruit-growing has always been my hobby, and if any one had told me six years ago, when I was considered a crank, that I would be President of the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association, especially at a juncture of this kind when we have taken every prize in sight in London and in Edinburgh, where we are recognised as the greatest fruit-growing country on the globe. I must say that the honour is more than I can reply to. I cannot thank you sufficiently. I only hope I may be worthy of the confidence you have placed in me. It is putting the Kootenay District in a very exalted position and all members of the Kootenay Fruit-Growers' Association interested in fruit-growing must feel themselves honoured." Mr. Ri.tchie, President of the Summerland Fruit-Growers' Association, was elected first Vice-President. Mr. J. C. Metcalfe, of Port Hammond, was elected second Vice-President. Mr. Thomas A. Brydon, of Victoria, was elected third Vice-President. Mr. W. J. Brandrith was re-elected Secretary-Treasurer. Mr. Brandrith : Mr. President, officers and members of the British Columbia Fruit- Growers' Association : I can only thank you sincerely for the honour conferred upon me for re-electing me for the seventh time in succession. I remember when I was first appointed that it was with a good deal of diffidence that I took up the work, and you may know how I felt when at the very first meeting the Deputy Minister of Agriculture looked me straight in the face and said that one of the first requisites of any Association was a good Secretary. I took it as a slap in the face ; but two years afterwards the same gentleman complimented me on the manner in which I had done my work. I had learned how in the meantime. It has always been my aim since I became a member of the Fruit-Growers' Association to do everything for the advancement of the fruit industry in British Columbia. I was connected with the fruit industry for 27 years in Ontario, and I grew gooseberries and currants in Manitoba. The last 19 years I have been identified with the fruit-growing industry in British Columbia, and it will be my aim in the future, as in the past, to do everything I can foi» the interests of British Columbia. Moved by Mr. Morley, seconded by Mr. Bartholomew, and resolved,—"That the Secretary's salary be increased to $30 per month." Mr. Brandrith : I cannot find words to thank you for this renewed expression of your confidence in my ability. I can only say that, as in the past, I will do everything possible to carry on the work in a successful manner. A 10 British Columbia 1908. The following members were elected as the Executive Committee : Messrs. R. M. Palmer, James Johnstone, S. Bartholomew, H. Kipp and W. J. Brandrith. The Association decided to hold the first quarterly meeting at Summerland, the second at Kaslo, the third at New Westminster, after which the meeting adjourned until 8 p. m. Evening Session. Association convened at 8:15 p.m. and was called to order by President Johnstone. Mr. Johnstone then delivered an address on ',' Varieties to Plant," after which discussion was asked for as to the advisability of selecting one variety for a particular district and sticking to it. Mr. Kipp : It has been demonstrated that one of the benefits to be derived from growing one variety is that the fruit can be shipped out in car-load lots and get the best hold of the market. Down where I have had the largest experience, we have not done that. Our orchards were established years ago, but any new orchards going in are working along those lines. As to variety, I cannot advise anyone to set their heart on a variety that has not been proven in that locality, but too many varieties will not do. It is not profitable, neither is there any pleasure in it. A man had better start out on a shade tree and have done with it. If I were coming into this valley now to start an orchard, I would certainly spend some time visiting the orchards in bearing and try to ascertain the names of varieties that are doing well where the conditions are similar to the place I would want to plant them. I consider it a great saving of time, and time is money, for a man who is starting in as I did, with very little money or knowledge, to spend some time in this way. Had I known as much about varieties 40 years ago as I do now, I would have planted less varieties than I did. At one time I had 82 varieties, and I took a $25 prize at New Westminster for the man exhibiting the most varieties. So many varieties were a sad mistake. There probably would not be a dozen of the 80 varieties that would do well in the locality where you want to grow them. Apple trees often work like the story of a man raising ducks and chickens. He will have low swampy ground for the ducks and high, sandy ground for the chickens, but if he reverses the order, neither will live. The same with an apple tree. You may plant out your favourite variety, but if the food is not there which the tree wants to eat, it will not thrive. I have killed as many as five trees in one place, before I understood what was the matter. One tree would die ; I would clean it out and put in another, and in a couple of years it was dead, and then another, until I have had five trees die. Then I would take a plum and put it in that place, and it is there yet. There are all these things to contend with. Fruit-growing is like everything we get out of life; it is all made up of little things, and the first thing is to be sure and get the right start. If I were going to start in this place I would have the soil analysed the first thing. I did that with my own orchard, sent back to Prof. Shutz to have an analysis made to see what was in it and what wasn't there, then I wasn't losing ten years finding out. Those things have taken me from 25 to 30 years to find out. They may be things that many of you know already. They may seem foolish things and little things not worth noticing. You may start in here and succeed and not meet with the difficulties that I met with. Down in our district I made a great mistake in planting the treees too deep in the ground, and I might make this suggestion to you, that whenever a tree shows dead timber in the top you may make up your mind it has too much water. I remedied that—that was some 10 or 12 years ago—by planting the tree near the top of the ground and those trees are all right. Mr. Upcraft: Was the soil too wet, or was there standing water too near the surface 1 Mr. Kipp : I reasoned it out that the tree was planted too deep. In the first place, the ground was not underdrained by tiling. I had planted my first orchard, had my second one in, and was digging at the third, and still the dead timber came in. It is cause and effect all the way through. Mr. Upcraft : Do you bank yours up above the ground around the roots 1 Mr. Kipp : No. I advise mulching the trees for a year or two, then when the roots of that tree get down in the ground it will grow as well as a forest tree. I can show you trees to bank up what I have said along those lines. Then as to the pruning, let your leader go. Never cut the centre out, especially where you have heavy storms and heavy snow-storms. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association: A 11 The ice will split them down to nothing. Where a man gets in a country where the sun shines as it does in the Okanagan you can probably have a flatter top. Mr. Upcraft : Talking about varieties, you advocate only a few varieties ? Mr. Kipp : I do. Mr. Upcraft : Mr. Johnstone's paper names certain varieties— Mr. Kipp : That is where I come in. Look in the locality nearest like your own conditions for the right varieties to plant, and find out the names of those varieties. Mr. Upcraft : Supposing you were going into a new district where the varieties had not been tested—what would you do? Mr. Kipp : You would have to take chances. I got mine down to Gravenstein, Baldwin, and Russett, which did remarkably well 20 and 25 years ago, but we gave the Baldwin up; it would decay and in many cases the apple would look all right on the outside, but when you cut it in two it would be all gone in the core. Mr. Bartholomew : That was in your district 1 Mr. Kipp : Yes. Mr. Johnstone : If'you find such a variety suitable for a district, then grow it. I do not recommend any variety unless I know it does well. Mr. Kipp : The Northern Spy is an apple that always sells, but it will take about nine years from the time you plant it before it will amount to anything. Mr. Ford : It does not matter what stock it is on 1 Mr. Kipp : I do not think it makes any difference. After a tree reaches the age of 8 or 10 years, then with proper cultivation and fertilisation of the soil you have a tree that, as far as I know, will live for 40 years. In planting Spys, I would plant them 40 feet apart one way and put in fillers, such as the Wealthys or the Yellow Transparents, to keep the pot boiling while the Spy is getting ready. Mr. Upcraft : If you were in a peach district, would you plant peach trees as fillers 1 Mr. Kipp : Anything that would bear quickly. If you put in a peach tree, in seven or eight years it is done ; it keeps down expenses and you can afford to wait for your Spy, and when you get a standard orchard of Spys you have an apple you can send anywhere in the world. Mr. Bartholomew : How long should these fillers be allowed to remain 1 Mr. Kipp : The Northern Spy, by the time it is 10 years old, will measure 20 feet across the top ; it is a heading-in tree. If you take a King, it spreads right out; the Baldwin also is quite a spreader. If the fillers are not removed the Spy will kill them anyhow, and then it is easy to take them out. The Northern Spy is an apple that always sells well, but it will take you about nine years from the time you plant it before it will amount to anything. As to cherries, I have no criticism on the Royal Anne. You will hear people say that the Olivet, and the Black Tartarian, and the Windsor, and the Governor Wood, and ever so many more, are all good. It largely depends on the condition of the soil and climate. That is the leading thing; that is the leading thing to get hold of in the start, how to plant the trees and to plant so as to guard against the wind. In our district the prevailing winds blow from east to west, and I plant a tree so that it leans to the wind, and by the time that tree is three years old it is straight. Mr. Upcraft: You told us of the Gravenstein, Baldwin and Pvusset—what other apple do you recommend 1 Mr. Kipp: The Jonathan appeals to me very strongly as a good apple. You take the King of Tompkins County, the Jonathan, Mackintosh Red and Gravenstein ; they are all of one family as regards flavour, and the Wagener is a second cousin to the same family ; they are all good flavoured apples and they will all sell. I suppose you have noticed that the people of the markets of British Columbia like the red apple and the white potato, but as to the Old Country, they want the Yellow Newtown or the Spitzenberg. I would not leave the first I enumerated for the others. There is the Grimes Golden, a yellow thing which was boosted up as a great apple, but it is too white looking. It is a fairly good keeper and a very good bearer. Mr. Johnstone : When we come to ship our choice fruit over to London at a price that will net us $3 a box there, don't you think it better to grow anything, no matter about the colour 1 Mr. Kipp : That is what is said to me over the Ben Davis. People say, why do you grow it; you don't eat it 1 I say I know it; I don't eat it; I grow them to sell. A 12 British Columbia 1908. Mr. Upcraft: Does the same objection apply against the Spitzenberg as against the Jonathan about the late bearing ? Mr. Kipp : You mean the Northern Spy ? I have very little knowledge of the Spitzenberg. I tried them and the tree canker-barked and it didn't look well, and if there was an insect landed in the valley it landed on that tree. Mr. Ford: What kind of soil was it? . Mr. Kipp : A clay loam. Mr. Bartholomew : Does it do better on a dry or damp soil ? Mr. Kipp: I don't know. I also tried a Rambo ; it was a good apple. My tree bore two or three years and then began to whine around and I cut it out. Now I have started on different stock ; I have got Cox's Orange, Jonathan and Salome. The Secretary says it is first cousin to the Ben Davis, but they buy it. I don't calculate to grow it for myself. I have cut out about 75 or 78 varieties from what I used to have. I have got what is called the Brown apple, but I haven't proven it. It is similar to the Mackintosh Red. I got the start for it from Spence's Bridge. Mr. Ford : Would you recommend a man to plant a pretty looking apple which the people demand to-day, or apples for quality only, irrespective of appearance ? Mr. Kipp : That is a question hard to answer to suit all markets. For myself, I would rather take quality. You want an apple of good quality, and when you have got a King of Tompkins County, or Jonathan, or Mackintosh Red, you have flavour: When you come to winter varieties, if vou have Northern Spy you have as good an apple as there is growing. Mr. Ford : You recommend quality rather than appearance ? Mr. Kipp : If you have quality you have appearance also. When you have such apples as the Gloria Mundi, Wolfe River, and the beautiful-looking Alexander, you will leave them out; I would not give them room. The Alexander is a good apple and of good size, but it is too large. Fruit-growers grow apples for the money in it, and that is the point we are all aiming at. Mr. Ford : The point I am trying to make is that at the present day there may possibly be more money in the Mackintosh and Baldwin, being prettydooking apples, but considering that the public will become more discriminating all the time, would you recommend a man to bank his reputation on quality, irrespective of appearances ? Mr. Kipp: I don't think I can answer that satisfactorily. I don't know what the fluctuations in the market will be. Mr. Appleton : Is the King a shy-bearing tree, too shy-bearing for commercial purposes ? Mr. Kipp : It is a splendid apple by reason of its being a shy-bearer, but it is too big. Mr. Appleton : The majority of fruit has to be thinned and thinned heavily? Mr. Kipp : If you know how to keep them from getting too big. The only way I could see would be to let it run more to wood, but if you undertake to prune it, I think you will continue to have big apples all the time. I can make small apples grow bigger, but I don't know how to make big apples grow smaller. Mr. West: We have a summer apple growing in England known as the Sack apple. It is a good apple. Do you know it at all in this country ? It is known as the Red Harvest, but is of infinitely finer quality. Mr. Kipp : I don't know it. Mr. Cockle : It is flat and something like the Wealthy. Q.—White inside ? Mr. West: No ; the red would sometimes strike into the apple itself. Mr. Cockle : I cannot find any one who has grown it here or at the Coast. Mr. Kipp : The reason that we grow the Yellow Transparent is because it comes in when the market is rather open and it brings a good price, and so does the Duchess. I find that the Yellow Transparent apple and the peach plum find the market just ready for them, and they bring good prices. Mr. Johnstone : I would like to ask a question about the Gravenstein. What is your experience as to the length of time that the Gravenstein will keep good ? Mr. Kipp : My experience is that we eat them up too quick; they are gone too quick. There is no man in our district who has a right good apple cellar. You may have one here in this altitude that will be a good apple-keeping house, and I may build one and it will be too warm. I should think we could keep the Gravenstein. We have a good many others that do keep over. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 13 Mr. Cockle : Mr. Chairman, with your permission, we will pass this Gravenstein around and then we will have your opinion. It is from Kaslo, but there are certain sections in this district that will grow Gravensteins better than others. That apple has been kept in the cellar under a dwelling-house, and during the cold weather there was probably a little extra heat. Mr. Kipp : It strikes me that is called a winter Gravenstein. Mr. Cockle : They are exactly the same as any other Gravenstein. Mr. Kipp : I have a tree called the winter Gravenstein, and if it fruits next season we will try to compare them. Mr. Ford : I have about eight varieties here on my list and would like your opinion on them. I have Northern Spy, Cox's Orange, Yellow Newton Pippin, King of Tompkins. Mr. Kipp : They are all good. Mr. Ford : You pick out the King of Tompkins first ? Mr. Kipp : No, the Spy is first. As to the King of Tompkins for a commercial orchard, it is generally conceded that it is a short-lived tree. They get crown rot and the bark comes off. I have some trees 15 years old and have lost two or three in the last year or so. They are a first-rate apple. It is their quality I am speaking of now, but I don't think it would do for a man to get too many of them in. The Northern Spy is different; it is hardy and strong, and so is the Baldwin. If a man is putting in winter apples, he wants a couple of varieties ; then we want summer apples, so as to meet the demand all the year round. Mr. Johnstone : Don't you think that it really comes down to what I said, that if you can grow any variety to perfection, grow the best variety that you can. Mr. Kipp : Don't have any more than you can attend to. If you want a variety for your own use at home, put in a variety in the kitchen garden, a few of this or that and leave it that way. But for a commercial market, only a variety or two. Mr. Johnstone : Thank you very much. Mr. Cockle; I would like you to look at this apple question from another point of view, from the customer's point of view. I am in the hotel business and purchase large quantities of apples. We have to keep a supply of apples in the house all the year around. The hardest time to get apples is after the 1st of June up to the 1st of August, after the Ben Davis are all gone. I will tell you a little story about the Ben Davis. I was in an orchard trying to buy some and saw two magnificent trees of fruit. I said, " I will give you six bits a box for that tree of Ben Davis apples." The woman said, "Oh, no; I am going to put them in the cellar and next June you will have to pay me $2.50 a box for them," and she was right. We hear a good deal about Ben Davis, but the fact remains that it is the only one left. After the Ben Davis is gone, to fill in the gap until the Early Harvest and Yellow Transparent are ripe, we get a few apples from California and they are Red Junes. They are the earliest marketed apple from the States that come into the Kootenays, and those apples are retailed at $2.50 to $3 a box here Then we have the Early Harvest and Yellow Transparent. There is a story told up the river about the Yellow Transparent, how quickly they faded and got bad. One man told another to take a couple home with him, and he did so and by the time he got home they were all rotten. You cannot ship them, for by the time they have travelled over the railroads and have been thrown around once or twice they are not fit to use. As a shipping apple, the Yellow Transparent is a failure. The only alternative that I see myself to take the place of the Yellow Transparent is the apple Mr. West referred to. I purpose myself getting some out from England if I cannot get any anywhere else. The early fall apples are in abundance. There are always lots of early fall apples, Wealthies and several others that come in, that are most acceptable, but in the late fall we are rather apt to find, along about November or December, it is hard to get a first class apple. I am not talking about the ordinary average scrub apple you find on a hotel table. I want to be in a position when a tourist comes along to put on an apple so that he will ask where it is grown. In the early fall you can get any quantity of Wealthies and apples of that description good enough for anybody to eat, and you don't want anything better, but in the late fall, along about November, the early fall apples are all gone, if there was an abundance of Kootenay Lake Gravensteins raised, that apple would fill the bill up to Christmas. But there are not enough to supply the demand. I was offered $5 a box for Gravensteins like this sample. Until the winter apples come there is a shortage of just the apple we want. The King is an apple that would fill the bill in its entirety if it was not so large, but it would fill the gap between the 1st of November and the 1st of January. There is no other first class apple that comes in that I know of. Grimes Golden is in the market, A 14 British Columbia 1908. but I don't consider it a first class apple for the table. After this time of ye&r we get the Spies and the Baldwins and lately I have been using Spitzenbergs, but my opinion about Kootenay-grown Spitzenbergs is they are not satisfactory. I have yet to taste a first class Spitzenberg grown in the Kootenays. I have tasted magnificent Spitzenbergs in the Okanagan. It is warmer there. They can grow it better there than we can here. It is only the varieties that we can grow a little better than any other section that we want to plant. There is another one grown in England. In an advertisement of a departmental store, at the bottom, after stating the price and everything else, and saying what varieties there were, they enunciated them, and at the bottom they put " and also the finest apple in the world was the Blenheim Orange." It is very susceptible to the climate. I have seen magnificent specimens, but they hadn't a particle of flavour. I believe we will find, if we grow the Blenheim in the highest altitude of the Kootenays, that it will be excellent. Voice : My experience up to date has been 0. K.; they are an elegant, No. 1 apple, though my trees are not bearing heavily yet. Mr. Cockle : We want a very early apple for our own use. There are a lot of apples used in this country. It would surprise you the amount of apples imported into the Kootena3's at the present time. But it will not be so long. The consumption of apples in the mines throughout these towns is quite an item, and for that and to supply the local demand we want the'earliest apple we can possibly get to compete with the California apple. We get the California apple about the second week in June, along there to the 1st of July. Then you can take it for granted that there are enough early fall varieties grown now to fill the bill. Then you want a late fall apple, and unless you can grow Gravensteins to fill in that gap, you will have to get another. As a rule, there are enough winter apples. Then when you come to the very latest apple, if you are compelled to fall back on the Ben Davis, I am sorry for you. I would like to see some other apple grown that would keep along until the 1st of June in the following year. Mr. Kipp : The Salome comes nearest to it. Mr. Cockle : What is the difference between that apple and the Ben Davis ? Mr. Kipp : With tis they are a trifle better. Mr. Cockle : I don't know that there is anything else I can add. There is only one other point; that is, whether it is better to suffer the ills you have than fly to the ills you know not of; whether you can educate the people. I do not think the London market will always demand a yellow apple, if we could send them a red apple with as good a flavour. Mr. Palmer says they look upon the red apple as a cooking apple. Mr. Johnstone : We should like to hear from the Okanagan. Mr. Upcraft : We haven't very much to add to what we have already heard. Mr. Johnstone : We look to you as being the pioneers of this business. We heard of you before you ever heard that apples were grown here. Mr. Upcraft: As far as our experience goes, we are not very much ahead of you in growing apples, but it has chiefly been growing peaches with us. I should like to hear something from the Secretary along these lines. Mr. Brandrith : Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen,—It is a pretty large question and one that you cannot dismiss with a few words, and I shall not attempt to go into it as the subject requires, but, as my friend Mr. Kipp says, I will jump from one high spot to another. The point that Mr. Cockle raised, of having an apple to fill up the market from one end of the season to the other, is well taken. If you are going to cater to the English market you must have a fruit for all the seasons. For instance, if you are sending to Winnipeg, they want apples all the time ; consequently, it is necessary that you plant summer, fall and winter varieties of fruit, and while I would certainly not advise you to plant a large number of varieties, because it is not necessary, there are varieties that I am pretty sure will succeed in this Kootenay country. I do not agree with Mr. Cockle with regard to the shipping of the Yellow Transparent. It is the first good apple that we have in this country to ripen, but you do not need to wait until it is ripe. You must not if you are going to ship it any distance. They certainly will not carry very far after they get beyond a certain stage of ripeness. By using a cardboard partition and wrapping each fruit separately, and a machine for putting on the lids, there is not any trouble in shipping Yellow Transparents to Winnipeg safely. You have to gather them before they begin to mature and they are very profitable indeed. Mr. Ford : What is this machine for putting on the lids you speak of? Mr. Brandrith : It is done with a spring with your foot. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 15 Mr. Ford : What is the object ? Mr. Brandrith : To put the cover on the fruit without bruising it, because, if an apple is bruised, the cells are broken and the juice comes back and they rot; whereas, if I put the pressure on and leave it on, the part remains dry and does not rot. The Yellow Transparent and any other white-skinned apple requires to be treated in that way. The meeting adjourned at 10.35 p.m. SECOND DAY. January 24th, 1907 The meeting was called to order by President Johnstone at 9.30 a.m. Mr. Secretary : The industry of fruit-growing is not confined to British Columbia, and it behooves us to avail ourselves of sources of information that are adapted to our circumstances, no matter where they are found. I find in my personal experience and observation that the fruit-grower who wishes to be up-to-date has to study the question from every standpoint, for while there are numerous books, you read them once and seldom refer to them again, but if you have a periodical coming into your house every month you get other people's ideas and sift the grain from the chaff to your own pecuniary benefit. One of the best fruit papers, especially to those engaged in shipping fruit, is the "Western Fruit-Grower," published in St. Joseph, Missouri. I have not found any of the Journals that come to my house that gives me the information in as concise a form as that. The "Western Fruit-Grower" caters to a country similar to our own; the climate is similar—the dry belt; they have their natural rain-fall, and while they grow different varieties, still a good many grow old Ben. Then I want to draw your attention to another publication called "Better Fruit." It is a new one that just came out. Similar climatic conditions, and having a dry belt and wet belt, if you may call it so. Last, but not least, I want to call your attention to the only horticultural magazine published in the Dominion of Canada, the " Canadian Horticulturist." Mr. Johnstone : I agree with our Secretary in his remarks. I think the " Fruit-Grower " is one of the most valuable papers we have. Of course, we must patronise our own Canadian papers. Mr. Upcraft: If the advantages are the same, why not take the Canadian paper? Mr. Johnstone : Because it is not published in a country similar to this. Mr. Venables : I consider the " Fruit-Grower " the best paper we have. Mr. Ford : It seems to me more a matter of conditions than the policy of the paper altogether. The conditions in eastern Ontario do not exist here. Mr. Johnstone : We should have a paper of our own. We cannot be dependent upon our American cousins all the time. Mr. Ford : What is the matter with having an editor of our own ? The Secretary : When we have 2,000 members we might consider it. Mr. Johnstone : I now ask Mr. Cockle to give us his paper on "Beneficial and Injurious Insects." Beneficial and Injurious Insects. The subject of Bugs is often considered by the uninitiated as being unworthy of serious attention, but to the orchardist it is a live and vital question, because the whole success or subsequent failure of fruit-growing is governed by the wonderful insect family, to whose functions in the round of nature's economy we are dependent for the propagation or destruction of plant life. The natural balance of nature affords subject-matter for the closest investigation, and the further we probe into its depths and realise the eternal fitness of things as ordained by the Creator, and the unalterable law of the survival of the fittest, which is so strikingly illustrated by the lives and functions of the Insect Kingdom, the nearer we come to a realisation of the balance by which nature is governed. But when man steps in to improve the face of nature he is immediately confronted with problems which require him to exercise his whole faculties, in order that where he disturbs nature's balance he may be able, by additional foresight, to prevent the natural disaster which he would otherwise precipitate. In the natural forests which exist in a new country, we find many varieties of trees, shrubs and flowers existing in perfect harmony, each of which is the natural home and food- A 16 British Columbia 1908. plant of one or many of the insect family, wdio live upon their leaves or juices. These insects, in their turn, are preyed upon by other insects and the forces of nature, which prevent them becoming sufficiently numerous to destroy their natural home. Or they are governed by an unknown instinct which enables them to know the exact amount of food which the parent tree or plant is capable of providing, and when their numbers become so numerous that there is not sufficient food available for the propagation of a larger brood, they spread out over adjoining territory, even journeying hundreds of miles to deposit their eggs, to ensure their progeny a sufficient supply of food. It is to this migratory cause that we have to attribuate the appearance of many swarms of insects which, when they reach the confines of civilisation, often become a pest, but which in their natural state would be amenable to nature's laws as they exist in nature's primeval condition, and would not become a destroying pest, because they would be held in check by the whole of nature's armies. On the other hand, we see man desirous of improving the face of nature by turning to account the natural productiveness of the soil for the propagation of plants or trees which will add to his pecuniary or creature comforts, aud to do this he has to destroy part of nature's balance, which may bring down on him the whole of nature's destroying forces as they exist in the insect world ; or may be his action would increase the food supply of some other insect which will be a benefit to him in the work he has undertaken. In order to illustrate what I have just said, I would draw your attention to the habits of two insects, one of which is injurious and the other beneficial. Lymetta speculella is one of the most abundant little moths that are native of the Kootenay mountain slopes; a little thing that when fully expanded only measures three- eighths of an inch across its wings, feeds on the wild cceanothus or buck brush. The eggs are laid in the early spring, just as soon as the leaves start out, and when the little caterpillar, which is less than a sixteenth of an inch long, emerges from the egg it immediately commences to bore for itself a tunnel in the tender part of the leaf, gradually extending this tunnel for a distance of one or more inches, and then eating out a section of the inside of the leaf in the form of a mine. Hundreds of millions of these insects are bred yearly on our mountain slopes. TheyT often attack the foliage of their food plant to such an extent that the leaves are entirely destroyed by a single brood ; but the recuperative powers of the food plant are such that it immediately starts to shoot out again, and by the time that the next brood of this insect is ready to lay its eggs, a fresh supply of food is available. But what do we find under the improved conditions ? We are destrojdng the cceanothus to make room for apple trees, but at the same time we are introducing a food plant which is equally acceptable to this little insect, and failing the one he will eat the other, and the orchardist is confronted with the problem of restoring nature's balance by artificial means. The other insect is the wild bee. Prior to the advent of the orchardist to the Kootenays wild bees were a great rarity. The native trees were nearly all self-fertilising and did not require the help of these wonderful little workers for their propagation ; but with the advent of the orchardist and gardener a new source of food supply was available, and the natural increase of their numbers was soon apparent, until to-day we find our orchards and gardens alive with life and the hum of bees, whereas 18 years ago it was only possible to raise pumpkins and tomatoes by the aid of hand pollenisation. Similar conditions to these exist side by side in every case, but it is human nature to see the injury first and the benefit later. There are as many beneficial insects in the world as there are injurious, but it is harder to find out the benefit which we do not actually see than it is to see the evils which exist. My reason for instancing these two cases is not to pose as a pessimist, or suggest that our fruit industry is liable to be overwhelmed by disaster or ruined by insect pests, but to emphasise the fact that insects play a larger part in the success or failure of an orchard than any other factor. Another phase of the question which has a most important bearing is brought to our observation by study of the indigenous trees and plants. It is easy to see that in a wild country, wdiere native cherries, raspberries, strawberries, currants and nuts grow luxuriantly, any insect pests which would cause their destruction are held in check by some unseen natural enemy and that a perfect balance is always maintained. Such fruits as these require very little protection from their indigenous enemies, and are only subject to extermination by some exotic factor, whilst the introduction of fruits which have not an indigenous counterpart may be subject to the attacks of indigenous insects which would do them great injury. This finds 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 17 a corresponding analogy in the case of the introduction of insects foreign to the district, and instances of such introduction have proved most disastrous. The reason is not far to seek. You import the insect pest but do not bring along the controlling factor which nature's balance has provided. Where it is possible to discover the controlling factor, by a judicious introduction of the species, much good may result and a natural balance be again established. This is by far the most important work on which our entomologists are now engaged, and it is satisfactory to record that they have met with very gratifying results as a recompense for their labours. Another point I wish to make with regard to controlling factors is that where a natural enemy of any insect pest exists, it is more profitable to try and preserve the parasite than it is to destroy both the pest and its natural enemy together. This is often hard to accomplish, and it is only when the life history of both insects is fully known that it is possible to attempt any discrimination. To illustrate this point, let me draw your attention for a few moments to the life history of the aphis and one of its natural enemies, the lace-wing fly. We will suppose that in the early spring, on a walk through your garden or orchard, you notice the prevalence of patches of leaves infested with aphis and resolve at once to exterminate them ; but if you will take the trouble to look more closely you may find that there are quite a number of empty skins stuck on the leaves by the honey dew which these little pests exude; and upon examination of these skins you find that they have a large hole punched into them near the abdomen. A further search would probably reveal the presence of some small maggot-like grubs, of a dirty white colour, which were resting on the leaves, but watch them a little and you will see one reach out and seize an aphis by the abdomen, and in a few minutes it will suck the whole contents of the skin out of its captive, leaving only the skin of what a 'few minutes before was a large healthy aphis. This goes on continuously until the grub has eaten all the aphis in the brood or has reached maturity, which occurs in from ten to fourteen days, when it travels off and passes into a chrysalis, to emerge a month or so later as a bright green-winged fly. [The larva of some of the syrphus or hover flies, which much resemble those of the lace- wing fly, have the same habits. A description of the work of the one is equally applicable to the other. See Howard's Insect Book, page 151.] Now, if you had carried out your original intention and sprayed the trees at once, you would not only have destroyed the aphis but also the greatest controlling factor which prevents the increase of this pest. But after the larva of the lace-wing fly has completed its work of destruction and has retired, leaving the remaining aphis to increase, until in the usual course the larva of the lace-wing fly again appeared to feed on the following broods of aphis ; in this interim the orchardist may well take the matter into his own hands and destroy what are left. By pursuing this course you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you had preserved a controlling agent which had been designed by the Creator to preserve nature's balance, and one which is responsible for the destruction of immense numbers of aphis. To add an illustration of the work of the larva of these flies. In the spring of 1904 the tips of nearly all the willows growing round Kaslo shewed signs of dying ; they had all flowered, but the flowers had drooped and remained on the stems. Examination shewed that they were all dead, and attached to the twigs were the dead skins of countless thousands of aphis. These had emerged from the overwintering eggs and had fed on the sap as it raised ; being in such numbers, they had taken all the sap, leaving the twigs dead. But the end of the story is what I want to impress on you; each aphis skin was punctured, shewing the work of the larva of the lace-wing or the syrphus fly, which had destroyed the whole brood. It may be said in controversy of this illustration, that if the trees had been properly sprayed in the winter such an infestation of aphis could not be possible in an orchard ; but it must be borne in mind that the third generation of aphis are winged and capable of migrating from their early spring confines to other quarters ; and so, though they were originally raised on willows, these winged insects would have the choice of any tree or plant that they wished. It is not always that nature's remedial measures are so easily apparent, or that it is possible to determine if it is best to leave well enough alone, but in some of the recent articles which have been published about insect pests, mention is made of the probable attacks of controlling agencies and instructions are given for their protection, and I cannot too strongly urge on you to use every effort to carry out your spraying in such manner as to protect the lives of those insects which are known to be of untold benefit to the orchardist. Amongst the most numerous insects which are beneficial to the orchardist may be named the ladybirds, which A 18 British Columbia 1908. feed entirely on small mites and scales; and the wasps and ichneumon flies, which destroy caterpillars ; and the spiders. All these are predatory in their habits and should receive every encouragement. I have endeavoured to give you some little idea of how nature controls and protects its varied forms, and in the next portion of my address will point out a few of the pests which require constant watchfulness to prevent them from inflicting damage on our orchards. We may take it for granted that the apple tree and its success is the one thing which is receiving most attention in British Columbia to-day. It goes without saying that apples are more universally liked than any other fruit grown in the world, and it is not unnatural to find that it is more appreciated as a food plant than any other tree, by the host of insects inhabiting this country; from the beautiful yellow and black swallow-tail butterfly and the lordly emperor moths, on down through gradual gradations in size to the most minute moths, they all like it, and if all the cceanthus were destroyed to make room for apple trees, these insects would still remain, because man has introduced a food plant that they thrive on. There are at the present time over 8,000 species of butterflies and moths known to exist in the temperate zone of North America. Of all these forms, nearly 25 0/o are known to live in British Columbia. The majority of them feed on ground plants; but of those feeding on leaves of trees there are few who will not eat apple leaves. As a rule, they do little damage,, wandering round and eating a portion of a leaf here and there, which may disfigure the leaf but does not hurt the tree. But there are one or two which are not content to eat and move on, but stay on one limb until they have consumed every vestige of foliage that it had. These caterpillars are easily seen and destroyed and need not be classed as a serious pest, unless they appear in great numbers. Far more troublesome are the little bud moths, which tie the tip-leaves of young shoots together with threads of silk and then proceed to eat out the bud. These are hard to control and can best be removed by picking off the bud by hand. We next come to those insects which attack the fruit. The large green caterpillar of the xylina moths eat out a hole in the side of the apple. As a rule, they do not remain on one apple and eat it all, but as they are night-feeders they retire during the day to the roots of the tree, ascending again at dusk to continue their depredations. Fortunately, these caterpillars come early in the spring, and the small apples they attack rot and drop off, so that usually no great damage is done to the permanent crop. The caterpillar of one small brown butterfly (Theela iroides) is known to feed on green apples, but as this, too, comes very early in the season, just as the apples are formed, the injury it does is never noticed. The most destructive pests are those that bore holes into the fruit, and of these the lesser apple worm is undoubtedly the worst we have so far in British Columbia. My own observation of this pest would lead me to the opinion that it cannot puncture the skin of a good sound apple, but relies on the chance of finding some place where the skin, from some cause or other, is thin or damaged, such as where two apples touch as they grow together. Here, the skin being soft, they are able to force an entrance. But of many examples I have examined, every case showed that there was some imperfection which allowed of an entrance being made. We have another little borer which I believe is indigenous, which enters the calyx of the apple in the same manner as that pursued by the codlin moth, but unlike the latter it is content to eat out a small bole between the calyx and the heart, and when ready to pupate leaves by the same opening by which it entered. I have not yet been able to rear the larva of this insect to establish its identity, and as no one to whom I have spoken to of it has ever seen any of its work, it still remains for some energetic entomologist to discover who and what it is. It may be classed as a bad pest, because it destroys numbers of apples yearly, but would be controlled by systematic spraying on similar lines as that employed for the codlin moth. We eannot be blind to the existence of the codlin moth in the adjoining country to the south of us, and though it has been made the boast of British Columbia that this pest did not exist here, we are confronted with the possibilities of its introduction. There are two records of the capture of live specimens of this moth within the Province, the first from Metlakahtla, where one was captured in the house of Rev. J. H. Keen, who is an enthusiastic entomologist, and the second is one taken by myself in the fruit-room of our hotel at Kaslo. Undoubtedly these two insects had emerged from chrysalis that had been carried in apple boxes ; and when we consider the large quantities of apples that have in past years been shipped into British Columbia, at a time when the present vigourous-inspection was not in vogue, and that in most 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 19 cases these apples were badly infected with the pest, it is not unreasonable to suppose that many of these insects have been liberated within the Province. How far they have succeeded in establishing themselves is unknown, but I have personally seen apples which were grown in the Province which bore evidence of having been attacked by either the codlin moth or another similar pest. The determination of the fact of this insect having gained a foothold in British Columbia can only be established by systematic examination by a competent man, who was able to devote all his time to the work. Our esteemed Fruit Pest Inspector has much to engage his attention, and it is not probable that he could spare the time to visit many of the outlying gardens of the towns in Southern British Columbia, where the injury is most liable to start. I wish it to be clearly understood that I do not wish to be taken as saying that this pest has gained a foothold in the Province, but having proof of the fact by the capture of two specimens that this insect has been imported into two places in British Columbia, I can see no reason to doubt that it has been imported into other localities. If such has been the case, the sooner the fact is positively established the better for all concerned, to the end that we may be able to take precautions to eradicate this most destructive pest. I wish to call your attention to the prevalence of oyster-shell scale on the apple and pear trees. Much of this, I believe, was introduced here in early days from Eastern Canada, and also from the Coast nurseries. It thrives immensely and can only be kept in check by constant spraying. It gives me much satisfaction to be able to state that the Fruit-Growers' Association which I represent at this meeting has decided to engage a man to look after the spraying for this pest. His duties require him to record all known cases of its occurrence, and if proper spraying has been done. He is supplied with spraying materials and does the work for anyone who wishes, and reports to the Association any cases which come under his observation in which the owner of the trees has not properly sprayed them or refuses to have the work done. Where any such case exists which is not properly looked after, the Association intend to bring the matter before the Fruit Pest Inspector and press for immediate action. Our spraying experiments last winter for this pest proved conclusively that a mixture of lime, sulphur and salt, of the proportions given in the Provincial Spraying Bulletin, but reduced to 40 gallons of water, was much more efficacious than when the mixture contained 60 gallons, as recommended by the Bulletin. There are several pests which require the orchardist's careful attention, of which I may mention the pear leaf blister mite and the imported currant worm. Both of these pests are gaining ground in the interior and cause considerable damage in neglected orchards and gardens. A source of much trouble to the city horticulturist is found in the prevalence of cutworms in the flower-beds round the houses. Most of the moths which produce these cutworms are attracted to light and seek the lighted verandahs of houses, on which they lay their eggs. When the eggs hatch the little caterpillars drop to the ground and commence eating anything they may find. They hide by day under fallen leaves or anything which will afford them shelter from the heat of the sun, coming out at dusk to continue their feeding during the night. Much trouble may be saved if a constant watch is kept for batches of ego-s. These are laid on the woodwork or windows round the house, and when fresh are light straw colour, changing in a few days to light brown, and just before the young caterpillars emerge they turn nearly black. When patches of these eggs are seen it is comparatively easy to crush the eggs with the end of a stick. Usually these batches of eggs cover a space of about one inch and in this space from 500 to 700 eggs may be counted. I have seen as many as 50 batches of eggs on one house. The resulting quarter of a million caterpillars would no doubt prove a troublesome pest for a horticulturist to exterminate. Poisoned bran is the only remedy for this pest, after they have once commenced their attack. I trust I have given you some idea of the paramount importance to the fruit-grower of familiarising himself with the various insects with which he has to contend, in order that he may be able to preserve the lives of those insects which are a benefit to him. His first aim should be to assist nature in every way in its work of maintaining Nature's balance, and when it is necessary to add to this some remedial measure, his knowledge of the insect he is dealing with will enable him to more thoroughly cope with the situation. The whole subject may be summed up by saying : It is not a question of spraying—spraying is the orchardist's only safeguard—but when and why to spray in order to preserve those insects which have been ordained to preserve Nature's balance. Mr. Upcraft: At what stage is the aphis penetrated by his enemy ? A 20 British Columbia 1908. Mr. Cockle : Any stage ; he always takes the largest and fattest. Mr. Upcraft: What is the form of the fly when he emerges ? Mr. Cockle: It is a bright green lace-winged fly ; we call it a golden fly sometimes. With regard to scale, I brought this down to illustrate what can be done in spraying for oyster-shell scale. There are several instances where people got tired of spraying and chopped the trees down. Last winter we spra}'ed with lime, salt and sulphur. Mr. Johnstone : What good does the sulphur and salt do 1 I have tried lime and have as good results as with lime, sulphur and salt; have got rid of them all. Mr. Venables : I can bear you out in the same thing. Mr. Hyslop : But you haven't to put the lime on thick. Mr. Cockle: The idea is that you will cement that scale down on to the limb and keep it there. Under each one of these scales there are from 20 to 30 eggs, and when they commence to hatch they lift the scale up and get out. Anything that will keep them clown will destroy them. I have tried lime, but I like lime, sulphur and salt put on hot; I think it is best. The war against that is easy, if you keep at it persistently. A good deal has been said of the possibility of the introduction of San Jose scale on oranges. I brought a sample of San Jose scale, thinking some of you gentlemen would like to see it and its effect. There is another insect I want to have some information about. We are very much troubled with a currant worm. The insect lays its egg on the point of the leaf. The records show the insect flies in the second week in June. Mr. Johnstone : I think I can help you as far as black currants are concerned. I was troubled with my black currants some three years ago. I grow fresh canes every year and cut them down and I have not been troubled with that worm since. Grow new wood all the time, manure heavily, and cut out the two-year-old wood all the time. That works with the black currant, but I don't know about the red. You get the best black currants by adopting that system. Mr. Cockle: I brought down this sample of pear mite (Bristolite ?). Where we get a wet spring it doesn't do much damage; but if we get a long, dry spell the insect spreads out over the leaves. The leaves exhibited are much the same colour as when plucked. I received some censure from the head authorities for an article I wrote about it which was published in one of the eastern papers. I stated that continual applications of poison (Bordeaux) would eradicate it. The fact remains that if you will persistently spray them, spray them every week with poison, you will have no trouble in controlling the pest. You have to start in and spray as soon as ever it starts and keep on spraying, every two or three weeks, for about three sprayings or more. Mr. Ford : Here is a question you did not touch upon. Little maggots about a sixteenth of an inch long in the crown of the raspberry; they work up and down. Mr. Cockle : It is the raspberry cane-borer. Mr. Johnstone : They have always been here. They are not very detrimental. From my personal experience I found that by simply going every morning regularly and watching the tops of the little shoots and picking every one of them out for about two weeks I got rid of them altogether. About an hour after the sun was shining bright you could pick them out, the ones that were affected. Mr. Cockle : The life history of that insect shows that the eggs are laid and the young caterpillars stay on the outside of the canes. During the winter they go down into the ground and in the spring they come up and lay their eggs and hatch out in June or July. It will probably never become a bad pest. Apparently some insects are very injurious, but the}' never become a pest, because there are sufficient enemies existing in the country, and it is that particular balance you want to maintain as much as possible. When you come to realise the enormous number of insects that are injurious, it would seem appalling. It was no uncommon thing for the members of the Smithsonian Institute, who spent a summer at Kaslo, to capture two or three thousand cut-worms during a night. However, the damage they do is very slight, as there is a controlling factor working against them. The ichneumon fly is their enemy. Over a thousand matured flies emerge from one caterpillar, and although these things are a pest, they can be controlled and nature is controlling them all the time. You cannot get rid of them all. There is a certain amount of benefit they do as well as injury. You can catch them from the middle of May until the end of September; they fly in countless millions. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 21 Mr. Upcraft: They may become a very serious menace. In a certain place in Victoria they destroyed one-fifth of all the young trees, and they did it very rapidly. Measures to destroy them were not taken sufficiently early, but as soon as they got to work with Paris green they soon destroyed them. Mr. Cockle : Possibly that man was not cognisant of the way the eggs are laid. Last year I found three batches of eggs on one apple leaf and I didn't find another egg on all of that apple tree. There were a thousand or more eggs laid on that one leaf. When they become migratory then they are a pest. They know how much food there is around for them to live upon, and when they know there will not be enough for them to exist upon and feed a larger brood they will fly around the country for a better place. Mr. Johnstone: Unfortunately for me, last year they ate up all my strawberries before they decided to move. Mr. Kipp : I found a species that ate up my plum tree. I dug around the tree— Mr. Upcraft: They go down quite a long way in soft soil. Mr. Ford : I found lots of these cut-worms plastered on the twigs. Mr. Cockle : Cemented. That is the tent caterpillar. You want to cut off the limb and burn it. Mr. Kipp : You always find them on the young growth out at the end. Mr. Upcraft: Towards the end of summer you will find a little growth like a ball on the wild rose bushes that grow on the sides of the roads at Summerland, and you find a moth in there. Mr. Cockle : There are a lot of those gall insects. The egg is laid on the side of the stem and the little caterpillar bores into the stem and causes the stem to swell and forms him a home. Mr. Kipp : Then there is the cabbage-worm and the turnip aphis. Mr. Cockle: The cabbage butterfly was introduced into Quebec in 1861. It took it 32 years to travel out here to the coast. Mr. Kipp : What is the best known remedy to destroy them when they get into the cabbage 1 Mr. Cockle : They recommend hellebore. Mr. Kipp : Take wheat bran ; put it on the cabbage heads about twice. I did that and never found any more worms. Mr. H}Tslop : Dissolve a teaspoonful of saltpetre and pour it in the head of the cabbage and that will destroy them entirely. Mr. Upcraft: I ana sure, Mr. Chairman, if my feelings are any gauge of the value of the paper read this morning, there can be but one opinion. We must all of us take up the study of entomology and we will find a great deal of pleasure in it. I beg to move, Mr. President, that the meeting extend a very hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Cockle for his very exhaustive and instructive paper. Mr. Kipp : In rising to second that motion, Mr. President, I assure you it has been of great interest to me. I have been watching the very things he has been working for, but, of course, I have had to go to the school of experience to learn. It has refreshed my mind over a great many things I was in doubt about. ' The able manner in which he has laid this matter before us has given me fresh courage to stay by it; to use lime, sulphur and salt and to spray with Bordeaux mixture. I take great pleasure in seconding that motion. Mr. Ford : Mr. Cockle's paper appealed to me as the most instructive paper we have ever listened to, and it is a great pity that a paper of such sterling merit should be allowed to lie dormant. I should like to ask that the Association print it. Mr. Johnstone : A hearty vote of thanks is extended to Mr. Cockle. Mr. Cockle: I do not know that there is any particular occasion for you to congratulate me in this way. It is no more trouble for me to talk to you about bugs than for you to tell me about some choice apple you have. It has been a life study with me, and I think if you will take it up you will find more in it than you have any idea. Recent experiments have shown that there is greater advance in science in the study of insects than is possible along other lines. Work that is impossible to do with embryonic forms in the animal kingdom becomes simple and easy in the insect kingdom, because you are able to acquire a lot of the material you want and able to handle them so easily ; you can take them under the microscope and find out exactly how the various forms are produced. I have in mind where an egg A 22 British Columbia 1908. of one parasite is laid inside of another egg; that is the egg of the cut-worm, carried around by that caterpillar as a foreign body. You can watch the increase day by day with the microscope. The insect world has more wonders in it and more things which can be made of benefit to mankind than any other science to-day being investigated. Moved by J. W. Cockle, seconded by S. Bartholomew,— " That this Association desires to express its appreciation of the services rendered the Province of British Columbia by Martin Burrell, at the Dominion Conference of Fruit-Growers held in Ottawa in March last." Carried. Moved by A. F. Venables, seconded by J. E. Amiable,— "That this Annual Meeting desires to re-affirm the resolution passed at the last Annual Meeting, as follows :— " ' That the attention of the Dominion Government be directed to the necessity for establishing experimental orchards in the Dry Belt, on Vancouver Island, and in the Kootenays, and that the Representatives of this Province in the House of Commons and in the Senate be requested to use their influence to have these experimental orchards established; and that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the Hon. Sidney Fisher.'" Carried. Moved by J. W. Cockle, seconded by A. F. Venables,— " That whereas insect pests, notably San Jose and other scales, have recently been discovered on citrous fruits imported into and exposed for sale in this Province; and whereas it has been proven by actual experiment that this dreadful pest, San Jose Scale, breeds at the temperature prevalent in Vancouver in December, and is thereby a much more dangerous insect than has been generally supposed ; therefore, be it Resolved, That this Association regards with great satisfaction the action of the Provincial Inspector of Fruit Pests in placing all citrous fruits on the list of fruits that must be inspected before leaving any dock, warehouse or station in the Province, and we hereby tender our hearty support and co-operation in enforcing this regulation." Carried. Moved by A. F. Venables, seconded by W. M. Upcraft,— "That we endorse the resolution passed in Vancouver, November 2nd last, requesting the Dominion Express Company to reduce the present rates on fruit as far east as Winnipeg, and we further request the Dominion Express Company to give a reduced rate on 1,0001b. lots." Carried. Mr. Fred. Smith : Mr. President and Gentlemen,—I have not very much to say with regard to that resolution. I have already heard from our Superintendent at Vancouver advising me that he has received copies from the Vancouver meeting, and that the matter was receiving the consideration of the officials of the Company. Of course, we incline to the opinion that our rates are pretty low as it is. In fact, they are 30 % lower than any other company's on the Continent for like distances. We have gone into that matter very fully, and found the rate of the other companies greater, according to the mileage; and when it is considered that we carry a crate of strawberries from the Coast to Winnipeg for 67c, which includes carriage and delivery as well, that would appear to be a pretty fair rate. On the main line, too, we carry fruit cars, which are an additional expense to the Company, as there is a royalty on the cars. Mr. Secretary : We pay for the additional expense. Mr. Smith : I believe you do. Mr. Johnstone : I think that the rates we have received to the North-West Provinces are very fair indeed ; but there is one more point: the market at the Crow's Nest. Although we are the nearest producing fruit country to Fernie and the mining towns on the Crow's Nest, we ship absolutely nothing there. The United States service has put in such a cut rate that all the fruit comes in over the Great Northern Railway. I think locally that the shippers would like to have the Dominion Express Company take it up, so we can command our own market. Mr. Smith : I would like to say, Mr. President, that that matter is already up with the Company, and perhaps it does affect the local growers to points such as you have just mentioned; but so far as the North-West trade is concerned, you have no cause for complaint at all. Mr. Kipp : Where does this 67c. rate apply, from the Mainland points or from here? Mr. Smith : It applies to all points in British Columbia except Chilliwack. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 23 Mr. Kipp : I am coming to that. Now the rate from all other points is 67c. How is it it costs us 25c. more from Chilliwack ? We have got to suffer that difference. Has Mr. Smith any light to throw upon the subject that will save us that 25c. 1 Mr. Smith : Of course, Mr. President and gentlemen, the Coast territory is not in my district, so that I am not very well posted on the conditions there ; but I presume from Chilliwack to Harrison, which is the nearest station, another company handles the fruit. I suppose this 25c. additional is the charge made from Chilliwack to Harrison. Mr. Kipp : That is correct. It is an evergreen question with us, and I could not go home without having protested against it. Mr. Upcraft read notice of motion permitting proxies to be used at general meetings. Secretary gave notice of clause to be rescinded. Moved by Mr. Venables, seconded by Mr. Upcraft— " That the thanks of the Association be tendered the C. P. R. Co. for courtesies extended to the officers of this Association during the past year." Carried. Moved by W. J. Brandrith, seconded by J. W. Cockle— " That the thanks of this Association be tendered the Dominion Express Co., for carrying fruit to the Dominion Fruit-Growers' Conference, and sample fruit boxes from New Westminster to Vancouver, free of charge." Carried. Mr. Smith : For the Dominion Express Company, I have much pleasure in forwarding jour resolution to the officials of the company. Mr. Ford : Lastly, I rise to propose a vote of thanks to the B. C. Fruit-Growers' Association for coming all the way to Nelson to attend a meeting here. I think all men become .more enthusiastic in meeting a body of men engaged in like work. I can only regret that the .annual meeting here has not had a larger attendance, which is probably owing to the political situation and the ice-bound condition of the lake. Those of us who have been fortunate •enough to attend have received very much instruction and pleasure in the meeting. Motion seconded by Mr. Venables. Mr. Upcraft : I understand there is an arrangement on foot to hold the next meeting in Summerland. We hope you will come in full force and what we can do in the way of hospitality you will have to the very fullest extent. We tender our thanks to the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association for the trouble it has been to to come so far, and we invite you all to come to the Okanagan, even if you do not wish to stay, and see the land of the large red apple and the ever blooming sun. Mr. Venables : I was in hopes the next annual meeting would be held in Vernon, but as the Government has stepped in and said the next annual meeting must be held in Victoria, we hope that you will see fit to come to Vernon and we will do all we can to make your stay pleasant and show you what there is to see in the Okanagan. I am sure if you come down to the Okanagan you will be pleased with what you see. Mr. Johnstone : I wish to assure my friends in the Okanagan that I will exert myself to bring down as many people as possible to the Okanagan. As I mentioned yesterday, I have always been afraid to go there for fear I might stay. To our visiting friends from the coast who have always been so good to this part of the country, I give thanks for the very great honour they have done me in electing me President of this Association. Mr. Secretary : As one of the old timers in the Fruit-Growers' Association, I wish to return thanks for the kindness you have extended to us here in Nelson, and also on behalf of my friends from the Okanagan. As far as the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association is concerned, we do not know any boundaries. I am a member of the Fruit-Growers' Association for British Columbia and you are the President; not for Chilliwack, Vernon, etc., but the whole of British Columbia. Meeting concluded at 11 a. m., January 24th, 1907. A 24 British Columbia 1908. EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. Victoria, B. C, January 15th, 1908. The eighteenth annual meeting of the British Columbia Fruit-Growers'Association was held in the City Hall, Victoria, on the above date, those present being :—James Johnstone, Nelson, President of the Association; Thomas Wilson, Vancouver; F. Sere, South Saanich ;. R. Layritz, South Saanich ; George Stewart, Keating; Mrs. Whyte Birch, Sidney; Thomas Brydon, South Saanich; Charles F. Sprott, Burnaby; Lieutenant Elliston, Victoria; W. F. Summers, Victoria; W. J. Brandrith, Ladner, Secretary; S. Bartholomew, Summerland; H. Kipp, Chilliwack ; and a few others. The meeting was called to order at 2 p.m. by the Chair. Mr. Jas. Johnstone (President) : The first item I have on the programme is an address by His Worship the Mayor. As His Worship is not here, we will proceed with the reading of the minutes of the last meeting. Minutes were read and adopted. Mr. W. J. Brandrith (Secretary): Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,—At the time of the North-West Fruit-Growers' Convention there were a number of people from the Upper Country requested me to make some inquiries as to the price that the Niagara brand of lime-sulphur spray could be secured, and I asked Mr. Sheppard, Manager of the Hood River Apple-Growers' Union, what he was using, and he said the " Niagara." I have figured it out, Mr. President. The price on small lots laid down in Victoria, or New Westminster, would.be $14 per bbl, and in car-lots, $12. I shall, of course, send this quotation to the parties asking for it, and if they send me sufficient orders to secure a car-lot, I will order it for them. Mr. Kipp : What proportion would that be of salt ? . Secretary : There is no salt in it—25 and 15. It is an amber-coloured liquid; it comes in a liquid form. Mr. Kipp : How much water would you dilute with ? Secretary : I think Mr. Sheppard said 1-9 and 1-5. I would not be positive. Mr. Stewart: That makes it very expensive. Secretary: Well, if you were getting a quantity of it, you could have it shipped right through. It would probably be no more than 20c. or 15c. a barrel more to come to Westminster. Mr. Summer : It would be more expensive than what we make ourselves. Secretary : Slightly more, but you would be getting rid of an awfully disagreeable task. I have here a letter from Mr. Cunningham. He wishes me to read a circular, but I think everyone has got a copy of it, so I do not think it is necessary for me to read it. I think everybody has received a copy. Mr. Sere : There was something published in the paper. Secretary : I did not read it. I think he has sent most everyone a copy. Mr. Sere : It was in the paper last week. Secretary : It will not take long to read. Mrs. Whyte Birch : If we each had a copy we could read it for ourselves. Secretary : I have only the one with me. Correspondence read by Secretary and ordered filed. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 25 Secretary's Report. Victoria, B. C, 13th January, 1907. To the Officers and Members of the B. C. Fruit-Growers' Association : Gentlemen,—I have the honour to submit for your consideration my report for 1907. During the year I have attended forty-three meetings, held for purposes of instruction or in the interests of co-operation amongst the fruit-growers. Eight hundred and seventy-five letters have been written and 6,785 miles travelled on the business of the Association. It is very gratifying to me to be able to announce a substantial increase in the membership. There is still room for improvement in that respect, however. The fruit crop, taking the Province as a whole, was below the average, attributed to early frosts in some sections, hail in others, and drought in others. The strawberry crop would average not more than 85 per cent. Raspberries about the same. Blackberries, being later, got the benefit of the early fall rains, and would round out about 90 per cent. The sweet cherry crop suffered the most, there not being over 60 per cent, of crop. Sour cherries were about an average. Pears were above the average. Peaches were a full crop, except where the trees had suffered from the severity of the preceding winter. Early apples were not as heavy as last year, but late varieties rounded out a full crop. One thing is particularly noticeable with regard to the fruit—more especially apples—and that is the superior quality of the fruit over past years. This very satisfactory condition is mainly due to better methods of cultivation. Prices have been better than ever before in the history of the industry. The increased railway mileage opened up by the C. P. R. and C. N. R., in Alberta and Saskatchewan, has given us a wider market, and the rapid filling up of those Provinces and Manitoba means a market which will be limited only by our ability to supply it. With the constantly increasing markets in our own country, Great Britain and Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan, Siberia and Mexico, no branch of agriculture offers better opportunities for profitable investment than fruit-growing in British Columbia, and no Province in the Dominion is so favourably situated with regard to these markets, or has the varieties of soil and climate essential to the production of the high class fruit these markets call for. Taking all things into consideration, we are forced to the conclusion that, notwithstanding the occasional reverses to which the fruit-growers are subjected, the outlook for the careful grower is most encouraging The Province is to be congratulated on the continued successes achieved by our fruit in Great Britain, under the careful management of Mr. R. M. Palmer. The result of the competition at the N. W. F. G. Convention, held in Vancouver in December last, was as great a surprise to us as to our competitors from Hood River and Wenatchee. The value to the Province of this splendid advertisement cannot be computed in dollars and cents. We have yet to learn of any steps being taken by the Dominion Government to accede to our repeated requests for experimental orchards on Vancouver Island, in the Kootenay, and in the Dry Belt. Neither has any attention been paid to our reasonable request, backed by the late Dominion Conference, to compel manufacturers of jams and jellies to print the formula on their labels. In conclusion, I wish to thank the officers and members for their forbearance towards my shortcomings, and for the valuable assistance I have received at their hands. Respectfully submitted, W. J. Brandrith, Secretary. A 26 British Columbia 1908. Treasurer's Report. Statement of Receipts and Expenditure tor the Year ending December 31st, 1907. Receipts. By cash on hand and in bank, Dec. 31st, 1906 $ 345 24 Members' subscription fees 202 50 Government grant 2,250 00 Sale of spraying material, blue-stone, etc.. 339 40 Sale of paper . 749 OS §3,886 22 Expenditure. To interest on overdraft $ 1 15 Stenographer 3 50 Secretary's salary 390 00 a commission on members' fees.. 37 00 a expenses re 1906 outfit 20 65 Subscription to Bradstreets 75 00 Telegrams and phones 10 90 Stationery 7 95 Engraving cut for letter heads 3 00 Printing, §111.45 ; postage, 830.00 141 45 Desk 16 00 E. C. Dyer, attending annual meeting.... 13 50 H. J. Knott, a committee it .... 1 50 Purchase spraying material 731 50 paper 480 01 M. S. Wade, expenses convention 30 15 R. J. Hogg, n 13 60 P. H. Wilson, „ $84.00, 867.20 151 20 P. E. Lazenby, „ 32 70 G. E. Haniviel, „ 33 30 D. Graham, n 4 75 T. Morley, „ 43 65 J. McCollum, „ 12 70 H. E. R. Smythe, „ 10 20 H. Kipp, travelling expenses, exec. com... 96 90 H. Kipp, allowance, expenses, exec. com.. 69 00 Jas. Johnstone, travelling exp,, exec. com. 161 75 Jas. Johnstone, allowance, exp., exec. com. 165 00 W. J. Brandrith, trav. exp., exec. com. . . 315 95 W. J. Brandrith, allow'ce, exp., exec. com.. 327 00 S. Bartholomew, trav. exp., exee. com. .. 14 20 S. Bartholomew, allow'ce, exp., exec. com. 15 00 Thos. A. Br3'don, trav. exp. exec, com... 5 00 Thos. A. Brydon, allow'ce, exp., exec. com. 3 00 Cash on hand $163 11 Balance in Bank of Montreal 284 95 448 06 $3,886 22 Statement or Assets and Liabilities tor the Year ending December 31st, 1907. Assets. Liabilities. By cash on hand and in bank Stock on hand, spraying material, etc.. 8 44S 06 .. 347 67 . , 204 29 To sundry accounts, we owe about. .. Excess of assets over all liabilities . . $ 130 00 916 02 Overpaid Secretaiy one month's salary 16 00 30 00 $1,046 02' 81,046 02 Audited and found correct. Victoria, B. C, lJfli January, 190S. J. A. ANDERSON, Auditor. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 27 Report of the Executive. Victoria, B. C, 14th January, 1907. o7'o the President and Members of the B. C. Fruit-Growers' Association : Gentlemen,—Your Executive Committee beg to report that, acting on instructions received at the annual meeting, the Secretary invited delegates from the strawberry-growing sections to meet at Mission City, for the purpose of agreeing on a uniform price for small fruit. The meeting was held March 29th, and a minimum, price agreed to. On March 7th a largely attended meeting was held at Keating, and addresses given by Messrs. Brj'don, Johnstone, Scott and Brandrith. On the Sth a meeting was held in Duncans, addressed by Messrs. Johnstone and Brandrith; and on the 9th the jury-room in the Court House at Nanaimo was comfortably filled to hear the same speakers and Maxwell Smith. On April 1st, at the quarterly meeting held in Summerland, a resolution was passed unanimously, requesting the Association to call a meeting of delegates from the various local Associations and Exchanges, to devise some plan to obviate the present unsatisfactory method of distribution of our fruit. Accordingly, delegates were invited to meet at Sicamous, April 24th, but owing to want of room there, the delegates proceeded to Armstrong, where it was decided to organise the " Fruit and Produce Exchange of British Columbia." A draft constitution and by-laws were drawn, the meeting then adjourning to meet at Revelstoke, May 22nd, to perfect the organisation, which was finally consummated June 29th. At Summerland, April 2nd, Mr. Brandrith gave practical demonstration in pruning in the forenoon, and in the afternoon on the proper method of mixing and applying sprays. On the 3rd, Messrs. Johnstone and Brandrith proceeded to Kelowna, where, in the afternoon, tree-planting was demonstrated to a large and appreciative audience. The meeting in the evening was fairly well attended, although a bazaar in aid of the Hospital was being held in the same building. On the 4th, at Vernon, despite the rain, there was a good turnout to the demonstration in planting and pruning, and a fairly well attended meeting in the evening. A well attended meeting was held in Armstrong on the 6th, addressed by Messrs. Johnstone and Brandrith, on subjects of interest to the growers. At Salmon Arm, on the Sth, addresses were delivered by the same gentlemen to a large gathering, on spraying and co-operation. At Kamloops, on the 9th, planting and pruning were again demonstrated in the afternoon, and addresses delivered in the evening. At all these meetings the idea of a Central Exchange was enthusiastically received and delegates appointed. On June 28th, a meeting was held in Enderby, addressed by Mr. H. Kipp, who gave a practical demonstration in pruning to an appreciative audience. On the 29th, a well attended meeting was held in Revelstoke, addressed by Messrs. Johnstone, Brandrith and Kipp. July 2nd, Messrs. Johnstone, Brandrith and Kipp attended the quarterly meeting in Kaslo, and addressed those gathered together on planting, pruning, spraying, and allied subjects. On the 4th, Messrs. Brandrith and Kipp gave demonstrations in planting and pruning at Creston in the afternoon, and spoke on spraying, co-operation, etc., in the evening. On the 5th, the same gentlemen addressed an enthusiastic meeting in Cranbrook, on the work of the Association, tree-planting, pruning, spraying, etc. On the Sth, they demonstrated planting and pruning at Burton in the afternoon, and in the evening addressed a full house on the same subjects as at Cranbrook. On the 10th, Mr. Brandrith held a meeting at Enderby, when planting, pruning, spraying, etc., were demonstrated in the afternoon, and a local branch organised in the evening. From Enderby Mr. Brandrith proceeded to Windermere, on the 17th, where he addressed an enthusiastic gathering on planting, pruning, varieties to plant, etc. On the 19th, at Wilmer, he addressed a large gathering on the same subjects. At Golden, on the 22nd, he demonstrated planting and pruning in the afternoon, and in the evening addressed a large gathering on " The Work of The Association," " Varieties to Plant," spraying, etc. A 28 British Columbia 1908. That these meetings are appreciated is evidenced by the fact that requests for their continuance are constantly being received, and more especially from the newer sections of the Province; and we strongly recommend that the Executive be authorised to continue this part of the work. Pure spraying materials for the use of members have been secured at the lowest cost, and the necessary varieties of paper have also been secured at wholesale. We would recommend that the Secretary be instructed to secure a supply of both for the current year, on the best terms possible. Bradstreet's Reports are becoming more valuable to our members each year, and we strongly recommend that the subscription be continued. Your Committee have taken up with the proper authorities the question of better handling and better facilities for fruit shipments by both lake and rail, and have received assuranc e that every effort will be made to have the fruit properly handled. They have succeeded in having the gross weight of the 2/5 lb. and 4/5 crates fixed at 15 and 25 lbs., respectively. They have also urged that a reduction of rates should be made, but as the matter of rates is in the hands of the Railway Commission and nothing has been done by them up to the present time, we do not know whether our request will be granted or not. We feel that the heartiest thanks of this Association are due to the Provincial Government for the hearty manner in which they have responded to our requests for aid to enable us to carry on the work made necessary by the increased territory to be covered, and the greater cost of transportation in the outlying districts. We especially desire to acknowledge our indebtedness to the Hon. R. G. Tatlow for the support he has at all times extended to this Association. We cannot close this report without congratulating the fruit-growers of British Columbia on the successes achieved by them at the principal exhibitions in Great Britain, under the capable management of Mr. R. M. Palmer, to whom also the thanks of the fruit-growers are due. And also on the eminently successful outcome of the competition at the North-West Fruit-Growers' Convention, held in Vancouver in December last. All of which is respectfully submitted. W. J. Brandrith, Secretary. The President : Ladies and gentlemen, it is now in order to discuss or adopt those reports. On motion of Mr. Thos. Wilson, seconded by Mr. Frank Sere, the reports were adopted en masse. President's Report. To the Officers and Members of the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association: During the past season the most important undertaking of this Association has been the formation of the Fruit & Produce Exchange of British Columbia. The idea of this Exchange was first suggested at our spring quarterly meeting held in Summerland, and was unanimously endorsed at that meeting, and a resolution passed strongly recommending action to be taken and a Central Exchange formed. This Summerland resolution was endorsed at Vernon, Kelowna, Armstrong, Salmon Arm, Kamloops, and all points visited by your Executive during that tour. A meeting of delegates from Associations throughout the Province was held at Armstrong. By-laws and constitution were drawn up and a meeting called at the earliest possible date to form the Exchange. Owing to the fruit season being well advanced before these necessary preliminaries were gone through, only five Associations joined the Exchange, namely, Chilliwack, Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Revelstoke and Kootenay, but during the season fruit and produce was handled from many other local Exchanges in the Okanagan and elsewhere. I shall give a brief outline of the object of this Central Exchange. Full information can be obtained at any time from the Secretary-Manager, Mr. L. M. Hagar, Revelstoke. The method on which this Exchange has been worked, and will be worked, is as follows :— I may say in this connection we will be very glad if anyone has any good suggestion, or, in fact, any suggestion to make; we are not hard and fast in any of our rules in connection with this Exchange. We are open at all times to suggestions, and I may say that the working of our Exchange, and the methods we have adopted, have been submitted to different parties. In fact, I submitted it to the North-West Fruit-Growers' Convention, and we had the recognition and endorsation of such eminent associations as the Apple-Growers' Union 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 29 of Hood River. And I singly wish to mention that if anyone has any suggestions to make, we will be only too glad to discuss them, or if they are really an advantage over anything we have, we will most certainly bring them before our Board of Directors and adopt them. Weekly reports are sent to the Manager of the probable supplies to be obtained from the various local shippers and Exchanges. These reports the Manager forwards to the solicitors who are employed to canvass the local and North-West markets. Orders, when booked, are distributed by our central office to the growers, who receive an acceptance form stating quantity, quality and price. If for some reason when an order is received by an individual or Exchange it cannot all be filled, the Manager is immediately notified and the balance of order is placed elsewhere. A very important point is that when the solicitors or head office receive special orders for fruit from any one district or grower, owing to the superior method of packing or quality of the fruit, then if the demand is likely to exceed the supply, the solicitors are notified to increase the price to the wholesalers, and thus the careful shipper and the meritorious article will receive the very highest price obtainable. This is the only successful method of co-operation ; otherwise, the best men will not join heartily in any co-operative Association. A great saving is effected in the marketing of small, perishable fruits by our own men being at the principal points of delivery to make adjustments for fruit in bad condition on arrival. Every shipper must be held responsible for the condition of his fruit at the point of delivery, provided the damage has not been caused by any fault on the part of transportation companies. Should a shipper persist in forwarding badly picked and packed fruit, he will be suspended from shipping through the Exchange and allowed to find his own market, until such time as he learns to handle his product in a proper manner. All possible advice and assistance will always be rendered by the Exchange management to shippers who, through ignorance, may make mistakes, but willful carelessness and neglect will receive no consideration. It will be the duty of members of the Board to take their turns of being within range of large distributing markets, so that if any considerable settlement has been made by an agent, the Director being notified by the Manager by wire, will turn up on the spot immediately after and check up the honesty of such settlement. A charge of 5 % is made to cover expense of selling and collecting accounts in carload lots, and 10 % on small express shipments. At the end of the season, after allowing a sufficient reserve fund to carry on the business successfully, any surplus cash will be distributed pro rata to all shippers. The Central Exchange also intends to adopt a co-operative measure to overcome any financial failures. In the case of apples, pears, plums, peaches and cherries, the best results are obtained by having them conveyed from the orchards to central packing houses, and there graded and packed under the supervision of a competent expert packer. This insures uniformity of pack and grade which will always command the best prices in the markets and attract the largest and best buyers. The annual general meeting of the Exchange takes place early next month, and a large number of Associations have signified their intention of joining this season, and also individual growers who are situated in districts where no Exchange exists. It is confidently expected that at least two-thirds of the fruit and produce of the Province will be handled in this co-operative manner. The objects arrived at and methods of working this Exchange were presented fully at the last Annual International Convention of the North-west Fruit-Growers' Association, and the whole scheme was heartily endorsed and approved of by men of the greatest experience, such as the Hon. E. L. Smith, President and Manager of the Hood River Apple-Growers' Union. The most hearty thanks are due to the Hon. Mr. Tatlow, Minister of Agriculture, for the great interest he has taken in the work during the season, and for the generous support he has given us in this most important work. We have every reason to believe that the benefits which will result from thus uniting the various fruit-growing sections of our Province into one co-operative body will more than justify the necessary assistance which our Government has given us during the year, and which it has been requested to give us during the present year. I should be very glad, ladies and gentlemen, to answer any questions in connection with this Exchange, because it is undoubtedly the most important movement that we have made in connection with our Fruit Association. There is no use growing good fruit if we do not get a good price for it. We got good prices through the Exchange for our fruit—that has been my own experience during the past year. Of course, it was very late when we started to ship, but as soon as we did start, I shipped all my own fruit through the Exchange ; and in reference to cherries and currants—black currants—I never got as good prices before, and I received A 30 British Columbia 1908. full payment for everything within thirty days of the last shipment; and we have had good success with such apples as Chilliwack, where they got more for their apples during the past year than they previously got, simply through the Exchange system of handling their fruit. I shall be glad to answer any questions in this connection. Election of Officers. President: The next business is the election of officers. Secretary : Before that, I will take the subscriptions to enable members to qualify before voting. On motion, Mr. Brydon took the chair during the election of officers. The Chairman : The meeting is now open for nomination of President. Mr. W. J. Brandrith : I have much pleasure in nominating Mr. Jas. Johnstone for reelection. My reason for doing so, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, is that Mr. Johnstone has inaugurated this new scheme for the proper distribution of our fruit, known as the B. C. Fruit Exchange, and he understands the working of it fully, and to put in a stranger now who is not conversant with the working of that Exchange, might not be in the best interests of the fruit-growers of the Province; and I think it is due to Mr. Johnstone that he should be re-elected. Mr. Thos. Wilson : I have much pleasure in seconding that. It is a most important work. And I may say that the work he has outlined in his address here this afternoon has been quite an eye-opener to me, and to put in another man to carry out that work would be very, very detrimental. I therefore have much pleasure in seconding Mr. Brandrith's motion. Mr. Jas. Johnstone elected President. Mrs. Whyte Birch : May I ask a question 1 I am not acquainted with the rules out here, but at home the paid officers of the society cannot propose the nomination of officers. I do not know the rules of this Association, and I am very eager to know what course you pursue out here. As a rule, when an honorary appointment is made it comes from the old members of the Association, and not from the paid officers. Of course, I have not a copy of your constitution, so I really rise to a point of order. Mr. W. J. Brandrith : We have no rules or regulations governing that question whatever, and any member of the Association who has been a member the previous year is entitled to nominate or vote on any question before the Association. That is all that is required. Mrs. Whyte Birch : I am very much obliged. Messrs. S. Bartholomew, A. E. Gale, A. B. McClenegan and Thos. Wilson were elected First, Second, Third and Fourth Vice-Presidents, respectively, by acclamation. The Chairman : Now there comes the most important office of all, next to the President, that of Secretary-Treasurer. Mr. Sprott: I have great pleasure in nominating Mr. Brandrith. I think you will all agree with me that he has held that position faithfully for a long time past, and has done very good work for the Association, and I do not think you could do any better than keep him in office, especially as he is in touch with the new scheme of carrying out this Exchange, and I think he ought to hold this position for another year, in order to keep the thing in running order. (Cries of " Hear, hear.") Mr. T. Wilson: I have much pleasure in seconding that. I have known Mr. Brandrith for a long, long time, and I know that he has been one of the most, if not the most, energetic secretaries we have had. I have very great pleasure in seconding Mr. Sprott's motion that he continue in office. A motion that the nomination close was carried, amidst loud applause. Mr. Chairman : I have great pleasure in declaring you, Mr. Brandrith, duly elected as Secretary-Treasurer of the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association for 1908, That concludes the election of officers. Now comes the Executive Committee, five in all. The following members were duly elected as the Executive Committee of the Association : Messrs. R. M. Palmer, J. Johnstone, S. Bartholomew, H. Kipp and W. J. Brandrith. The Chairman : I have much pleasure, now, Mr. President, in vacating the chair. The President: Ladies and gentlemen, I am very much obliged indeed for the honour you have done me in re-electing me President. I know it is quite unusual, and the only excuse is this Central Exchange, and I can only say that I will do my very, very best to have this Exchange made a success this year. I may say that it is my especial hobby to have this 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 31 Exchange made a success, because it has been inaugurated during my past year of presidency, and I feel thoroughly confident it will be a success. We may have to struggle along a little for a year or two, but there is no question but that co-operation is the only road to success, and the encouragement I received from the North-West Fruit-Growers' Convention has been most gratifying, and I am perfectly satisfied in the future we may look forward to the best year we have ever had in the fruit industry, and to the year we are now entering as being the greatest year since the inauguration of fruit-growing in British Columbia. I thank you for your kindness in re-electing me. The Secretary-Treasurer (Mr. W. J. Brandrith): Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, I also wish to extend my hearty thanks for the continued evidence of your appreciation of my services. I shall, as in the past, do all I can to foster the fruit industry in British Columbia. Thank you. Mr. T. Wilson : Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, I do not know whether I am in order just now. I do not know whether what I am about to say ought to come up under the head of finance. In the first place, I ought to thank the Association for electing me to the Vice-Chair again. But I was going tp say, seeing that our Secretary has again been elected to office, I think the question of his remuneration should come up at this time. The President : Hear, hear. Mr. T. Wilson : I do not know whether you could call it a salary, but I know I was partly instrumental in getting him that during my term of office. But the conditions have changed very much since those clays. We know that a dollar does not go very much further now than fifty cents would go in those days. And then when you consider the onerous duties that devolve upon him, I think he should get more, and think that the labourer is certainly worthy of his hire, and I do not think that $30 a month is an adequate remuneration for the work our Secretary does; and I therefore have much pleasure in moving that his remuneration for the ensuing year should be $50 a month. Mr. Sere : What is it at present 1 Mr. Sprott: I understand it is $25 now. What is your motion 1 Mr. Wilson : My motion is that it should be raised to $50 per month. Mr. Sprott: I will second the motion. It was all right in the old days to give this small sum, but at the present time that work is very much increased, and the salary should be raised. A man cannot travel over this country and give up his time without being compensated for his time. Pay your men proper salary and get good work ; and then if they don't do good work, throw them out, Mr. Brydon : Before this is put, just one word. I did not hear the motion, but there is no doubt the work may certainly warrant the increase, but does the appropriation that is received by the Association warrant it 1 Taking the appropriation from the Government at $1,250, $50 a month out of that will mean $600 out of the appropriation. It does not look to me as if it will work. Of course, the work is increasing, I know, and I have heard members of our Association making some remarks on those lines. As to the increase, I do not object to it personally at all. There is, of course, along with the Secretary's salaryT, his travelling allowance, and a per diem rate as well, so that his $20 a month and $5—that means that in two years it will increase the salary 100 per cent. Now, you have to look at these things, not altogether in the way we of this Association look at them, but you have to look at them from the broader view—in the way the Members of the House and the other ratepayers in the Province will look at it when they come to consider the financial statement of the Government. I am not prepared to move an amendment to that motion, but I just wanted to have you stop and think a little bit. Of course, the work is increasing, but the appropriation so far has not increased. The President: Oh yes, it has. Mr. Brydon : There was only $1,250 mentioned. There was an extra appropriation in connection with the Central Exchange. Mr. W. J. Brandrith : We got $1,500 for the work of this Association last year. The President: I may say, in that connection, we have applied for more, and I have no doubt we will get it. The fact of the matter is, it is simply absurd to expect anyone to do the work Mr. Brandrith is doing for $30 a month. I have had to call upon Mr. Brandrith to come away from home for weeks at a time. Of course, we have had this special work of the Central Exchange, but he has devoted his time to it as well, and if Mr. Brandrith had a private business at all he could not attend to any of it, because, as I say, in my position as President, I A 32 British Columbia 1908. have been obliged to call on him again and again, and we have gone away on these trips, and on one trip we were out four weeks. Then, again, Mr. Brandrith has been off by himself. Then, in order to save expenses, he went away around Golden, which took how many days 1 Mr. W. J. Brandrith : Twelve days. The President: And all these extra trips. And if the Government is not prepared to support us, we had better let the work drop, because we could not get anyone to work for us at the same salary Mr. Brandrith has been getting. Of course, his expenses are paid, but the expenses are nothing, and in connection with the expenses we will have to make further allowance for the travelling expenses of the Executive Committee. Everything has gone up. You cannot now go into a C. P. R. train and come out with $3 a day. It is impossible, and I am perfectly convinced, from the interviews I have had with Capt. Tatlow, that when we show that there is any necessary expense to be met—any legitimate expense—that the Government will most certainly support us. They recognise fully that the fruit business is one of the greatest businesses in the country, and in order to make it a success we have to have the men properly paid that are in charge of it, and in charge of the different departments. Now, with reference to the local Exchanges. I have discussed this matter with the principal people in the Hood River and Wenatchee and different points in reference to salaries to managers of local Exchanges, and it simply amounts to this, that unless you pay from $100 to $150 a month, you cannot get a good man. And if you cannot start in and pay your men $150 a month, you had better not have any man at all. A man who is going to handle a local exchange has to be a man far better than any ordinary business man in a small store. He has far more difficulties to meet and contend with. He has to be a first-class man, and a man of great diplomacy, so as not to get into fuss and trouble with the different shippers ; and it is only right that we should pay them in some proportion to the work they are doing. I may say that I consider the salary paid Mr. Brandrith for the work he has been doing during the past year is simply absurd. The motion is now before the meeting. It has been moved and seconded that our Secretary's salary be increased to $50 per month, owing to the increase of business which he has to attend to. Motion carried. Mr. W. J. Brandrith (Secretary) : Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,—I think the President told you practically all he knew about the matter, but he might also have told you that I told him to find a new Secretary, because, although I have been doing this work in the past for a pittance, it does not follow that I have to do it any more. I am in a position now that I do not have to work for nothing. Even for $50 a month, Mr. President, I question whether anyone would care to travel as I have done and go through the hardships I have gone through during the past nine years and pay his own expenses. It is only in the. last four years that the committee have had their expenses paid. Last year, as I said in my report, I travelled nearly 7,000 miles—travelling nights and Sundays in order to save the money of the Association—and I just told Mr. Johnstone and some of the other members of the Executive, on Tuesday night, that unless I got more remuneration they could get another Secretary. I was not holding them up in any way either, ladies and gentlemen, because I know that there are any number of men just as capable as myself who could fill the position ; but I question whether you could get anyone to fill that position who has any more zeal. I must thank the Association for the renewed expression of their confidence in me. (Applause.) Mr. Kipp : I think it is time for a few remarks from myself. I first thank the meeting for my return to the Executive Board, and in connection with the few remarks which fell from our worthy President, I appreciate it very much. It brings on discussion. And it clears up in the minds of a good many some—shall I say—little suspicion i It opens the way for discussion, in any event. Now, I have heard it remarked on different occasions : " What becomes of all this money 1" So that I think it is wise to have discussion on it before the money is voted. For, you know, the question may arise in some people's minds, if the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association gets an appropriation, why does not the local Association also get some 1 That is not the question. They get it by affiliating with the Central Exchange, and the Government is simply helping the people so that they can help themselves. Now, I might say in reference to the increase of work that is going on, seeing that the increase of the Secretary's salary has been touched upon, five years ago—perhaps less than that, and maybe a little more—approximately five carloads of fruits left our point at Chilliwack, and this year there have been over sixty that I know of. Now, you take it at that point and see the increase, and all along the line the progress has been fairly equal. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 33 Why, at first we only extended to Kamloops, we will say, and then Salmon Arm, and then into the Okanagan, and then into the Kootenays, and now into Fernie, and away into the Golden country. Just think of the miles we have to go there. I think that that was a very just raise in the Secretary's salary. I do not want to touch upon it much, because I have been so closely allied with it for the last twelve or fourteen years of this work. And I may say that during the first ten years I never got one cent for my time. Well, perhaps you say : " Well, why do you stick with it ?" My reply is that I learn things from the people who associate with it that help me indirectly in my business. I know I don't know all about fruit-growing, but I like to be associated with it. I like to make new acquaintances and be with the people. Now, sir, I think that this work is here to stay, and I do not know of any better asset to the Province than fruit-growing. Why, gentlemen, when you get into these mountains you find some 10,000 acres of land fit for growing fruit on. What is the use of agriculture there ? It is simply fruit land and it is all right. And I think you will agree with me within five years' time, whether I am alive or not to witness it, you will find that the fruit industry has passed all expectations of anyone who knows anything about British Columbia. It will surprise everyone where our fruit-growing will reach to. Fruit-growing has come to stay. We have so many different conditions to favour it, climatic and soil. If one section fails, the other is there, sure to succeed. I would like to talk for an hour on this. I thank you for these few minutes, and I will take my seat. Address by Mayor of Victoria. His Worship Mayor Morley here addressed the Convention as follows :— Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,—I am sure it gives me great pleasure to welcome this meeting to Victoria, although it is a small one—I wish it were much larger. It brings back to my mind the old days when I was deeply interested in this same subject. In 1888, I think it was, or in 1889, I started an orange and lemon ranch in California, and nine years brought it into full bearing—nearly ten years, I may say. And I went through all the experience the people are starting to go through here in regard to the packing and disposal of fruit. I just caught a few words from the last speaker. I think he was speaking of what was done in California. Now, the experience that I went through in California made me recognise the fact that the only salvation for fruit in any country is association. (Hear, hear.) Up to the time of their associating themselves down there into a Fruit-Growers' Association, they had a very trying experience. But they have now their central organisation, and their local associations, and are able to work along on a good systematic basis. But, I may say, ladies and gentlemen, that up to the time they formed themselves into an Association, it was absolutely impossible for a man 'to know whether he would get any return on his fruit when he shipped it. It was absolutely impossible for him to know when he shipped a carload of fruit into a town—I do not care how big or small it was—whether he was going to land it there at the same time that someone else was going to land ten or eleven carloads. The consequence was that neighbours of mine would be out of pocket. They would not realise a fair market price for their fruit, and all their hard work would be given away. Perhaps they were a little unfortunate—I know I did not take so many chances—but they grew fruit at a large expense, and I have seen carloads of large navel oranges go off, and the report would come back from the agent, "Fruit arrived in poor condition; market glutted with fruit; what shall I do?" And you would telegraph back " Do best you can." And the best you could meant very often to have a bill sent back from the middleman for expenses, and then a bill from the railway company for $250 for the car, after your hard year's work. Now, that kind of thing, we are happy to say, is a thing of the past. Through the Association, the packing and shipping of fruit is done at practically half the former expense. Everyone in those days used to do their own grading, but now there is a standard system of grading down there ; and it is now practically a dead certainty that when your fruit is shipped it will be put in the best car where it will bring the best price. These Associations are so well organised that they keep in close touch with every market in the country, so that they know what fruit is worth in all places, and also know what fruit is required. And by this means you are enabled to get the top- notch price for your fruit. Now, all these things are lessons one never forgets, and when I came up here some ten years ago I heard that the people were starting to raise fruit, and that they were getting very good prices for it. And I thought to myself, " It is the same old storv." The first two or 3 A 34 British Columbia 1908 three ranchers who started in California had the same experience. There were only a few ranchers who got their prices. And until there was a regular system of organisation, the only one who regularly benefited from the sale of the fruit was the middleman. That was the only man who benefited. He had the key to the situation, and he could give you just what he thought he could afford to give, and you in the meantime were dependent upon him. Now, there is no man who raises a crop of fruit, or makes butter, can afford to take chances. And I want to say to you, ladies and gentlemen, who are here to-day, I am very, very glad indeed to learn of your new movement in the way of a Fruit Exchange. It is a most promising sign indeed for British Columbia that the fruit-growers' industry is in the near future going to supersede all others in British Columbia, and they have started in in good time into a Fruit-Growers' Association to take care of the shipping and distribution of their fruit. It is a healthy thing for the country. And the first thing you want to learn is that the majority interest is the interest of everyone of us. Sink your individual interests in the interests of the Association. Don't have little petty squabbles, as we had down in California at the start. You have to learn one thing, and that one thing is very difficult for you fruitgrowers to learn—you must not think when you take your fruit to a packing-house it is a great deal better than it is, and you feel terribly hard hit when they load you up with a lot of " culls " to take down to the pigs. The great thing about the fruit industry—the experience you get there is the finest on earth. It is a great object lesson. You soon begin to see how other fruit is graded and packed, and you begin to pick the culls off the tree before they sap the life from the trees, and you throw them away instead of trying to sell them. It is indeed an object lesson, and one of the finest propositions on earth is this associating together for the mutual benefit of one and all. Now, in coming up here to bid you welcome at this meeting, I had not intended to get into the old fruit talk, but it appeals to me, because I have attended many hundreds of meetings down there in California, when it was life and death to us to get the thing started in our village. We felt it harder there than you do here, because we had to ship our fruit many, many miles away. Our markets were in Salt Lake City, Denver, and from there on to the far East. But here in British Columbia you have the most promising opportunities for the marketing and distribution of your fruit. You do not have to take your fruit over roads which have to pass through a hot desert. I am speaking of your green fruit—plums, cherries, and so on. And regarding your apples, it is your own fault if you do not make your apples the " standard " of British Columbia fruit, just as the orange is the standard of California. Then another thing which fruit men will very soon learn from this association business, that is, that fruit-raising is just as much a business as any other business. A man cannot afford to waste his time planting an orchard just for amusement, with two or three of this variety, and two or three of the other, just to see how they will grow. It will pay him to just plant a few varieties so that he can get enough for shipment—apples, plums, or any other kind of fruit, the same rule holds good. Now, the whole thing simmers down to a merchantable and a business proposition, and until the fruit-growers grasp that fact you will always find difficulty in your packing-houses. A packing-house cannot handle 100 standards of fruit nearly as well or as cheaply as it can handle one or two, and you want to grow the most profitable variety, and the most merchantable. Just one word in regard to this, and then I have done. Few realise what is the most essential thing in this Fruit-Growers' Association business. It is this: Rather take a questionable quality of fruit back to your ranch and feed it to the pigs than ship it to market. You never want to ship anything but what you will be proud of to the end of your days. (Hear, hear.) Make a standard of British Columbia fruit. Never let a thing go out to the Eastern market, or Alberta, or Manitoba, or any other place, unless you know it is a credit to you. Never let a poor standard get in there with your label on it. Just hold up the standard, and keep it up to the very top-notch, and then you have something which money cannot buy. Then you have something that will stay with you, and you will find later on when you are getting on in years, and you want to sell your ranch, it means a great deal for you if your fruit has borne a good name. I have seen people sell out their ranches at a very high figure indeed, just because their fruit had won a name for itself. And I know one place, just because this man's label was 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 35 recognised back East as a standard for high quality, which sold for a very high figure. But if the man who bought the place knew how many boxes this man had to throw away before he got one box fit to ship, he might have thought twice before he took over that ranch. I am very glad indeed, gentlemen, to have had this chat with you, and I almost wish I was a fruit-grower in order ,to take part in your prospects; but if my experience in California is of any value to you at any time, I would be only too glad to join you in your discussions, and to assist you in any way I possibly can. And I certainly think, if you have not already done so, it would be a good thing for you to get in touch with the Fruit-Growers' Association in Southern California, and all through California. They are a generous, hearty people down there. There are as many Canadians growing fruit in Southern California as there are Americans, and you will find them exceedingly generous in giving you all the information they are possibly able to give. I thank you, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen. (Loud applause.) The President: Your "Worship, I was very much pleased with your remarks. I assure you, no subject is so important as the subject of co-operation. As you know, last year we formed a Co-operative Association for the whole of this Province, and at the present we are getting all the different Associations and large individual shippers to join us, and I know of no part of the Province which will benefit more by your address than this very spot, because quite a few people are still under the impression that they can produce better fruit than their next-door neighbour, and they are too good to go in with them, and that feeling has to be eradicated from the general system of working. We have been very successful in the past year in our new undertaking. A few Associations have joined us, and I assure you that we are very much obliged for the remarks you have made, and I hope they will be fully reported by our stenographer, as I am sure they will be, for the benefit of all those who are unable to attend the meeting. I now have much pleasure in calling on Mr. Brydon. Mr. Stewart: Just before Mr. Brydon gives his address, I should like a little more light in regard to the Central Exchange. We are just about to form our local Exchange—just in the initial stages—and we thought that there might be some difficulty in arranging what business the Central Exchange could do for us, because it was the opinion yesterday at our meeting that possibly we could manage the local business here probably better than thev could from the Central Exchange. So we thought you might make your policy a little more elastic than what we are led to believe you have done. I understood at first, in order to enter the Central Exchange, that for every 20 members there was a fee of $10. I understand it is now $300 for the local Associations to come in, and it was suggested that if we did not come in now it would probably be $1,000 when we were ready to come in. The President: This is certainly news to me, and I am the President of the Association. Mr. Stewart : I am only speaking from rumour. We will have another meeting on next Tuesday, and I would prefer to have a little more light on the subject. The President : I am very pleased to inform you that, whoever told you that, he did not know what he was talking about. Mr. Stewart: I would like to ask, Mr. President, if you would look favourably on the proposition of letting the local Associations handle the fruit that they can better handle themselves. The President : Yes, that is the idea. The Central Exchange handles the fruit you ship out, but your local man who is in charge of your local Association should be under the direction of the Central Exchange to the extent that he will not be cutting the prices we might get for the fruit. Of course, the manager of each local Association is practically the representative of the Central Exchange at that place. Take, for instance, my own place—Nelson. All the apples that we produce in that district do not constitute one-fifth of the amount of apples we use in the town and in the surrounding mines. Well, the way we figure on what apples are worth is this : Our Manager of the Central Exchange knows what he can buy Okanagan apples at, and we know what the freight will be on the Okanagan apples into our country, and we simply add that freight to our apples and get the same price as the other fruit. And in that way the local Association man is really the agent for the Central Exchange for everything that comes in. And when you are shipping anything out, he gets the orders from the Central Exchange and properly distributes them and sees that they are properly shipped out. And that is a very important point in having a first-class man manage that part of the work. Mr. Stewart : Yes, we quite realise that. A 36 British Columbia 1908 The President: Then another important point, which I brought up with the Manager of the Hood River Apple-Growers' Union. He said when they first started there they had a very loose organisation. Thev had an organisation formed to handle the fruit, and no one was compelled to ship through that organisation at all. If they did not like the prices, they could go to work and ship their own fruit, and get what prices they likecL The result was that some of the local merchants and wholesalers would try to break up the Association by going to work and offering five cents a box more than what the Association was giving. The result was that the individual who was very grasping, and who had not sense enough to see through the scheme, would go and say " I won't ship my fruit through the Association," and the result finally was that the whole of their organisation, during the first and second year, was broken up, and their organisation was worse than useless. And I am told that five of the larger shippers got together, and they tied themselves hand and foot so that they would ship nothing except collectively; they tied up all their apples so that no one could ship a box of apples except by shipping it through their Association. And from that moment the Hood River Apple-Growers' Union was a success, and, of course, we know from the history of it that it is a most successful Association for handling apples. Last year, they averaged $3.50 a box for their apples, and this was all brought about by co-operation. Recently, when I was walking around the Exhibition and viewing the fruit, Mr. Smith, the President of the North-West Fruit Association, turned to me as we passed the Hood River display and said, " It was co-operation that did that for them." That was the main point that they brought out, that you had to have an organisation that you could depend on everyone shipping through. It was far better to ship with three men than with twenty, if you had the three men all bound to ship their fruit together. If there is anyone not willing to put their fruit in with you, let them stay out, and they will find out what the others have found out during the past year, that organisation is the only way. (Applause.) Better Fruit. Mr. Brydon then addressed the Convention on the subject of " Better Fruit," as follows : Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,—It is rather what you might call a hard contract for a beginner like me to come and address an audience of experienced growers. More so when all here are experts. And when I was asked to give you a little talk on " Better Fruit," and how to obtain it, I said to myself, the text is good, because there is a lot of room yet to be covered, and the idea was more to have a little talk for the advantage of those who are starting out in this business. There is possibly in this fruit-growing business in the neighbourhood of 90 per cent, at least of those who have gone into fruit-growing recently ; they have left their original occupation and know little or nothing of fruit-growing; and that being the case, a plain talk that is suitable to beginners might do very well, but a talk of that kind to ladies and gentlemen who are here, and who are experienced, is just a little out of place. The Secretary : Oh, no. Location. Mr. Brydon : But my talk is on " Better fruit and How to Grow it." Possibly the first thing that the fruit-grower ought to take into consideration is his location. The location is such an important matter, and it is a matter that is very apt to be overlooked by the beginner. It is all new to him and he has not given any consideration to this, and he may be very apt to be led away by the first man who comes along and offers him a piece of land. Another point is this, also, that he may be led away too by the price. Now, price ought not—at least in a great many cases—enter into consideration at all. I notice the first point I have made here Is—Locate near the nearest market possible. Of course, to some extent that depends on what variety of fruit you intend growing. We all know that for small fruit, strawberries especially, that the nearer your market is the more valuable your land is. This may not appeal to you at first, but if you begin to take into consideration the extra mileage you have to travel every day, or every week, the extra cost of that mileage, besides the damage that your fruit sustains, it soon mounts up, and the amount extra it has cost you during the first year would more than have paid off the extra cost of a location nearer market. Try to locate yourself on a piece of land that is good and fertile; land that can be brought under a high state of cultivation; land that will respond to the intelligence and labour of the grower, and ultimately bring him in a good revenue for his labours. Site. And in connection with the location being favourable in every respect, the site is the next point to follow it. And it must be observed, that in the choosing of a site you secure the proper kind of soil. There are different varieties of soil that are suited for different varieties of fruit, of course, but what I mean is this : Even if you do not secure such a large acreage, be sure that you secure a piece of good land, of good texture that will retain moisture, that will respond to the intelligence of the grower, and be suitable to the fruits you intend planting. With regard to site, there is one thing that the beginner is very apt to overlook. In fact, I know myself that the first time I heard of it I wondered what it meant, and that is drainage. Find, if possible, a piece of land where you are able to have good drainage. Now, you might be hemmed in with large timber, or there is a piece where it is down in the hollow, and the cold air settles down in the hollows. And I have seen the frost line myself—you can follow it yourself—how it settles down in the hollows. The beginner is very apt to take no notice of that whatever. It is a very important thing to have good air drainage, and also to have good soil drainage. I will treat with this a little fuller in connection with the soil, but those are two important things. This may seem to you, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, a little outside of the text of my general remarks, but it is something that lies at the foundation of all success as fruit-growers. We may prune, and we may spray, and we may do a great many things that are essential, but if we do not get the proper conditions in the land, and have not got the proper food supply, all these other things will be working at a disadvantage. In animal life, and in vegetable life, one of the great features is a good, sufficient food supply, and that is one of the things a new beginner would never take any thought of. I did not myself. Of course, having been brought up on a farm, I knew something about land. But when I started in I had not heard the first thing about air drainage, and I stumbled on a piece of first-class land more perhaps by chance than by good guiding. But in this age of Fruit-Growers' Associations, we want, if possible, to let the men who are entering into the fruit-growing business gain by our experience, and that is one of 'the points which is so essential to our success as fruit-growers. There is another point, too, in connection with the choice of a site, and that is exposure. Of course, I am speaking altogether at the present time in reference to our own district. I know in some parts of the interior of British Columbia they do not take wind into consideration at all; and, in fact, I have been told many times that there are no prevailing winds, and it is a matter of very small importance to them. But it is a matter of importance to us, and it is necessary where you have a place which is much exposed to have a wind-break. Now, you would hardly think we would be subject to some of these winds down here, but my friend Mr. Sere can bear me out when I refer to the Tolmie Valley running right through to where Mr. Campbell was. There at times a cold south-west wind blows in, and Mr. Campbell had a wind-break put in for protection. That is another thing that we ought to look to in choosing our site. In my own case, I am not exposed very much yet. But there is what you might call an opening in the trees, and when there is a south-west wind it does considerable damage at times, although we are not by any means in the storm belt; yet I have here some fences made for protection. Now, there is a sample (producing samples) of the wind on the prune branches. The natural tendency of these prune trees is to bend over from the wind, making the growth appear like that. That is due to a south-west wind, that bending; they drop away from the south-west. Well, that does not seem to matter so much just now. Of course, I am keeping the trees cut low down, but when your trees get into the bearing state, and especially if you let them run into the high hedge, windage is then something you have to consider very seriously for your own profit. Aspect. Just a few words now on the aspect. Every other thing being equal, a southern aspect is preferable. Of course, I know this opens up the question for discussion. And at the present moment I would just enjoy this talk if any member would take part in it, and ask questions as we go along, because it is entirely informal. Of course, to some extent this depends on what your climatic conditions are, and what varieties of fruit you are growing, as regards the choosing of an aspect. But that applies at any rate if we are wanting to grow highly coloured fruit—you want the exposure to the sun. You must have the sun. The more sun you get the better your colour, and in most cases where the fruit is expected to take on a high colour we find that the southern aspect is preferable, every other thing being equal. Then another thing is advantageous to a fruit-grower, and that is either fresh or salt water. Take, for instance, Gordon Head ; there they are near salt water. Large bodies of fresh or salt water are quite an advantage to a fruit-grower. It gives off warmth much slower than the earth. And you will find in the interior, and places away from the influence of the salt water, on a cold night they will feel it much worse than those who are within the influence of the currents of air from those bodies. Their plants and fruit trees will be affected by the frost when those that are situated in the line of those currents will know nothing at all about it. That is one of the great features, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, in connection with Gordon Head. Gordon Head is projected out as a sort of head-line, with salt water on that side, and with salt water to some extent on this side, and if there is any circulation of air (it is different coming from the northerly direction) it brings the influence up Cordova Bay right over to Gordon Head, and there will be a very slight frost, when we, further inland, will have a white frost. Mr. Sere : Don't you think the altitude has a good deal to do with this 1 Mr. Stewart: Water has a higher temperature than the air, and the water being of a higher temperature keeps the air a higher temperature, and, consequently, you don't have the frost. Mr. Brydon : Then another thing a man has to consider is that the most suitable place of all is creek bottom—a location with a small stream running through it. You will have frost there, but there is enough moisture with that frost to take the frost out, and leave your fruit perfectly free from any damage in the morning. Now, we don't have that here. My friend here, Mr. Layritz, and I know something about that; and Mr. Stewart, too, knows that all through the Saanich Peninsula we are liable to have a frost late in the season. Mr. Sere : In any low place you will find the temperature very cold, and when you go up on the higher ground the temperature is different entirely. Mr. Brydon : The cold air drains into it, and that is one of the great advantages in having a current of air. Even if your ground is low down, if there is a valley where there is a current of air flows through, it makes a great difference. Mr. Wilson : In connection with this, Mr. President, I may mention that last April I went up to East Kootenay. I went up there to report on a piece of land, and I heard there was some frost there nearly every month in the year. Last winter the temperature registered at something like 51° below zero, and I noticed that up on the table-land the fruit had ripened up, and the trees were healthy-looking; but down below that, where the ground was lower, magnificent table-land, the trees there had been killed to the ground. Raspberry canes were killed, canes that ought to have been bearing this year, they were all killed, plums and everything else. Why, even some 50 feet above this flat land the trees were looking well, and it just bears out what Mr. Brydon says. Mr. Stewart: Was there any water running through there 1 Mr. Wilson: The Elk River. It is not a navigable river, but it is a fairly large stream. Mr. W. J. Brandrith : And rapid. Mr. Stewart: Possibly that river may be fed from glaciers and ice. Mr. Wilson : Yes, and snow. Mr. Stewart: Such water will always be as low in temperature as the air, but water being fed from some other source than that of glaciers and snow would probably be of a higher temperature. Mr. Brydon : I .may say that three years ago, in the early spring, we had very late frost, and it was so severe that my water-pipes that I had been irrigating our vegetables with were all broken and smashed in pieces ; at that time the cherries were in full bloom—the late ones— and the early ones were the size of peas, and I never suffered five cents worth of damage. And yet every spring we have this late spring frost where the ground is perfectly white. Mr. Wilson : I was just going to remark something. I took the pains to take the temperature five feet above the ground, and I found that there was a difference of 6°. I had a pear tree in full bloom at the time, and we had a heavy frost, something like 5° of frost, and I found that the flowers on the tree had not suffered in the least, and I had a good crop. Mr. Brydon : Of course, I understand now that it is the moist temperature that helps it out. I have seen a very simple illustration years ago, when my mother used to take frozen vegetables and place them in water, and it takes the frost out of them. The same thing 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 39 applies in the morning ; if you have a moist tempered atmosphere the frost won't hurt, but if you have a dry atmosphere the frost will hurt you considerably. I know that to my cost. I remember some years ago seeing a line drawn by the frost up over the face of the hill, and it followed a certain direction until it came down right close to the lake, where there was a hollow, and then up again. And the frost had affected this part in here close to the hollow, and yet, farther up above the frost line, the frost did not have any effect whatever. And it is well that new beginners should have this information. It would save them many a headache, and many a dollar as well, because they would buy something they would know was suitable and where there would be no danger of frost. Then with regard to the aspect, some claim a northern aspect is best, some a southern, and some another, and there could be a good deal of discussion on that. But generally, speaking of our district especially, the best aspect is the southern aspect, for there we can have full advantage of all the warmth, and it is so much better than any other. Soil. Then another point I would draw your attention to briefly is the soil, and the requirements of it. It has, I think, always been admitted by all the experts that I have seen, or that I have read of, that a rich loam with deep clay sub-soil for apples, pears and plums, is the best that can be had. A little lighter soil for cherries and other fruits. And one of the great needs of the soil, to keep the fertility there, is humus—a good supply of humus. I know myself how hard it is to keep the soil up to its mark, and one often needs some other vegetable matter put into the soil in order to maintain your supply of humus, because humus plays such an important part in the texture of your soil and the needs of the plants generally. There is also a certain amount of plant food that is required. It is important that we should know something about that. This I copied from a book that I have, and it just gives us some little idea of the needs of the different varieties of apples, pears, plums and peaches— nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash and lime, magnesia. Now, an apple tree in full bearing during the season, to keep it in a good, healthy condition, would require about 1.46 of nitrogen; .39 phosphoric acid; 1.57 of potash; 1.62 of lime; '66 of magnesia. Those are the materials that it really requires to produce good, sound fruit, and have ample sustenance to bear this year's crop, and also fructify the bodies for next year. Mr. WTilson : What age is that tree supposed to be, and how much fruit is that supposed to produce 1 Mr. Brydon : That was taken from a New York bulletin, and a conservative estimate of 14 barrels of apples to the tree. It was a tree in full bearing—a large tree, and the others bore the same proportion. Mr. W. J. Brandrith : Fifty-two boxes. Mr. Brydon : Pears take .25 nitrogen; they don't require very much nitrogen phosphoric acid, .6 ; potash, .27 ; lime, .32 ; magnesia, .09. Plums take—nitrogen, .25 phosphoric acid, .07 ; potash, .32; lime, .34; magnesia, .11. Peaches take—nitrogen, .62 phosphoric acid, .15 ; potash, .66 ; lime, .95 ; magnesia, .29. It is well that we should understand something of what is required for the maintenance of our orchard. Of course, in these days when we are very apt to be brought into contact with the chemical fertiliser man, he tells us that we require nitrates, and that we require phosphates of lime, and all that. We may, and we may not. And it is important for us as fruitgrowers to make just a little study of this. In regard to the matter of foliage, we can usually judge by the foliage. If the tree does not seem to be in a good, healthy condition, with the foliage of a pretty, healthy, dark green, you may be sure that it wants a little more nitrogen. It wants a little more stimulant to help it along. Then in the matter of our small fruit—if we are growing strawberries—and I think Mr. Stewart will bear me out in this—it is so evident that a little potash in strawberries gives that dark, rich lustre, and altogether there is a fine flavour in connection with the fruit that you treat like this that you never get unless there is ample potash in the soil. Mr. Stewart : Yes, that is right ? Mr. Brydon : And also when the tree is in proper condition, and has all the proper food supplies that are necessary, it adds colour to the fruit, increases its keeping qualities, and adds to the flavour. In fact, in one year it produces the best fruit that is possible, and a tree will only produce the best fruit under the most favourable conditions. That brings me to the next point— A 40 British Columbia 1908 Cultivation. Now, bear in mind that my remarks refer particularly to our own district, and this applies to the Lower Mainland as well. It does not apply to the prairie countries, or where irrigation has to be taken into consideration. The first point is, clear the land and clear it well. Don't make a half job of it. Don't get too ambitious and plant your trees before you have your land in perfect condition. Be determined that you are going to have fruit land, first of all. Drainage. Then the second consideration is drainage—drainage and good tillage are the back-bone of our success. In fact, that is the foundation of our success as fruit-growers. From my own experience even, I find in the land where there is a fine fall, with a good footing, that the advantage of drainage is so apparent. Just as every year, as I get more money, I am not going to stop until I complete the whole thing and drain it. After these heavy rains that we have, if you walk over your orchards carefully thinking and keeping your eyes open, you cannot but be struck by the great advantages of drainage. In the first place, it lowers the water. The moisture penetrates down into the rich, deep sub-soil that you have got, and you are enriching your land to that extent. Another great advantage of drainage, it removes the alkaline salts. If you notice the water-line over your land, how hard it is, and how difficult it is for anything to penetrate it ; if you have a good clay sub-soil, if it gets puddled in the least, the water will stand in the little hollow places the whole winter. I have seen the first year after the drains have been put in, if they were filled in when the clay was puddling, and there was a little hollow place right close beside the drain, the water would stand there for months before it would penetrate through. Mr. Stewart: If you did not get any frost ? Mr. Brydon : Yes. It removes these salts, and allows them to penetrate down into the open ground. It retains more moisture. This matter of moisture is the most important question to the whole Province. Of course, everyone is supposed to know their own business best and their own location. But although I did not say very much, Mr. President, I had thought a good deal, and my thinking was along these lines, that a great many of our people using water in the interior of British Columbia, if they only substituted for their water a little more hoe, they would have far better results. Mr. Stewart: Steel irrigation. Mr. Brydon : It retains moisture. You can see that. Even after a heavy rain, the ground is so much more porous. You see that in the summer time. Last year we had an exceptionally dry season. I could not give you the exact figures, but there was not half an inch of rain from the end of April to the end of October. We had a pretty good shower about the first week in July. Under clean cultivation, when that shower came, it went through just like a sponge. And by cultivating as early as possible, you had moisture that was raised by capillar}' action and the moisture that had fallen from above, and you had your whole field covered with moisture almost equally as good as if it had been a heavy rain. If there had been no drainage, no cultivation, Mr. President, you would scarcely have known there was a shower two hours after—you would scarcely have known it was there. Now, I w>as saying we had an exceptionally dry season last year, and I just brought these along to show the meeting what growth we could make without rain for five months. That is a year's growth on a plum tree (producing sample). There is a year's growth on an Oldenburg apple. There are two twigs of a Bartlett pear, and here is an Italian prune. That is a good, fair average of what can be done. Now, I am quite confident of this, Mr. President, that, taking the season we have just gone through, supposing there had been nothing growing to take away the moisture, if you had not had the ground under proper cultivation, you would not have made half of that (referring to twig produced). Mr. Stewart: No, not six inches. Mr. Brydon : I like to take safe ground. Then we have, by lowering our water, a deep capillary action, and it gives us the advantage of having so much greater supply to draw on. That is another great advantage, and it also increases the plant food. It increases the plant food because our roots are enabled to come out. At the present time we are putting in more tile drains, and we see the advantage of it. Now, the first planted trees there are shooting up, and you can see the little rootlets coming through. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 41 Now, in connection with this question of growing better fruit, I want to impress upon myself, and upon you, because the more I read the more I see the value of understanding more about cultivation, and the more we know about the physical and chemical conditions of the soil the better it is for us. And you will see for yourself that it is the food supply that counts ; it is the food supply that is necessary for man or for beast, and we also have to take into consideration the question of better ventilation and the physical condition. Now, even the chemical fertiliser people, when sending out their pamphlets, very often are willing to admit that it is sometimes not so much the want of plant food in the soil as that your soil needs to be in an available condition, so that your trees and plants can avail themselves of it. It is but reasonable to suppose that if we allow our land to stand water-logged for three or four months of the year, until there is an intense evaporation sets in and closes the pores up just as tight as a brick wall, that soil is not going to be as good as land that you have cultivated and properly tilled and drained. Another important point is what we call the aeration of the soil—opening up the porous system of your soil. In every cubical inch of ground there are thousands of the minutest microbic life. Our learned professors are at sea so far just to know the value of this life to the plant life, but they do know it is of great value, and they know if we stop cultivation and allow a hard surface to come over our ground, the want of warmth and air simply puts these little fellows out of a job, and your trees suffer accordingly. By deep drainage we mean thorough cultivation, and it also increases your season to keep the land well drained. It gives you the advantage of being able to enter on your season's work a month earlier possibly, at least. It gives you also the advantage of being able to get the full benefit of our spring showers, so that your trees and plants and seeds may be full- grown practically before your dry season sets in. Then, in these days of high-priced labour, if you have your soil in proper condition by proper drainage, it makes it so much easier to work, and saves you largely in the cultivation and in the general operations, and in connection with the keeping of your orchard. These are a good many of the advantages accruing from proper drainage. Of course, the new beginner, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, is very apt to look at it in this way : Well, in order to have proper drainage you need tiles, and so many tiles at two cents each cost so much, and your labour on that costs one cent or one-half cent, and it costs so many cents to put the ground in proper condition, and you say that is a big outlay, and the beginner will ask himself what is the advantage ? Of course, my talk now is aimed at beginners; it is to give them the information that I so much stood in need of. But let me tell you, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, the advantage of all this is very great indeed. Then there are still some advantages left to be considered. I am only touching on a few. Now, we are all interested in obtaining larger crops and larger fruit. A tree, after all, is very much like a man. We know ourselves if we go out in the morning with a headache, or not feeling very good—just sort of run down, and don't care much for work—you will feel the cold a great deal worse than otherwise, and you are very apt to be cross, and we find at the end of the day we have not accomplished very much. The truth of the matter is that we are out of condition. Well, the same thing applies to the vegetable world. If we do not keep them warm and dry, and in condition, they won't produce the best kind of fruit, and the best results cannot be obtained. And you must keep your soil well drained. And just before leaving this matter of soil, one word in connection with the maintenance of the soil. Speaking altogether from a fruit-growers' standpoint, I think, in a great majority of cases, the cheapest, and possibly the best method, is to get a good clover crop early in the year. Now, while we had an excessively dry season last year, I had no trouble in obtaining ample moisture to start off in the fall. In fact, Mr. Layritz can bear testimony, in one case we were digging a ditch diagonally this way (indicating). There was a row of trees this way and a row of trees that way. Now, on the brow of the hill there was a piece of clay, and it was not my intention to grow anything there, but simply to enrich the soil. Well, sometime after, in September, I had occasion to cut a ditch through there, and put in a tile drain, and when we came to this part we found a clean cultivation, 10 feet wide, ample moisture. And the minute we got out there and struck this centre-piece there was not a little bit of moisture. Maintenance and Fertility of the Soil. Winter wheat and vetches make a splendid cover crop. • They say rye will grow under a lower temperature than the vetches will. This past year, however, what little frost we have A 42 British Columbia 1908 had has not been sufficient to make any difference. But the vetch is a great nitrogen gatherer. It has the power to extract from the air free nitrogen and deposit it in the soil. So that these are all matters of the very first importance to the beginner in the planting of the orchard. They are points that are of great value, and save not only your time, but a good deal of money as well. Then just a few remarks on the planting of the tree. This British Columbia Fruit- Growers' Association can send out a man to demonstrate, and to show to the beginners how the planting should be done. But they will have to study and think over it, and it will take them some time before they master it, and it is most important of all, because that is the foundation, and the tree planting is on the top of the foundation. First of all, select your young trees, and select them, if possible, from a nursery in your own district. Go yourself to the nursery man and select your trees, and it is generally preferable to take the one-year-old trees. Those are the trees I prefer, and I will give you my reasons. Our good old friend, Mr. Michael Baker, and I used to have some talks on this question, and what Michael didn't know about fruit from his standpoint was not very much worth the knowing. At that time I thought a three-year-old tree was possibly the best tree, and I reasoned it out in this way : The nurseryman is a specialist, and I thought in the earlier and critical stages of the tree, with his experience, he would be better able to take care of the tree than I would. However, I do not think that now, because I maintain that every man or woman who wants to come into the fruit business, he or she has to learn to be a specialist; so it is well for you to get your tree at the earliest possible stages, and begin so that you can be master of the situation, and then if you want to make a low hedge, or high hedge, or any other kind of a hedge, you have it under your control, and you cannot fall back on the nurseryman and say: " That was fixed for me when I got it." Generally speaking, and almost invariably, you have then a better root system than you would have with a two-year-old, or a three-year-old tree. But in any case select good trees. Take the advice of your nurseryman. I did myself, and I have never had any reason to regret it, and as 3rears go on you then learn to make your own decision and your own choice. You will find that even nurserymen have made mistakes, and you will find you will make mistakes, but notwithstanding that, ask the advice of your nurseryman, or ask the advice of someone who has had experience, and be guided by them. And don't ask the nurseryman to give you cheap stuff. Don't do that. (Hear, hear.) It never pays. In fact, that applies to a great many other things as well. Buy the best, and be prepared to pay the price for it. Then there is the planting. Well, I am not going to touch on planting, because you all know here about planting. But the beginner—show him how to plant his tree and be careful to tell him not to put it down too deep. I have known of some of my friends in the district who were a little afraid of the dry season, and they put the tree down very deep, and we know what the result would be. Well, then, when your trees are planted there is the general culture of your orchard. Now, to have the very best success—and I am speaking strictly along these lines because we want to have the very best success. We are going to be fruit-growers ; we are going to be specialists, and that is the only way we can do it. Give your fruit trees every advantage, and continue your cultivation right along in the summer. As a matter of fact, I continue it until the latter end of August, or until the middle of August. You have to use your own judgment in these matters, and then allow them to go into their winter quarters. We have been speaking of cultivation—careful cultivation—clean cultivation. Some people are afraid of a little manual labour. I enjoy it myself. When your heart is in the work, and when you have a real love for the work and for your trees, and you know each of them by some mark or other, then you take the deepest interest in your work and you make it a success. Don't work your hoe cultivator just so near the tree (or whatever you are using) and then leave a space not worked, but get to work and don't leave that space but hoe it up, or turn it over someway. Give it the best treatment, and I am sure it will respond to it and make your heart glad too. Then with regard to pruning—prune first of all for your foundation. Now, you have got the year old trees, and you are going to be the master of the situation, and it is up to you to train the tree to your own convenience. I am not going into the different forms of pruning, but my preference is the pyramidical form. Prune for your own convenience, and remember that the health and strength of your tree depend very largely on how you prune it. I look on it in this light—the first year you are building as it were the frame-work. Stand back 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 43 then, and walk around your tree and consider what this tree is to be in years after when it has taken on its load of fruit. Cut back—don't be afraid to cut. Don't cut for mere cutting's sake, but study your tree, and build up a good strong foundation to carry your future crop on. Then you have to regulate your light and heat and the pruning of your trees. All these things have to be taken into consideration. This refers altogether to your young orchard. You are building your main structure so that by-and-by the branches can grow out from that, and there will be ample strength to carry everything without looking for props to hold up the first dozen apples that come along. The regulation of light and heat is very important, and if by proper pruning and by proper thought you will follow this out, you will notice how nicely you will be able to bring a large part of your fruit along on the strong-bearing limbs. The light and the heat coming on these limbs will bring out and fructify the fruit, and you will have a chance to carry a splendid load of fruit without going to the tops of your branches at all. It is a great advantage to let the light and the heat come into the centre of your tree, and that gives us by that pruning a specimen of what we call a strong-bearing wood. I had some very good illustrations of that myself last year in the Duchess of Oldenburg apple. I certainly had all the apples you would desire to see grown on a tree, with one or two exceptions; the branches did not turn down at all, and the apples were running right along on a strong-bearing wood. By that means you have larger fruit, you have the promise of regular bearing, and altogether the ideal tree. Now, one word and I will be done. I must thank you for your attention in this not over- warm hall. Just one word and I will touch very briefly on spraying. Spraying is one of what you might call the recent additions to fruit-growing, and something which, a few years ago. was not so well understood as it is to-day. Spraying is very important, and, in connection with spraying, I have brought along here some specimens that I might get some light on. There is a trouble, Mr. President, I would like very much to know how I can handle, and handle in time (referring to apples produced). Mr. Wilson : Bittter rot. The President: Isn't there some hail in that ? Mr. Brydon : No; we know it is a fungous disease, but what I am troubled about is how I am going to apply this Bordeaux spray and be sure I do not do more harm than good. Mr. Layritz : Well, I do not think it can be controlled by spraying at all. I have had several reports from leading experimental farms of the United States, and it confuses the scientists there. Mr. Stewart: That V2 spray that they claim is infallible, that would be the one to fix it. There are so many sprays being introduced now. Mr. Layritz : I think it is more a condition of disease, and caused by abnormal conditions in the food supply. Mr. Wilson: I think you will find that that turns up worse certain seasons than others; of course, that is the bitter rot that is there. Mr. Brydon : There is one that is not so bad, but it is the same disease. Well, there is the question with me. I have not seen any definite statements, but they claim it is a fungous disease, and the Bordeaux mixture will kill any of these, if properly applied, but the question with me is how to apply it, to be sure that the cure is not worse than the disease. Mr. Stewart: I saw a case in the " Fruit-Grower " where a man sprayed continually for bitter rot, and he got 95 % bitter apples, and other people in the district didn't spray, and they got an equal proportion of bitter rot. But they claim that it certainly checks or controls it. Mr. Wilson : I do not think the Bordeaux mixture is entirely infallible. Mr. Stewart: I know I sprayed this summer and I did not have the same amount of bitter rot. I used Bordeaux mixture 4-4-40; 3-3-40 is what they are considering now. Mr. Brydon : Just let me finish my few remarks. Spraying we find to be most important, and we can now through our bulletins get all the instructions for the making and applying of the spraying mixture. But with spraying, as well as with all other work in connection with the growing of No. 1 fruit, you want to use good judgment. Consider when and how to apply it and study out the question for yourself. And we certainly do know that, without spraying, we certainly cannot have the results we are aiming at. So much for better fruit and how to obtain it. You must remember that the spraying and the pruning and all is important. And, just before closing, let me go back again and impress upon myself and upon you, that it is the proper cultivation of your soil which should come first. It plays the most important part in our success as fruit-growers. Thanking you, Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen. A 44 British Columbia 1908 Mr. Kipp : I did not like to interrupt when the point was raised in connection with the fungous disease, but I have had a great deal of that in my time to contend with, and I have combatted it with the different kinds of sprays and of different strengths, until I nearly blinded myself, and that is what put me behind these glasses; but I virtually cleaned the ranch of it all; and whether it was the spraying that did it I don't know, but I put it on to my trees at the strength of 12 lbs. of bluestone and 12 lbs. of lime, with 50 gals, of water. I was determined that I was going to kill the tree or the disease, because it was killing me and my ranch. You will find it attacks some varieties more than others, and that apple is just the kind it will attack. Some of those trees, the Gloria Mundi for instance, are mean for that. Prune it. Be sure and get it off close to the ground and burn it up. Now, then, there is nothing to boast of on that table there, but they came from my orchard, and it makes as good a food when you are hungry as you could wish—just that same sort of thing—and I attribute it to the cultivation and spraying, thus fetching it from this style to that style (comparing apples). And the first thing is, it is very essential to remove all fruit trees that won't grow in new varieties, as near as possible. It is more necessary among the plum and cherry tree than it is among the apple. That has been my experience. Now, in my community, I know if you plant a tree too deep, unless you have a very deep, thorough under-draining, then you will have your trouble. It is like raising ducks on a sandhill and chickens in a swamp. If you change the conditions for them, then they will live. If you cannot afford to under-drain, put the tree on top of the ground. But the spraying is the remedy for that (speaking of bitter rot); that has been my experience. When you come to put in 12-12 Bordeaux, that will fetch it. I did that as an experiment. A neighbour of mine came along and said " What are you doing to your trees 1" and I said, " I am going to kill or cure them." I watched them with great interest. The trees were just as blue as you could make them. I put on 12-12, and there is something doing. It would not stand it in the leaves, but I am satisfied in the dormant state it is very hard to make a Bordeaux strong enough to hurt the tree, but when it comes to the summer spray, then you have to handle with tongs. You get it down to 4, and the Bordeaux mixture will not apply to all things. Mr. Brydon : About what time would you apply your summer spray? Mr. Kipp : I would put it on just before the buds were open in the leaf, and just as soon as the buds dropped I would give it another; and then, a few weeks later, I would give it another; and then, when the fruit gets to be as big as marbles—the size of those walnuts of mine. (I want to have you notice those walnuts, because they are specimens of what I have myself grown, and pretty good specimens too. It just shows what you can do if you want to.) Well, when the apple gets as big as those walnuts, then give it another spray. Mr. Brydon : I have tried all that sort of thing. Mr. Kipp : What strength have you tried ? Mr. Brydon : 4-4, and less, and they have had more trouble when it was weaker than when they increased it. Mr. Kipp : I am a great hand to believe in conditions. You did not try it in my orchard, and I did not try it in yours. Mr. Brydon : I know I have done more harm to some varieties than if I had left it alone. Mr. Wilson : Too heavy spraying. What has been the effect of it 1 Mr. Brydon : Rusted them, and cracked them in the side, and made them grow all out of shape. Prof. Shutt was there and examined them, and he left them just as he found them. The President: Mr. Brydon, I may say in that connection, I brought this matter of spraying up at the North-West Fruit-Growers' Convention, and I ventured there a statement, not knowing whether I would be thrown out or not, but I found I was absolutely supported by everyone, and that was in regard to spraying in the dormant season ; for fungous diseases to spray only in the dormant season with the Bordeaux mixture. I have sprayed in all seasons, and I have done more harm than good, and I would just as soon have my apples destroyed with fungous as with rust. Last year my apples were not good at all, and I was told I had sprayed a day too soon. Well, I don't know whether I did or not, but I do know this, that I sprayed my apple trees when the blossoms were still on the very upper boughs, and whether they were off on the lower I could not say, but I destroyed every Spitzenberg on the tree. Now, in future, I am going to sprav after the leaves drop, and if that won't do I am going to leave it alone. Mr. Stewart : You had scab 1 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 45 The President: Just a little of it, and the extraordinary thing was that many people got up and said that they were afraid to mention such a thing, but they were able to bear me out. Mr. Kipp : Mr. President, just a word. Another thing I want to mention in regard to my Sheldon pear is—there were two years my Sheldon pear tree stood in a certain place. It was just on the road to the mixing place, and those pears got so bad they would crack right open. Well, I decided I would keep on spraying them, and I said to my men, " Every time you pass by that pear tree, you stop and give it a spray," and they did. Well, it got six, or seven, or eight sprays sometimes a day. Well, I told them not to forget to spray it, and whenever they passed I noticed they would stop and give it a spray. Well, next year it was surprising the difference it made in those pears—there were only a few cracked—just enough to put in my hat. The spraying was done just at the dormant stage of the tree, and that is the best time to spray, and don't be afraid to spray it. You can put on 12 x 12. Mr. Brydon : Would you not rather put on lime, sulphur and salt 1 Mr. Kipp : I put on that too. I put that on in the dormant season. Mr. Sprott: Are you putting this lime, sulphur and salt spray on now : Mr. Kipp : At this moment ? Well, no, but I expect it to be on when I get home. It is a home mixture, and I don't like the odour of it. Mr. Brydon : Well, I have tried nearly everything I can think about to get rid of that, and I will have to go home again and see what I can do myself, but it certainly disfigures the fruit. Of course, these have been kept now for four months. You cannot expect to overcome everything. I just picked them up as I came along, because they were such rough specimens. Mr. Brandrith : Well, Mr. President, the different professors disagree on this subject of spraying. Some say bitter rot cannot be controlled, and others say the Bordeaux mixture will control it, so it appears it is somewhat of an open question. But while I am on my feet, Mr. President, I would like to move a vote of thanks to Mr. Brydon for his address on fruitgrowing, and I want to endorse as emphatically as I can every proposition that he laid down. During my tour of the Upper Columbia Valley last July I came across just such conditions. One man at Windermere had planted an orchard on the hillside where the air drainage was perfect. It is an irrigated country, and so there was no soil drainage required, and his trees, I may say, were in a very good condition, considering he was growing alfalfa among the trees, and he told me that that was his second crop in the orchard that year. That was about the 18th of July—I remember because I had two meetings on the 17th and 18th, and I was driving around the country to see the orchards. Well, now, that man came to the conclusion that he had some better soil in the valley and he would go to work and plant an orchard in there, and in the spring of the following year he planted some 400 trees in the valley. It was just the shape of a tea-cup where he planted it; there was no inlet or outlet on it, and the soil was of the richest kind, such as pertains in that section of the country. The hills from the bottom of the valley to the top, would average from about 200 to 300 feet, and the bottom of the cup would average from seven to eight chains across, and he had planted the bottom of this cup with good strong trees, and they had made a fairly good growth during the first season, but when the winter came on they were killed right to the ground. Now, it was only just over the hill and ten chains away from where his orchard was a success. His raspberries that he had planted in the same cup were killed, and his strawberries—he had planted some 12,000 or 15,000 plants, and he had not a living strawberry, and it was certainly a big lesson to him, and quite an expensive experiment to prove the doctrine of air drainage. As Mr. Brydon says, it is one of the most important things that a planter should consider when he is planting his orchard. I have much pleasure in moving a vote of thanks to Mr. Brydon for his able address. Mr. Wilson: I have much pleasure in seconding it. There are some points it would be better, possibly, for Mr. Brydon and I to thrash out somewhere else, when we have a little more time, but then there is one thing I agree with him in right up to the hilt, and that is his remarks on cultivation. I am with him there—cultivation, cultivation, cultivation—and keep at it. I have very much pleasure in seconding that motion. Motion carried unanimously. Mr. Brydon : Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,—There is an advantage sometimes in undertaking a task, although you may feel you are not very well fitted for it. The Secretary applied to me and asked me if I would prepare a paper, or have a talk of some kind, and I said yes; and I decided I would say a few.words to you, and made up my mind I would give A 46 British Columbia 1908 a talk to beginners. Now, I do not know what information I have been able to impart to you this afternoon, but I do know that, in looking the matter up for myself, I have greatly benefited by it. And I would recommend to every fruit-grower, when the Secretary applies to them to help in the meeting, to take the part, and take it willingly, and they will find they will be far more benefited themselves than possibly the others will, and the more we study, and look into these things, and the more we get into touch and are able to understand about fruit-growing, the better it is for us, and the greater our interest, and the greater our pleasure is, because we then begin to reason out why we do this and that, and we are able to put 2 and 2 together, and the pleasure in our work is increased a thousand-fold. As I said before, to be a success as a fruit-grower, one's heart must be in the work, just as a nursery-man loves to see his trees and plants grow—but, unfortunately for him, his love is more to sell it the first year. Thank you again, gentlemen. (Applause.) The President: I expect, gentlemen, that a motion to adjourn is in order. Mr. Bartholomew : Before adjourning, I would like to speak of the Dominion Exhibition in Calgary. We should have a show of some kind in that place. There is a large market to draw from in that Alberta District, and I think we ought to find some sort of a stand there. I think it would be a good idea to see that the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association carried it through, because if it is left in the local hands the same interest might not be felt. Mr. Wilson : Isn't the Provincial Government taking this up? Mr. Brandrith : I think it would be in order to have a resolution drawn up to that effect, but as the hour is getting late, we had better defer it until the evening meeting. Meeting here adjourned till 8 p. m. Evening Session. The Association re-assembled at 8 p. m., pursuant to adjournment. Owing to the absence of Mr. Johnstone, the President, Mr. Wilson acted as Chairman. The Acting Chairman explained the absence of the President, who, he said, was "a little bit under the weather," and called on Mr. Sprott to give his address on "Good Roads, and how they affect the Fruit-Grower." Mr. Sprott: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen,—My subject this evening will be— . " Highways as they affect Fruit-Growing." The subject of transportation has been discussed on numerous occasions by this Association, in its relation to the railway and tramway service, but, as far as I know, this Association has not dealt with the problem of transportation on the highways. The members of this Association have derived a good deal of benefit by efforts made from time to time to secure better railway transportation for produce. If we.now devote our energies towards securing improved highways, we shall gain an advantage of the very greatest value, greater even than the possession of good shipping facilities. This Association should be, in my opinion, particularly interested as a body in the subject of good roads, for undoubtedly the existence of good highways is essential for the successful handling of fruit. Not only fruit-growers, but every one in the Province will gain by having good roads. They give a country a good name and play a very important part in its development. The experience that has taught us to build houses, barns and other structures in a good and substantial manner should teach us the advantage of constructing good roads. We want roads that will not become cut up or churned into a morass-like mass when the rains come on in the fall; roads that will not be affected by freezing and thawing. We want the labour and money spent on them to be a paying investment. We want roads that are always in good condition for travel, no matter what the weather is. A road that cuts up or becomes rough is a bad road ; money and labour spent on it is largely wasted—lost in the mud. A road well made, i. e., of suitable width, properly crowned, and thoroughly drained and always maintained in that state, is an economical road. Good roads are largely a question of cost. The greater the expenditure (always provided that it is spent judiciously) the more rapidly can the highway be improved. Nevertheless, by adopting the best and most efficient methods, the cost can be kept within reasonable limits. One dollar properly spent is more effective than two dollars squandered. We do not need 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 47 elaborate or costly undertakings. Good methods and business-like management should be the aim. To create an economical road it must have a perfectly strong foundation, thoroughly drained, so that the surface cannot "break up." A road that "breaks up" is improperly constructed and a poor investment. What bad roads are doing for this country is only one side of the evil; the other is what they are not doing. The loss does not arise so much from the money and labour wasted every year as it does from the absence of the benefits which good roads would bring. Our loss must be measured not so much by the money and labour we are throwing away on bad roads, as by the opportunities which would come to us if the roads were good. I do not know any one thing which would do so much to improve the condition of life on the farm as good roads. Good roads would enhance the value of the farms, and also decrease the expenses in numerous ways, such as the wear of vehicles and the strain on the horses. For, whilst a considerable quantity of fruit is shipped in summer, when the highways are more or less passable, the fruit-grower and farmer have considerable hauling and driving to do in the winter months. It is cheaper to haul produce to market in one load than in two. Good roads will increase the opportunities of fruit-growing; better markets become available. Fruit can be marketed in better condition and a purchaser will be obtained for the produce. Under present conditions, in many places the fruit cannot be taken to market at the right time, because of the difficulty of transporting it from the farm to the railway station or the city. Quite an important argument in favour of steps being taken to establish good highways is that the dullness and isolation of farm life will be overcome by having better facilities for easy and quick travelling, thereby tending to elevate and incidentally bringing about a better citizenship. Besides this, a good, well-constructed road is an object lesson to all who use it, and we would soon see the side-roads being put into as good condition, when those that travel over them realise the vast advantage gained by having good highways. Undoubtedly the church, the school and the public meeting would be better attended. The reason often given for absence from these assemblies is that the roads were impassable. If they were good it would ofttimes be a pleasure to take the drive and attend many of these meetings. We should also be able to have the advantage of more social intercourse with neighbours, instead of—as is now often the case, the roads being bad—those living in the country districts see little or nothing of one another, especially at that time of year when there is more time for visiting. The consequence is, many people live very isolated lives. Why should not those trying to make homes in the country districts have the benefits of civilisation ? How can the country settle up without good roads 1 With good roads, and consequently a larger population, such improvements as the telephone and the rural mail delivery will be accomplished facts. The latter, unfortunately, has to wait also upon the benevolence of our politicians, who, whilst able to increase their own salaries out of the public funds, are not at present willing to give this boon to the country at large. But you must remember this : that as far as British Columbia is concerned, they have an excellent excuse until we can show them good roads. When we consider the vast sums of money the people of this Province are sending outside for agricultural products, it is high time we took steps to make life on the farm more alluring to prospective settlers. We look for, and are doing in various ways, our best to induce people to come into this country and invest their money in land to grow fruit and other produce upon. Without doubt we want them to come, but let us keep them when they do come. Good schools and good highways will be by far the best inducements for them to come and stay here. Not only are good highways advantageous to those in the country, but they are a great benefit commercially. They are the first link in the chain of transportation. As horticulture and agriculture prospers, so will business prosper. Better markets will be available for the products of the farm, which will bring more money into the country. This means increased sales for the merchant and greater demands on the manufacturer. Bad roads, besides the retarding influence they have on the country by lessening its ability to compete in the markets, cause produce to be marketed not as prices or demand requires, at the centre of distribution, but as the roads permit. If the fruit-growers and farmers can market the produce easily and regularly, they are better able to meet their liabilities promptly, which also helps the merchant to turn his stock over and meet his obligations, and thus keeps business running smoothly. When it is remembered that all that the country districts produce, and also all that the people living in them require from the towns, has to be hauled over the roads, it is surely high A 48 British Columbia 1908 time we took this important matter up and agitate for good roads. If the roads had been owned and operated by a private company, the directors of the company would probably have long ere this been in an exceedingly unpleasant position. I believe they would have been lynched. Under present conditions in British Columbia, the largest part of the country is administered by the Provincial Government, as far as its roads and bridges are concerned, the Legislature voting certain sums of money towards the upkeep of the roads in the different districts. But there are localities in the Province where there is municipal government. In these localities, like elsewhere under similar conditions, there is a tendency to starve the trunk roads, in order either to improve side-roads, or else to build new roads for incoming settlers. Besides this, the municipalities have not, except in one or two cases, a road supervisor who is responsible for the road construction. Thus the Councillors act as road supervisors, and each carries out his own ideas of road-making for the term he is Councillor. Or, in those municipalities where statute labour still holds sway, there are numerous path-masters who do the same thing. This obviously causes a tremendous amount of difference of opinion, and, consequently, there is no uniformity and no system. The municipalities have complete control, and have the entire upkeep of all roads. I may say in this connection that the income and expenditure on road and bridge construction varies very much in the different municipalities. For instance : Coquitlam has about 60 miles of road and spent last year $ 1,800 Langley ,. 200 „ „ 9,000 Surrey „ 150 „ „ 16,000 Burnaby n 75 n n 15,000 I wrote to other corporations but received no reply, and I believe some of the others have less income. But these few figures give you an idea of how impossible it is for these corporations, by themselves, to put the trunk roads into a good condition. There is no doubt but that the several councils are doing their best, under existing conditions, towards road construction and maintenance. It is absolutely necessary, if we wish to have good highways, that existing conditions are changed to meet the present needs. The entire maintenance of the trunk roads is an unfair burden on the municipality. I mean by trunk road, one that affords an outlet to one or more municipalities or is a very much travelled road. (For instance, the Yale Road; the Scott Road, between New Westminster and Blaine, or the New Westminster-Vancouver Road). It is not right that the land in the rural municipalities should contribute the entire cost. The usefulness of the road is as much benefit to those dwelling in the cities as in the country. The residents know how important it is to have free and uninterrupted communication with the surrounding districts at all seasons of the year. Trade is to a great measure dependent on it. The fruit-grower and farmer may use the road to draw the produce to the station or city; he also in most cases, hauls back to his home the wares he has purchased from the merchant in the city. He may act as carrier, but because he supplies the horses and waggon is no reason why the land in the rural district should pay for the upkeep of the trunk roads. It has been found in all countries that have taken up the " Good Road Movement" that highways must be classified according to traffic, and a separate organisation made to construct and maintain trunk roads. In most instances these main roads are managed by a County Council, and the feeders to these by the rural municipalities. In England, France and Germany this system prevails—countries where the excellence of their highways is proverbial. In all these countries the county pays a proportion of the cost. A county, as you know, will include many important towns. It is also a fundamental principle that the State contribute a portion of the cost. In England the State pays a half of the cost. In the United States the proportion varies in the different States. For instance, in New York the State pays 50 per cent., and in 1905 the state authorised a bond issue of fifty million dollars towards county road improvement. The system adopted there is, briefly, that on petition being presented to the State Engineer, certain roads may be adopted as State roads. If he approves of the location of the road sought to be improved, he prepares plans and estimates. These are presented to the Legislature, and if approved by that body the work is done and the State pays 50 per cent. In New Jersey, the Highway Law provides that, on petition of the owners of two-thirds of the land bordering on a road, the State Commissioner of Roads will cause the road to be improved according to plans prepared by him, subject to the approval of the Legislature. The owners pay one-tenth, the County six-tenths and the State three-tenths. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 49 In Connecticut the highway improvement plan adopted is, briefly, that when a Township votes in favour of constructing a road under provisions of the Aet, specifications are prepared for the State Road Commission. If they approve, the Township Council lets contracts, the work being performed under the supervision of the State Commissioners. One-third the cost is paid by the State, one-third by the County, and one-third by the Township. The principle adopted by all the States is that trunk roads should have State aid, and also that the cost should be borne in reasonable proportion by the Township, County and State. Quebec carries out the same principle. In Ontario they have an Act called the " Highways Improvement Act, 1907," which has for its object the encouragement of good roads. The Province has voted one million dollars towards this work and contributes to one-third the cost of county roads, the County paying the other two-thirds. Recently the C. C. of the County of Ontario decided to take over 150 miles of road and issued debentures for $80,000 for the work of improving these roads, the Government adding, of course, the other $40,000, making $120,000. The most important feature of all these Acts is that the heaviest travelled roads of the County are put under one management, equipped with all necessary up-to-date tools and machinery to carry out the work in an economical and satisfactory manner, the cost of the work being the only basis for State aid. In order to put the roads of this Province in good condition, it is certainly advisable that some similar scheme be put into operation as soon as possible, for while it may be true that conditions are not quite the same here as in these older and naturally more settled countries, still it cannot be said truthfully that the finances of British Columbia are not in a sufficiently satisfactory shape to warrant steps being taken by the Government towards starting a good system of county roads. Whether we have a Highway Commissioner or a County Commissioner is really immaterial, so long as the State and the district or county which derives a benefit from the trunk road pay a fair proportion of cost. In no way can the Government do more to help place British Columbia in a still more enviable position than she now holds than by putting it in the power of the people to make good roads, which will be as great an advertising medium as we can have. I have seen, in the local papers, that several localities in New Westminster District are petitioning the Government to take over the highways. In my opinion, it is absolutely necessary for the welfare of the country that the people of British Columbia take steps to agitate for good roads. With all working with that end in view, giving this project of good roads a solid support, the Provincial Government would recognise the importance of the matter to all sections of the Province, whether under municipal control or under the Government in the matter of highways. For, as I have already pointed out, well kept highways is a factor in the development of the country as essential as the existence of good railways. If the fruit-growers of the Province support the good road movement, they will do much to advance the good cause. The Province of British Columbia holds first place as the greatest fruit-producing Province in the Dominion of Canada. She has the finest climate ; why should she not also be the proud possessor of the most perfect highways 1 Let us strive for good highways. The Chairman : Well, gentlemen, I am not going to criticise this paper of Mr. Sprc tt's, but I may say this, that he has attacked, in my opinion, one of the most important questions that we, as fruit-growers, could attack, that of good roads. We know that every half- hour or ten minutes that it takes longer to haul our fruit to the market, it is adding so much to the cost of production. And not only that, as he has said, a good deal of our produce, the condition of the same when it arrives at the market, will depend very much on the state of the road it is being hauled over. During this last summer I have been over quite a bit of the Province. I have walked over some of it, and have driven over a great deal of it, and I must say there were two places it gave me great pleasure to drive over. One was in Chilliwack, and the other was up in Armstrong. Those were two places I drove over a good deal, and also Saanich. I had a little rough driving out at Saanich, too. But I must say, up in Chilliwack, I have driven over roads there that are simply perfect, and as I remember Chilliwack seventeen years ago, it was not much of a pleasure to drive over there then, and there were quite a few places that you could not drive over. I do not know that I can say very much more. I am here, I suppose, to sit and listen and look on, but I would like someone to say something in the way of criticising the paper. 4 A 50 British Columbia 1908 Mr. Kipp : I would like to ask that that paper be received. That will put it on a basis for discussion. I move that it be received. The Secretary : It is not necessary; we have received it. Mr. Kipp : I will make another move then. I do not think if we sat here another five hours that there will be any more people come here. There is too much excitement going on. When you consider the excellency of the paper, I think we would do well to order that it should be printed in the papers, and after this election is over the people will take time to read it. The Secretary: I would like to hear Mr. Brydon on this subject. Mr. Kipp : I would like to say that there are none of these suggestions being carried on in Chilliwack, in the municipality, with the exception of a little Government aid we have been getting, and I do not think it would make a poor man rich if he had all the Government has put in that place in the past ten years. The ratepayers of Chilliwack have as good a road as you would want, and we have a country that is in fairly good trini. It is hard ground to put in good shape, but we are going in for a rock-crusher, and we have a dredge-boat to get the water out of the country, and we expect to have the finest roads in British Columbia before very long, and if you come up there ten years from now you will find that we have the best fruit country to be had; and if you come up there then, I will be there; and if I am not living, I will be there all the same, because I have a 2 x 6 ranch waiting for me. We have taken all the Government can give to us. They have done very well, because up to the last year or so they had nothing to give. Mr. Bartholomew : What did you make your roads out of ? Mr. Kipp : Made out of gravel. It takes money to move it. Now, I am not going to say anything more, but I would like to see that paper placed before the public, and I would like to hear some else give his views on it. Mr. Brydon : Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate very much the paper read by our friend, Mr. Sprott, on "Good Roads." It is one of the main features in increasing the value of any country, good highways, and I am pleased that it has come under the special supervision of fruit-growers at this time, as it is one of the assets that every fruit-grower should carefully consider in the choosing of his location—the condition the roadways are in, or what they are likely to be. In all fruits it plays a very important part in their marketing, and with regard to the small fruits, it certainly does not help any of them to have to take them to market over a rough road. It does not matter how fine the waggon may be, or how fine the fruit. As has been pointed out, in this Province the Government controls these expenditures very largely. I do not know just what the percentage might be, but there is a great percentage of the road and bridge work under the control of the Government. In the Municipal District I represent, we have just been incorporated for two years, but there we have exceptionally good material to make roads with. And there is one great advantage of Municipal Government over Provincial Government—or, at least, there ought to be— and that is, it is run on strictly impartial lines, no party favours; and, consequently, in our municipality at least, I may say, the appropriations are expended irrespective of person or party ; and we found that one of the best things that we could do was to have a Road Superintendent, and we have got a man of good capabilities, a good man, who understands the handling of men and is impartial, and sees at all times that the municipality is getting its proper quota of work for the wages paid. He acts quite impartially. It does not matter whether it is the teamster or the man working all the day, if they don't do a fair day's work he simply asks them to go home, and the Council has got nothing to do with him. He takes his instructions altogether from the Reeve. The Reeve is the Executive Officer, and no Councillor has any right to interfere. The Council has not got that duty or privilege conferred upon them by law, and the Mayor, or Reeve, is the Executive Officer of the municipality, and it is he alone who gives orders to the officers, and it is he alone whom the officers obey. Now, we have had very good success with our road work. I instructed the Road Superintendent to bring in his annual estimate—or approximate estimate—of the work necessary to maintain the different roads. He drives over all the municipality, and he comes back with a statement of all the trunk roads and side-roads which he thinks need improvements done to them, and he makes a statement and says, Saanich East Road so much. He will say, for instance, he wants $600 for a road from a certain point to another certain point—from Royal Oak, say, to the end of Elk Lake—and the cross-roads—Carey Road, $250, and so on down the list. That then comes before the Council. But first of all I take this list and look it over, and I have 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 51 already an approximate estimate of our revenue, and I cut the expenditure down pro rata to suit the revenue—go down the whole list—cut it down until we have got it within our revenue, and then the Council discusses it and adopts the amounts to be spent. And, of course, as the municipality is divided into wards, there is quite a little contention, as everyone is anxious to see that his ward gets a fair fraction, but with very few changes this list is passed, one item after another, and the Clerk then takes an official copy of this list, and after it has been passed by the Council there is a copy of this kept in the office. The Reeve has a copy, and the other is given to the Road Superintendent, and that finishes it as far as the Council is concerned. The Road Superintendent then is instructed to proceed with this work as expeditiously as he can. We have done no work by contract. We find we can do better by having it done by day labour. For instance, we have inaugurated a system of building bridges— building small bridges over creeks and such like. Make them 6x8, or 10x12—the width of the road—that is, a 10x12 opening, and we make them all out of concrete, where it is possible, for we think them better. We have them arched over. For instance, we have put one at Glanford Avenue, where there is 4 feet of earth on concrete work, and we have put in an arched bridge right over there, and filled it in solid, and there is now a permanent improvement there for all time. Then in the smaller culverts across the street, wherever it has been possible, we have put in vitrified pipes, and done away with the wooden box wherever it has been possible ; and if we thought there was scarcely enough earth on top of those pipes, with the road material, to be strong enough, we have thrown the concrete over them, thrown about 4 inches over the vitrified pipes. Since the district has been formed into a municipality, we have been aiming to have all the work we have undertaken to be of a permanent character. We have had an approximate estimate on one or two large bridges, on what it will take to fill them in. There is the Sand Creek Hill bridge—one out at Saanich, 30 feet high and 50 feet long, and we have the approximate estimate now of what it will take to fill up and put a concrete culvert underneath, and take away all the water—6 feet high, and 6 feet wide, arch it right over, and face the embankment with stone, and fill in with gravel or dirt of any description and make a solid filling, and do away with the wooden trestles altogether. That is the aim of the municipality, and in all this work there is nobody who has any right to interfere with the Road Superintendent. In fact, by our by-law, we make our Road Superintendent take the place of the City Engineer. Even the Council has no right at all to say to a ratepayer, " Yes, you can do so and so, and that will be all right"; everything is left to the Road Superintendent. I am instructed that the rules were intended for that effect. Even the Reeve has not the right to interfere with anything in connection with the roads, without first of all consulting the Road Superintendent, and first give his instructions to the Superintendent. We make him the head of that department, just the same as locally the City Engineer has to do everything in connection with the roads and streets. And with regard to this concrete work, some of our Council thought, in my absence last year, they were going to improve matters a little, and they got two drawings made of concrete culverts for a contract, and when I came back I pointed out to them the error they were making, In the first place, we did not need the plans, because the gentleman who drew up the plans had not the local knowledge of the amount of water that was necessary to be accommodated in a winter season, and there were many other things he did not.know very much about. But, outside of that, I said, "If you let the contract, I want to be allowed to make the material, and then I want to have a percentage for risks that I may have to run. The contractor wants that, and if he knows his business he will have it, or he won't have the work." Some people imagine that contracting is just a picnic, and it is sure to make money in any case, but I know different. But I said to the Councillors, " Look here—we can buy this cement; we have the material in our own district, and we can save the discount " We can buy the gravel cheaper than any of the rest can, and our municipality has the power granted to all municipalities, of going upon the ground and taking that material necessary to road-building, with this exception, you cannot enter upon suburban lots. But we have our gravel pits in the municipality, and we pay 15 cents a yard to the owners of the pits, and notify the different farmers throughout the district that we want so many teams for so many days, and ask if they can come to work, and they usually arrange to come to work. We thus get the material and the labour at cost. Then, for instance, if you are going to put in a temporary culvert, you have to make a temporary roadway for the site, and your own men that you are employing all the time get expert at this class of work. They can do this work better than the ordinary labour a A 52 British Columbia 1908 •contractor would have, and, consequently, you can get it done cheaper. On these lines I know for a fact that we have accomplished good work at a very reasonable cost; and now, lince our Superintendent thoroughly understands the management of concrete work and the building of roads, and such like, in preparing the concrete it is a very easy matter for him to handle it economically, and that is the aim of the municipality at present. Now, as far as the trunk roads are concerned, I can see where it might be wise to give wider scope to this work, as was brought before us in a paper. It might be that a Commission of County Commissioners, or something of that kind, or Road Commissioners might be the best. But, for instance, in our case, I think it would be better if the Government would recognise the equity of paying so much per mile to the makers of the trunk roads. 4Our municipality takes in the Electoral District of what used to be South Victoria. Then there is another municipality called the North Saanich Municipality. Of course, they contribute nothing to the trunk roads clear from North Saanich to Victoria, and our municipality maintains all these. But in our case, the way we are situated, it would be far better for the Government to utilise our plant and machinery instead of creating another body. We have already the plant. This year we have bought a new road presser. It is a regular rock crusher, the same as the city has—the same rock crusher that the contractors for the New Westminster Bridge used; and we have an oil engine ; and then we have a steam drilling plant; so that we have got the plant already, and we have the rock there, and better and more economical work can be done when you have your Road Superintendent looking after the whole municipality. It all comes under one head. Then there is another thing that we find an advantage, and that is, he is responsible if anything goes wrong, or if you want information about anything there is just the one man to apply to, and only the one man responsible. Now, in our case you can easily see that we can manage this work very well, and at a very moderate cost. In fact, we have to do it now out of our own exchequer, and if I had my way this year we would have levied our own rate. Of course, some of our Councillors were a little afraid of the levying of oar rate, but we have now our own assessment roll, and the rate this year was only half of what the Government used to charge us. The Government appropriation for road work for years past has been in the neighbourhood of $3,500 to our municipality. This year we have expended in the district over $7,000—that is, on the roads and the plant that we have got. Now, there was no doubt at all that the ratepayers in the municipality were prepared and ready to pay a rate of at least 7 mills on the dollar, which would have given us about $7,000 more to put on the roads which were needed. It is false economy to just half do a road. We have the men and the plant, and it costs just as much to scatter a yard or two of gravel as to give the road a good coating. It is false economy of the worst kind. But that is one point that I see very clearly in favour of the municipality looking after this question of roads. You collect your own moneys, you make your own assessment, and you spend your own money. Of course, I do not know what the rate will be for another year, but if the municipality makes a rate of 7 mills on the dollar (which I am pretty sure they won't do, but that is what the}7 ought to do), then we would have everything paid for. We don't owe a nickel to anybody. We have made a point at all times, if there was not enough money in the exchequer we simply did not buy; but we have been fortunate to have money over and above all the reasonable needs. And in another year we will have a steam engine, and a set of drills—a drilling plant—and we have our oil engine and our rock crusher, so that we can drill out 70 or 80 yads a day, and you can see by that we can pretty nearly put the roads in good shape. Then in connection with the oil engine, we know that this is made by the very best manufacturer of that class of engine on the continent. They have testimonials from the French navy of the very highest type, and it does away with the services of an engineer. Now, Mr. Munroe, here, knows that some years ago they had to get an Act passed on engineers, and they could not run a certain engine without a certificate, and you don't require that with this engine. All you have to do is to set your machinery going and attend to your rock, and then turn it off again; so that is the condition we are getting into in the municipality, and I do think there is some justice in saying that the Government should do something in connection with the trunk roads, and the city should do a little, too, towards them, because the city benefits very largely from the farmers of the surrounding districts, so far as the roads are concerned. Unfortunately for the cities, and the City of Victoria is not any different in this respect from any other city, because it, like the other cities, has more roads than it can take 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 53 care of, and it is not likely we are going to get very much help from the city. But that is the condition of affairs, and that is the aim we have as a municipality, and I think we have started off on fairly good lines. As I have said, I have made it a point that no one shall interfere with the Road Superintendent. Our Councillors, all they have to do is simply to come to the regular statutory meeting, or any special meeting that is called, and settle the business in Council, and that finishes their part, as far as their duties are concerned. There was at one time a Streets and Bridges Committee, and I happened to be on that committee, and they used to send us trotting all over the place to inspect the roads, etc., and advise. Now, what did we know about what was right 1 It was just a farce. We would come back and make a report, and not one of us had any practical knowledge of what was required. Well, finally, I rebelled. At that time we had an engineer who sometimes forgot where his head was, so he had to go away; and after he went away we got another engineer, and it was then so regulated that the roads and bridges were all under his charge, and he had charge of what was wanted. Now, coming down to the fruit-growing, of course, as far as that is concerned, the people on the Mainland think they have everything in fruit-growing ahead of us. In fact, every place thinks itself the best. That is one of the peculiarities of British Columbia, wherever I have been, even down to a little place the other side of Enderby; they think there is no place like theirs. And you will strike a little place away up in the Kootenay, and there is no place like Kootenay Lake; and you come up into the Okanagan country, and there is no place like Okanagan Lake. Well, I just used my Scotch common-sense about it all, and I thought a little, and I came back to Vancouver Island, and I see possibilities on Vancouver Island second to none in British Columbia, although we are counted a little slow down here, and we sometimes may possibly be a little slow, yet we are going along at a pretty good pace, and we are increasing the rate year by year, and it is not going to be very long before we will give you a surprise in fruit-growing. Mr. C. F. Sprott: Are you going to excel the Chilliwack apples ? Mr. Brydon : Yes, I think there are certain apples we can grow in certain parts of this Vancouver Island that will beat anything in British Columbia. Mr. W. J. Brandrith : How about Bartlett pears 1 Mr. Brydon : Yes, I believe we can grow these pears, too, to equal anything in British Columbia, and there is but a limited area that can grow these pears to compete with us. Now, I reason it out this way : Certain districts in the Okanagan they can grow peaches, and other districts can grow apples to better advantage; and I say if they can grow apples better, let them grow apples ; but I know we can grow pears, and we are going to grow plums, and not buy apples either. And right from here to Sidney there will be a great revolution within the next ten years. There is the soil to do it, and, in fact, there is no better soil anywhere in the country for fruit-growing than in this peninsula. Last year was our prize year, and if you can grow such fruit as we have produced here last year you don't need to worry about your irrigation system, or any other system. The annual rainfall is there, and the soil is there that will retain that moisture, and you are quite independent, and not like the man who says " I can let on my water when I like," but he cannot shut it off when he likes, and he is letting off his water at the time he should be taking his hoe. Mr. W. J. Brandrith : He will learn that in 20 years' time. The Chairman : Gentlemen, I see that we have Mr. Munroe with us this evening, the member for Chilliwack. Before Mr. Munroe came I was just talking about Chilliwack, and complimenting you on your good roads, and what a pleasure it was to drive over those roads. I would like to hear what Mr. Munroe has to say on roads. We have just had a very important paper read by Mr. Sprott on roads. At any rate, I would like to introduce Mr. Munroe to you. Mr. Munroe : I am sure that I appreciate the distinction you make of my presence. It was with considerable interest that I listened to the gentleman who has been speaking. He told us he was a Scotchman. Mr. Brandrith : He didn't need. (Laughter). Mr. Munroe: Well, I am about coming to the conclusion that you are all either Scotch or Irish. I was invited, I may say, to come over and hear your discussions, and when I get here I find myself invited to address your meeting. Now, I don't mean to take advantage of your courtesy and inflict a speech upon you, but I might add one or two words to what our friend has said in regard to the roads. We have had a somewhat bitter experience in our A 54 British Columbia 1908 municipality this winter. The season has been wet and open, as you know, and a very trying one on the roads, and our Council has not risen to the occasion and enforced the Wide-tire Act; and notwithstanding the fact it has been out boast heretofore that we had one of the finest road systems in the Province, or in Canada, for that matter, our road system is very nearly a wreck to-day—very nearly a wreck. We need a proper system of construction and a proper system of protection ; and the road system is indeed at the root of our success and our progress, without a shadow of a doubt. (Hear, hear.) Its relationship to your fruit industry is at once apparent. I have had a considerable orchard, and lived a considerable distance from market, and I can assure you that it is all but impracticable to market the same perishable varieties of fruit living at a considerable distance from the market as living closer, unless you have good roads. It is false economy from a farmer's business point of view, in any way you take it, to have bad roads. It is not economy ; it is not business. It is not a good advertisement for your country, and I was just making an observation to-day as I came along, that the people of Victoria have been perhaps more alive to the advantage of good roads than any other part of the Province. I do not wish to be invidious, but I often think that our good friends in Vancouver have sat still and allowed the tram lines to use up everything in that line. Now, business to-day is many-sided. A stranger comes to our town, or to our municipality, or to our farming district, and he leaves either pleased or displeased, and the average visitor does not make a nice analysis of his experience ; he only knows he went away happy, and he was pleased, and how much the pleasant drive over a good road has contributed to that man's happiness during that man's short stay would be hard to say. From every standpoint that you take it, a good road is an important factor in the life of a community. The farmer himself knows that after a day's hard toil, when he is tired and worn out, if he has a good horse, and can get out into a good buggy and can take a drive over a good road, he is exhilarated. He comes home more of a man, and more satisfied to go to work the next day ; more satisfied that he is living in the country, and he can get to town in a short time, and his getting there is more of a pleasure than a torture. I hope that not only the Fruit-Growers' Association but every Association of this Province will take up this question, and so educate the people of our fair land. Why, over in Washington they are educating the boys and girls as to the importance and essentials of good roads. It lies at the very foundation of farm life and farm enterprise. Speaking of municipalities, I am sorry to have to acknowledge that in Chilliwack we are somewhat antiquated in that regard. We have still been doing statute labour, and it is something which really ought to be relegated to the very remote past. It is out of date, and it is no good anyway you take it. This thing of trotting here and there (as Mr. Brydon has so ably put it) men who have no practical knowledge of road building, and coming back and making a report which is not worth the value of the paper it is written on, is all a farce. We need practical men, and, more than that, in the election of our municipal officers we have to get to the point where it is not a matter of this fellow being a good neighbour, or having done us a good turn sometime, but we want men with good common-sense at the head of our municipal affairs. I will get it after a while. You see, I have got a touch of Scotch in me, too. But that is the fact, gentlemen. We must get down to the facts of the case, irrespective of personal feeling. We must have men of good common sense at the head of our municipal affairs, men who are enterprising in their personal affairs, men who take an interest in the conditions prevailing in the municipality, and who are not afraid to come up against public opinion in their endeavour to bring good roads into the district. It is like learning to eat oysters—we have to be educated to it sometimes. And, gentlemen, I do hope that the agitation for good roads will be kept up not only by your Association, but by every Association in this Province, until there will be only one feeling in regard to this most important question, so that when people come from the East they will find that wise men from the East have preceded them, and their stay amongst us will be a happy one. Why, just let me relate one little incident in passing. Last year I visited my old home in the East, and I could only feel a feeling something akin to pity for the people. Their main township road was ten times worse than it was twenty years ago. Now, naturally, all my pride, sympathy and affection went out to those people. But when I just crossed the line and went into the next township, I found there the roads were just like boulevards, splendidly macadamised roads and nice and even, and I instinctively honoured the people in the one township as against the people in the other township. It was a true test of the people's intelligence and patriotism and business enterprise, without a shadow of a doubt. And whilst all my feeling went out to the people in my own township, I had to give them their true rating, and say that the people in the adjoining township were undeniably ahead of them in intelligence and enterprise. And the same thing applies to our own municipalities. People who come from other places and visit our community form the same opinions. It is all very nice to be able to say we have the best country in the world, and can grow better fruit than any other place in the world. That is all very well, but it is results that count, and when broad-minded men visit our country, it does not matter how much we spout and talk to them, they simply make their own notes. They make their own observations, and they receive their impressions from what they have seen, rather than from what we have told them. And it is up to you to utilise the great and wonderful natural advantages that nature has placed in our hands. In many instances in our district we have the natural drainage, the sub-stratum of gravel everywhere. We have the streams running through the land, and it is so in many places in this Province. We have not even to crush the rock. And I say it will pay us to utilise these natural advantages to make our country an attraction and a charm to all who visit us. I appreciate the work you are so heroically endeavouring to carry out in this Province, and you have my sympathy in this most important matter ; and I might just as well make my confession in the meantime. You have my sympathy, as I say. You hold your meetings, and I regret that the public does not give you that sympathy and that co-operation you are entitled to. It has been so in our district. I hope you are not neglected in other places as you are in our district. Isn't that right, Mr. Brandrith 1 It is a shame, and I must make my confession that I am equally guilty with lots of other people, and feeling my guilt I came over here to-night to make amends and attend your meeting. I must congratulate you upon your perseverance, at least. I am something in the position of the old woman who never liked to hear any person persecuted or talked about in their absence, and somebody was making a very loose remark about His Satanic Majesty on one occasion, and she took severe exception, and they asked her, " Well, what virtue has he got?" and she said, "Well, he is persistent, anyway." She thought he possessed, at any rate, the virtue of persistency; and you gentlemen are certainly persistent, and I have not the shadow of a doubt that in the end you will win out, and future generations will appreciate the grand work you are carrying on, even within your limited scope. (Loud applause.) Mr. Thos. Brydon : There was one remark that impressed itself upon me when Mr. Munroe was speaking, and that was with regard to the appointment of municipal officers. Shut everything out except the honesty of the man, and his ability for the position you want him to hold. Pay him a good salary. Pay it promptly every month, just as soon as the workmen's time-sheet comes in. Just as soon as it is made out and the amounts fixed, the cheques are drawn up, in our district, and we send every man's money out to him, even if it is only $3, and pay it in cheque. No man comes to the office looking for his money, and it is a great advantage to them to know that just the minute the time-sheet goes in they will get their money. With regard to using one's influence, I may say that, as far as I am concerned, I have never sought to use my influence to get anyone a position who did not have the ability. I would not appoint my own brother to a position if I did not know he was qualified for it. Then, when you have appointed him, let him feel that he is responsible. That is the only way to get good service. It is the only way to make men have a pride in their work. Last night, I may say, we were having a meeting and I was giving a little account of my stewardship at this meeting, and the question of the Road Superintendent was raised, and I said " You have a mighty good man as Road Superintendent—yes, a mighty good man," and that was saying a good deal, but he has proven himself to be the man in the right place; and I may go a little further and say I was very largely instrumental in getting him his position, and he is a good, sound, level-headed Conservative (laughter), and a good many friends could not understand what I meant in casting my vote for him. But I did not care what politics he was. It did not matter to me in regard to his appointment to that position. That is the way I looked at it. I honour any man if he differs and differs honestly, and you always know that he is there. It is those men that you don't know where to find them two days running, those are the men I have contempt for. But never in our municipal work do we let politics enter; it is quality and capability that guide us in our choice. Mr. Sprott: Mr. Chairman, if I might be permitted to just give a brief outline of my former remarks, as Mr. Munroe was not here when I read that paper, and I would like to point out the principle I was trying to impress on this Association, and that was, in my judgment, A 56 British Columbia 1908 the Province should be cut up in sections, or municipalities, anyhow, and that the Government should support or pay a certain proportion of the work on the main roads—that is to say, the main trunk roads, such as the Yale Road, and the road between Westminster and Vancouver —the roads principally that are travelled by the people of the city, as well as by the people outside of the municipality. In Ontario, and all those places, the Government pay one-third of the cost, and in New York State, and Connecticut and England, and Germany, and France, all these countries act on that principle. That is the point I am trying to raise—at least, it is what I would like to see this Association press upon the Government the necessity of doing, something like that. It is not fair to expect the rural municipalities to shoulder the whole burden, when others outside the municipality are getting the benefit of it. I thought I would like to mention that fact to you, Mr. Munroe, as you have a seat in the House, and it might be as well for you to know the point I was trying to bring out. Then there was another point you raised. You stated that you did not think the cities were in a position to pay their proportion to this road tax. I think the City of Vancouver is in just as good a position to pay for the benefit it gets from those main trunk roads as the municipality, and why should they not pay their fair proportion the same as they do in Ontario and any of those other places ? The city gets the benefit of those roads just as much as the farmers do. The farmer acts as a drayman or carrier for the city, which the city would have to do if the farmer did not come in for his goods, and there is no reason why you should cinch the farmer. For my part, I do not see why you should not charge the cities a fair proportion of the cost. Mr. W. J. Brandrith : Mr. Chairman, we have other matters to go on with, and we want to wind up this Convention to-night, if possible. I will bring this matter to a focus by moving this resolution :— Moved by Mr. W. J. Brandrith, seconded by Mr. Bartholomew,— " That this Association endorses the principle of the paper just read by Mr. C. F. Sprott, and that a copy be sent with this resolution to the Hon. the Minister of Lands and Works." Carried. Moved by Mr. S. Bartholomew, seconded by Mr. Geo. Stewart,— " That realising, as we do, the importance of keeping our fruit before the public, we respectfully request the Provincial Government to make an exhibit of bottled fruit, and such fresh fruits as may be in season, at the Dominion Fair to be held in Calgary, June 29th to July 9th next." Carried. Mr. Stewart: There is one point, Mr. Chairman, I would like to mention here, and I think it is the right place to mention it. I happened to be having dinner in a certain hotel the other evening, and my attention was drawn to the miserable fruit on the table. Strangers coming to Victoria, or any other part of the Province, and finding fruit like that, and especially coming to a first class hotel here and finding what was third or fourth class fruit on the table, would naturally conclude it was the best fruit that was produced in the country. Now, I thought if it were possible to have this brought to the attention of these hotel people, and show them how they were giving this country a black eye, they might mend their ways and put on decent fruit; and I merely mention this to show how often we get a bad name when we least deserve it, and the hotel people might be persuaded to see the injury they were doing this Province in putting such poor fruit on the table. The President: Mr. Kipp is just going to put some fruit on the table, and if we could get them to put such fruit as that on the hotel table I do not think Mr. Stewart would find any complaint, and he would have no kick coming. Mr. Stewart: Personally, I did not have any kick coming, but I think other people coming from outside the Province might have a kick coming. Moved by Mr. Sprott, seconded by Mr. Bartholomew,— " That this meeting of the Fruit-Growers' Association is in hearty accord with Mr. Thos. Cunningham, Chief Fruit Pest Inspector, in his avowed intention of trying to keep the orchards clean, thereby tending to keep up the high standard our fruit has attained." Carried. Moved by Mr. W. J. Brandrith, seconded by Mr. Thos. Brydon,— " That the thanks of the Association be tendered Mr. E. J. Coyle, passenger agent of the C.P.R., for courtesies extended to our officers during the past year." Carried. Mr. Kipp : Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I rise to a point—it is due to the gentleman, although he is not present, it is our persevering friend, Thomas Cunningham, an earnest worker 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 57 in the fruit-growing. I beg to move that he be accepted in this Association as an honorary member for services rendered by him in the past. I believe that he has been a member of this Association ever since 1889, and I think our recognition should be had unanimously from this Association. I move that he be placed on record as an honorary member for life. Mr. Stewart: I have great pleasure in seconding Mr. Kipp's motion. Mr. Wilson : That is, with all rights of the Association. Mr. Kipp : Just so. Motion carried unanimously. Moved by Mr. Stewart, seconded by Mr. Bartholomew,— " That the thanks of the Association be tendered to the Mayor for the use of the hall in which to hold our meetings," Carried. Mr. Kipp : Mr. President, I have to offer an apology that I only read half of the motion, but, however, it gives me a chance now to get up again. I, therefore, take much pleasure in asking that the name of Thos. Wilson be placed on that same list, and that he be placed as an honorary member on the same principle as Thomas Cunningham. He is now the 4th Vice- President of the Association. He is an older member than I am, but still I am in sight of him, and my turn will come in time. Mr. Wilson (Acting Chairman) : Well, you can hardly ask the Chairman to put that, but I think, with the exception of Mr. Brandrith and Mr. Cunningham, I am the oldest member. I think we three are the only members of the old guard that are still active members of the Association and have been right along. There are some in the Province who have lost their grip on the Association work. Motion carried. Mr. Wilson : Well, the reason that Mr. Brandrith and Mr. Cunningham are older members than I, and are ahead of me, was because I did not happen to be in the Province. It was not long after I came to the Province that I joined the Association and took an active interest in the work. You can look up the minute-book and see the records of our meetings and what we were trying to do. I have always tried to do the very best I could for horticulture in the Province. Probably it has not been very much. I do not mean to say I am very much of a genius, but without very much egotism I do think I know a little bit about horticulture, and any knowledge I have has always been at the disposal of the Fruit-Growers' Association and my farmer friends, and I appreciate the honour very much, and all I can say is, Thank you, gentlemen. (Applause.) Mr. Kipp : Now, Mr. Chairman, may I come again 1 You know, when I get a good thing started I look to keep it going and see it through to the end. We have another charter member and there is no use dividing the honours. Therefore, I move that Mr. W. J. Brandrith be placed on the same list for life. He is a charter member, and has in the past worked for the small pittance of $30 a month, and, dear only knows, he has earned it ten times over, and I am sure this is coming to him. Mr. Sprott : I have much pleasure in seconding it. Mr. Wilson (Acting Chairman) : I have very great pleasure in putting the motion to you, gentlemen. Motion carried unanimously. Mr. Wilson : I have much pleasure in informing you, Mr. Brandrith, that you are on the roll as an honorary member. Mr. W. J. Brandrith : Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, after my experience of the afternoon meeting, I do not think there is very much left for me to say. I certainly thank you from the bottom of my heart for this kindly recognition of my past services. I think you will hardly accuse me of egotism when I go back into the history of the British Columbia Fruit- Growers' Association for a moment or two and mention a few things which have taken place in my time, and incidentally show what part I took in the work that was going on. The inception of this Association was brought about by a little conversation I had with Mr. R. E. Gosnell, a gentleman who, I think, is known to every one of you, except possibly to Mr. Bartholomew, who is a recent arrival. But Mr. Gosnell, in 1888, in the month of September, was the City Editor of the " News-Advertiser " in Vancouver, and we met on Cordova Street, and were discussing fruit and one thing and another. He was of an horticultural frame of mind himself, and I said, "You have no Fruit Association here?" I had only been here a little while myself, not quite two years, and he said, " No, we have not." I said, " Well, what A 58 British Columbia 1908 is the matter with trying to organise a society?" "Well," he said, "let me tell you, Mr. McAllan, the President of the Ontario Association, is coming here very shortly, and I will see Mr. D. Oppenheimer about it, and I will get Mr. Oppenheimer to call a public meeting, and we will get Mr. McAllan to give us a talk." Well, it was all arranged, and that meeting was held in the month of December, 1888. Mr. McAllan gave us a splendid address. The room was crowded to the door; but I ought to tell you that 90 % of the audience were not fruitgrowers, but they were very enthusiastic. It seems to me, when I look back on it, that they were fruit prophets, for they realised that there was something coming along in that line. Our old friend, Mr. J. C. McLagan, was one of the leading spirits. He did everything he could to foster the proposed movement. And after the McAllan address was over, it was decided to call a public meeting for the purpose of organising. This meeting was called in February, 1889, and I, amongst 70 others, was present at that meeting, and while it is true you do not find my name on the directorate, it was simply because of my modesty in not having it put on. I was nominated by Mr. O. D. Sweet, and seconded by Mr. McLagan, and I withdrew in favour of Mr. J. W. Lawson. I have been a member of the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association ever since, and have always taken an active interest and part in the up-building of the Association and in furthering the interests of the industry to the best of my ability; and while it has not been of the high order I would like my services to be, still I have done my best. (Hear, hear.) I have done my level best, and I can only promise that while the life is in me, and as long as I am able, I will continue to work along on the same lines. I thank you for this renewed expression of your confidence. I might say, gentlemen, that, like some other people, I am ambitious, and when I drop out of this position I hope to have the privilege of sitting at the head of the table. The Chairman: Might I ask the Secretary if it has been arranged where the next quarterly meeting is to be held ? The Secretary : No ; that is yet to be arranged. Mr. Sprott: I would like the Secretary to tell us, if he can, where the annual meeting has been held for the last two or three years ? At what places ? The Secretary: 1907, in Nelson; 1906, in Vancouver; 1905, in Duncan; 1904, in New Westminster. Mr. Sprott: I just wanted to know. Do they ever hold them at places like Chilliwack ? The Secretary : Not as yet; I think it would be a good place to hold them at. The Secretary : The year before that it was held in Victoria, in 1903. Mr. Kipp : It would be a good place to have a meeting—lots of people there. The Secretary : This meeting fixes the place of the quarterly and the annual meeting as well. I move that the first quarterly meeting be held at Agassiz. Seconded by Mr. Kipp and carried. Mr. Wilson : The next meeting takes place in June, doesn't it ? The Secretary : No, in July. If we have to take any active part in the exhibit at Calgary, we will not have time to come back from Calgary at the close of the exhibition to the point where we propose to hold the meeting, and as our itinerary will commence from there, or near there, I think it would be a good plan to have it held at Nelson. Mr. Bartholomew : Wasn't there some talk of Cranbrook ? It is as near as Nelson. The Secretary : We did mention Cranbrook, but it is somewhat out of the way. Mr. Bartholomew : Isn't it as easy as Nelson. The Secretary : It would be nearer from Calgary. Mr. Wilson : But we don't draw our membership from Alberta. Mr. Bartholomew : But there may be several up there to that exhibition coming back from Calgary. It is not very long since Nelson had a meeting there, and I thought by moving it farther up the country it would be better. The Secretary: I did first think that Cranbrook ought to be the place. We have a good membership at Cranbrook, considering the opportunities they have. The fact of the matter is, that we have a better membership at Cranbrook than in the City of Nelson, but then we draw a considerable membership from along the river there. Mr. Kipp: You see, gentlemen, there is this to be said about it. Nelson had an annual meeting a year ago. The Secretary : Of course, it is a city, it is a growing place, and you might say it is the hub of the Kootenays. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 59 Mr. Bartholomew : That was the reason I did not ask for a visit down to the Okanagan I thought we would distribute the meetings for the benefit of the country. Mr. Kipp : This is a Provincial institution, and people naturally look for their share of patronage. The Secretary : It is immaterial to me. I would just as soon go to Cranbrook as to Vernon. Mr. Sprott: Give it to Cranbrook. The Secretary : These districts that are coming to the front as fruit-growing centres, it is for us to give them all the attention that we possibly can. Moved by Mr. Sprott, seconded by Mr. Bartholomew,— " That the second quarterly meeting be held at Cranbrook, in July." Carried. The Secretary : Now, with regard to the third quarterly meeting, Mr. Chairman, there is a point I would like to draw your attention to, and that is, that while it is true that, generally speaking, you cannot get a very good meeting during exhibition week, we did have a very good representative meeting last year during the exhibition. Mr. Wilson : And the year before. The Secretary : And there is this about it—while the Executive Committee last year got a 2-cent a mile rate on the railway, still, if there is any person who is coming to the exhibition, they come for less than that. Now, it cost Mr. Johnstone $23 to get to Vancouver from Nelson, at the 2-cent a mile rate. Last year it cost $19; so we now have it during the exhibition, and we get the benefit of the excursion rate, for we want to look after the " bawbees " a little bit, you know. Moved by Mr. Sprott, seconded by Mr. Brydon,— " That the third quarterly meeting be held at New Westminster." Carried. Mr. Kipp : And the fourth—our annual meeting—it had better be held in Victoria. The Secretary : Yes ; I think we will have to let it go at that. Mr. Wilson : This is a sample of the Victoria meeting. The Secretary : We cannot help that. We will hope it may improve. Mr. Kipp : Try and get the date away from the municipal elections. Mr. Brydon : Yes ; we have been having meetings right along and have been very busy. Mr. Wilson : Well, gentlemen, I have attended quite a few annual meetings in Victoria, and I think this is just about an average. Mr. Sprott: It is a mistake to come here if you cannot get any more. Mr. Kipp: I might say that, although I had moved it be held here, if the people of Victoria don't look out and attend to them a little stronger, we think we will have to arrange things differently in order to save our appropriation, because bringing the quorum across to a meeting of this kind is really too expensive. You see we have to have thirteen in order to get the appropriation ; otherwise it will be withdrawn from us. Now, we must keep that in mind, and Victoria must look after itself; otherwise, the annual meeting will be ordered back to the Mainland. Victoria has a whole year in which to pick up, and if they make up their minds to work along with us, they can still do so. Mr. Brydon : Well, gentlemen, I have been at Vancouver and New Westminster, and have been at some of their meetings, and none of them are too well attended, but here is where one of the difficulties has come in : The Province is a large one, and delegates come here from different parts of the Province. The organisation is too small. A meeting at Agassiz, another at Cranbrook, another at New Westminster, and then back again to Victoria— all in one year. It is only when you have your itinerary you are able to get all your members in. And it is just a question, after all, of familiarity. You know there is such a thing as familiarity breeding contempt. The same thing applies to the British Columbia Fruit- Growers' as to the Farmers' Institute, to some extent. They have got acquainted with it, and although it is very good, they don't think it is worth attending to, as they used to think about it. And there is just the same great difficulty all over the Province, to get them to come even to local meetings. They came to one or two meetings and they did not feel they were rewarded for their trouble, and, consequently, they stayed away. And then there are others who say " Oh, hang it! if I go there they want a dollar from me." Now, that is so. Mr. Kipp : That is what keeps the people from church. Mr. Brydon : But my experience numerically, as far as the meetings are concerned, is that the larger attended meetings do not rest with the cities. Now, in Nelson, the hub of the A 60 British Columbia 1908 Kootenays, we had not a meeting there worth calling a meeting; but down on the river, or up on the lake, the people came right out. But this is the business meeting of the year, and I would like to suggest to the Executive that it would be as well, if they cannot have an itinerary, it should at least have the Secretary make a tour of the district and get the growers interested in the Fruit-Growers' Association. There are a great many going into fruit-growing who don't know a thing about it. There are men out here putting from $15,000 to $20,000 into fruit-growing, and building fine homes, and there is no one to help them. Then there are some people again (and I cannot help but feel sorry for them), who seem to think that they have not the time to get away from digging a ditch, or taking a stump out, to attend a meeting; but in order to become a successful fruit-grower you have to have the brain as well as the brawn, and, instead of having a handful of men, we ought to have fifty men, and there are fifty within easy reach. The Secretary : Yes, more than that. Mr. Brydon : I just make these suggestions. I know that there is great work to be taken up up-country, and they have not the opportunities that we have here, but it might help matters if you sent some one around to keep in touch with the people and get their membership fees and tell them about the conditions. I think possibly I am responsible, to some extent, for the annual meeting at Victoria. I think it is a good business move. We ought to have it at the Government Buildings, not here, and we ought to invite the Minister of Agriculture to come to our meetings, and the Prime Minister, and we ought to have a meeting that would do credit to the Association, and this would help us, very largely, in having a successful meeting. Mr. Wilson : I do not think it was the last meeting, but I attended a meeting of the Fruit-Growers' Association in the Government Buildings at which the Premier and Minister of Agriculture were present, and the majority of the people that were there were from the Mainland, and Mr. Kipp was there that day with me. Mr. Stewart: How long is that since ? Mr. Wilson : 1898 or 1899. Mr. Stewart: You see the conditions have changed. We have a hundred fruit-growers now to one that was there then. Mr. Wilson : No greater comparison than the meetings on the Mainland. Mr. Stewart: You see, every one of the members of our local Exchange ought to be members of the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association. Mr. Wilson : But they are not. The Secretary : In the Islands and the Gulf you have 28 members. Mr. Brydon : We have 100 in our local branch. Mr. Bartholomew : I would like to point out that if there is plenty of notice given it would increase the attendance. Now, I notice that in the Farmers' Institute meetings, one time, they came down—our Mr. Brydon was with them—and they had a very poor meeting. There was no notice posted up at Summerland, and no one knew a thing about it, and you cannot expect an audience if the people do not know anything about it. Mr. Stewart: Very often the mistake comes in giving too long a notice. They forget all about it. Secretary : Mr. Chairman, in regard to the notice, we have tried a good many plans. We have sent out notices two or three weeks before the meeting, and then we adopted the plan of sending them a printed post card, and they think when they receive it it is some patent medicine advertisement aud tear it up; then, if you send them a notice in an envelope with a one-cent stamp on, they think it is an advertisement still; and if you put a two-cent stamp on it, then they think it is a personal letter and open it. Now, as far as this meeting is concerned, everyone received a personal letter, inviting them to come to this meeting, and all the newspapers—the Vancouver papers and the New Westminster papers—received notice of this meeting two weeks ago; and as soon as I got here on Sunday night, the first thing I did was to go to the " Colonist" and have them insert a reading notice, and also the next morning went to the " Times," so the people in the neighbourhood of Victoria cannot say they did not get any notice of the meeting. But I am not going to apologise for Victoria by saying anything at all about any other place, more than this : Victoria is not the only place where we have had a very slim audience. I remember well, on one occasion at a meeting in Vancouver, when I had to go out and look up a man to form a quorum and bring him in and pay a dollar for him. And, at that time, there were more than 50 men in the fruit-growing business within 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 61 five miles of Vancouver; but they simply take no interest in our Association, because they have a little local market, and because they peddle their stuff from door to door, and if they don't get a good price for it, it is because they do not know any better. As far as holding the annual meeting at Victoria was concerned, at first I was very much opposed to it. I thought it was getting into a way of paternalism. Well, I am always opposed to that kind of thing; but after I heard the arguments that were in favour of it, I had, to change my mind, and I think Victoria is the proper place to hold the meeting. And I do not agree with Mr. Bartholomew that the proper place to hold the meeting is the Parliament Buildings, because, if a reasonable number were to turn up at the meeting, they have not a room large enough to hold us. Mr. Brydon : We had the Cedar Committee Room on one occasion, and we filled that with our Association. Secretary : If we had a good representative meeting, the Maple room would not be large enough. I quite agree with Mr. Brydon's remarks that it is necessary that these itineraries should cover the whole Province, and that we should try and get in touch with the newcomers. They are the people whom we can benefit; it is not the old-timers who have been in the business and who have made a success of it. We cannot reach them, we are not interested in them, because they know a great deal more than we do; but the new-comers from the prairie, who know nothing but to hold a plough, and who, if they were to plant a tree, would hardly know which end of the tree to plant—those are the people we can do good to, and there is no section of the Province that these people are not coming to, and it consequently behooves us to get out and get in touch with these people and give them the benefit of our experience, so that they can start right. I know for myself, if there had been a Fruit-Growers' Association in existence when I first started out, I would have been hundreds of dollars in pocket, because, while I am not quite so bad as Mr. Kipp—I did not have 85 varieties on my farm at North Arm—still I had nearly everyone in the plate-book. Mr. Kipp : There was only one benefit I received in having 82 varieties of apples growing; at Westminster there was a prize of $25 given, and I captured the prize; but three or four years after that, when the orders would come in for apples, I had none to sell. Now I have one of every kind that is good to eat, and for commercial purposes two varieties are all I want. The Chairman : Well, it has been moved that the next annual meeting (I won't say perpetual) be held in Victoria. Motion carried. On motion of Mr. Brydon, seconded by Mr. Stewart, the meeting then adjourned. A 62 British Columbia 1908 QUARTERLY MEETINGS. Duncan, B. C, May 22nd, 1906. The regular quarterly meeting of the Association was held in the Agricultural Hall. President T. A. Brydon called the meeting to order at 2.20 p. m. There were present: T. A. Brydon, Victoria ; J. E. Metcalfe, Hammond ; Henry Kipp, Chilliwack; Maxwell Smith, Vancouver; G. H. Hadwen, L. A. Knox, W. H. Hayward, W. C. Duncan, Wm. Dodds, R. C. Furlonger, J. E. Stillwell, St. Geo. Stepney, E. M. Skinner, G. T. Corfield, T. A. Wood, J. Weismiller, John Lamont, Rev. D. Holmes, W. J. Brandrith and several others. The minutes of the previous meeting being read, Maxwell Smith objected that the words " throughout the Province " had been omitted from the motion re diseased fruit. The Secretary explained that the President had declared the words superfluous, and that they were not included when the motion passed. On motion of W. H. Hayward, seconded by G. H. Hadwen, the minutes were adopted as read. The correspondence was then read, explained, and ordered filed. J. C. Metcalfe addressed the meeting, his subject being " Small Fruit Culture." Mr. Kipp followed with a practical illustration of " Pruning." Maxwell Smith spoke on " Fruit Packages " and the law governing the same. Mr Hayward asked if it was true that after several years of clean cultivation in the orchard, trees died as a result of that method. No one being in a position to affirm or deny, the matter dropped. The various speakers were accorded the hearty thanks of the meeting. A vote of thanks to the Cowichan Agricultural Society for the use of the hall brought a very interesting and instructive meeting to a close. W. J. Brandrith, Secretary. Penticton, B. C, July 5th, 1906. The regular quarterly meeting of the Association was held in Shatford's Hall at 7.30 p.m., W. R. Findlay in the chair. There were present: W. T. Shatford, L. W. Findlay, H. Connor, G. M. Watt, W. J. C. Ede, E. W. Mutch, H. Kipp, W. J. Brandrith, and 27 others. The minutes of the last meeting were read and, on the motion of W. T. Shatford, seconded by E. W. Mutch, adopted. There being no other matters of a business nature to lay before the meeting, the Chairman called on Mr. W. J. Brandrith, who gave an address on " Spraying." He also spoke of the work being done by the Association, pointing out the advantages of membership. Mr. Kipp was called upon to demonstrate the best method of training a young tree. Both speakers were accorded a hearty vote of thanks for their able addresses. The singing of the National Anthem brought the meeting to a close. W. J. Brandrith, Secretary. New Westminster, B. C, October 2nd, 1906. The regular quarterly meeting of the Association was held in the Board of Trade Room, City Hall. President Brydon called the meeting to order at 8 p. m. There were present Thomas A. Brydon, President, W. J. Brandrith, Secretary, J. C. Metcalfe, R. M. Palmer, H. Kipp, Tom Wilson, Maxwell Smith, Robt. Whitmore, G. I. Thornton, G. T. Corfield, Jesse Love, James de C. Wetherell, A. N. Wastell, C. A. Jackson, J. W. White, and several other members. We were also favoured by the presence of A. McNeill, Esq., Chief of the Fruit Division, Ottawa, and Martin Burrell of Grand Forks. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 63 The minutes of the previous meeting being read, were adopted, on motion of Tom Wilson, seconded by H. Kipp. The correspondence was then read and, on motion, ordered filed. It was moved by Jas. de C. Wetherell, seconded by Tom Wilson,— " That the Secretary-Treasurer be instructed by this meeting to prepare a balance sheet and send a copy of the same to members one week before the annual meeting." Carried. The President then asked the members to express their views on the question of fruit packages. Mr. J. W. White, Hammond, was strongly in favour of the old style 1-8) basket. Mr. J. 0. Metcalfe thought size made little difference, if we had uniformity. Mr. R. M. Palmer thought baskets might be a little deeper. Several others expressed their views, which were very diversified, no two being of the same opinion. The President then called on Mr. McNeill, who spoke on the package question and other matters relating to the fruit industry. The electric light becoming extinguished, it was not possible to take notes of what Mr. McNeill said. He recommended that a Committee be appointed to take up the package question and endeavour to secure uniformity. Tom Wilson moved, H. Kipp seconded, a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. McNeill for his able address, which was carried unanimously. Mr. McNeill made a suitable reply. When, on motion, the meeting adjourned. W. J. Brandrith, Secretary. Summerland, B. C, April 1st, 1907. The regular quarterly meeting of the Association was held here at 7.30 p.m. Jas. Johnstone, President, occupied the Chair. There were present: J. T. Bealby, Nelson; W. J. Brandrith, Ladner; Messrs. Vickery and Hogg, Peachland; S. Bartholomew, Mr. Parker, Dr. Lipsett, Mr. Melior, Jas. Ritchie, J. M. Sutherland, and twelve or thirteen others. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and, on motion, adopted. W. M. Upcroft not being present, J. M. Sutherland moved Mr. Upcroft's motion, of which notice had been given, to amend the constitution by providing for voting by proxy. Seconded by Mr. Bartholomew and carried. Mr. Brandrith's motion, of which notice had been given, to rescind the clause relating to the fees to be paid by local Associations, seconded by S. Bartholomew, was then put and carried. On motion, it was decided that this Association should pay the cost of whatever cold storage was required in connection with the North-West Fruit Growers' Convention in Vancouver in December next. Mr. Johnstone made a few remarks anent the question of co-operation. The meeting then adjourned until 7.30 p.m., April 2nd. W. J. Brandrith, Secretary. Summerland, B. C, April 2nd, 1907. Adjourned meeting called to order at 8.15, forty-four fruit-growers being present. President Johnstone addressed the meeting at length on the question of "Co-operative Selling," claiming that the fruit-growers throughout the Province must unite in order to secure proper distribution and remunerative prices. J. T. Bealby, of London, Englaftd, briefly related his experience and observations in England, showing how the fruit-growers and farmers there were handicapped for want of united action. Mr. Nelson, of Summerland, then moved, seconded by Mr. Hogg, of Peachland,— "That this quarterly meeting of the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association advocate in the strongest possible manner the desirability of all the fruit-growers in the Province acting collectively in a co-operative manner for the placing of their own salesmen in A 64 British Columbia 1908 the Prairie Provinces, or wherever the fruit-growers' interests demand such salesmen to look after the interest of the producer; and that a copy of this resolution be forwarded by the Secretary to all organisations affiliated with the British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association." Carried. It was then moved by Mr. Nelson, seconded by Mr. Stevens,— "That this Association call a meeting of delegates from the-local Association to devise some scheme for the proper distribution of our fruit." Carried. It was then moved by J. L. Logie, seconded by J. W. Robinson,— " That this meeting has heard with unqualified pleasure of the crusade against infested orchards now being carried on by the Board of Horticulture, and we heartily endorse this action of the Chief Inspector, in his efforts to raise and maintain the standard of excellence in British Columbia fruit." Carried. On motion, the meeting adjourned. W. J. Brandrith, Secretary. Kaslo, B. C, July 2nd, 1907. The regular quarterly meeting of the Association was held in the Council Chamber. James Johnstone, President, called the meeting to order at -2.15 p. m. There were present; H. Kipp, Chilliwack; W. J. Brandrith, Ladner; J. W. Cockle, Archdeacon Beers, M. Goldsmith, Andrew Leet, J. G. Palmer, H. Power, J. Bingham, J. W. Prunk, J. Spiers, and several others. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and adopted. A letter was read from Maxwell Smith, asking for a donation for the North-West Fruit- Growers' Convention, to be held in Vancouver in December, and the Secretary was instructed to reply that the Association was not in a position to comply with the request. Letters from H. B. Cowan and Thos. Cunningham were ordered received and filed. Moved by J. W. Cockle, seconded by H. Kipp,— "That this quarterly meeting of the British Columbia Fruit-Growers'Association heartily endorses the action of the Board of Horticulture in refusing to allow infected fruit to enter the Province." Carried. Moved by J. W. Cockle, seconded by H. Kipp,— "That the Executive Committee be authorised to memorialise the Governor in Council to exempt British Columbia from the operation of Sec. 5, chap. 26, of the " Staple Commodities Act, 1901." Carried. A general discussion followed re varieties to plant, co-operation, etc., after which the meeting adjourned. W. J. Brandrith, Secretary. New Westminster, B. C, October 3rd, 1907. The quarterly meeting of the Association was held in the Board of Trade Room, City Hall, on the above date. There were present:—Jas. Johnstone, President, Nelson ; S. Bartholomew, H. C. Melior, Summerland ; Henry Kipp, Chilliwack; Mrs. White Birch, Sidney; J. W. Cockle, Kaslo ; Tom Wilson, Vancouver; Sam. Mottishaw, John Parry, Jos. Randle, Nanaimo ; J. C. Metcalfe, Hammond ; A. W. Peen, Mission; Jesse Love, Ida C. Wetherall, East Burnaby; J. Hyslop, Nelson ; W. J. Brandrith, Ladner, and several others. Minutes of previous meeting read and adopted. A letter from H. B. Cowan, Canadian Horticulturist, re another Dominion Conference, was read and gave rise to a considerable discussion re the advisability of trying to have section 5 of the " Staple Commodities Act " amended so as to allow British Columbia to revert to the 1-lh basket for berries. After those present had aired their views on the subject, the following resolution was put and carried unanimously :— " Whereas the berry-growers in British Columbia consider it a great hardship to be compelled to use the two-fifths and four-fifths box prescribed by law; and whereas our principal competitors from the United States are not so handicapped; 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 65 " Therefore, be it resolved by this representative meeting of fruit-growers, that the Secretary write the Hon. Sydney Fisher, requesting him to call another Dominion Conference at as early a date as possible, to consider this and other important questions." The Secretary asked what programme was to be provided for the annual meeting ? It was suggested by Mr. Cockle that " Better Fruit, how to obtain it," would be a suitable text. Plenty of subjects were advanced, but no one offered to speak on them; and, as usual, the matter was left in the hands of the Secretary. Mr. Randle found fault with the fumigation and inspection of fruit trees, and his objections were replied to by Mr. Tom Wilson, Quarantine Officer re fumigation, and Mr. Brandrith re the inspection. Mr. Wetherall wished full particulars regarding the recently organised " Fruit and Produce Exchange," and Mr. Johnstone enlightened him. Mr. Kipp moved, Mr. Melior seconded, a resolution instructing Mr. Johnstone, Mr. Brandrith, Mr. Hagen and Mr. Wilson to make a tour of the principal shipping points in the interest of the co-operative movement. Carried. It was then moved by S. Bartholomew, seconded by Tom Wilson, that the annual meeting be held on the third Wednesday of January, subject to change if found necessary. Carried. On motion, the meeting adjourned. W. J. Brandrith. A 66 British Columbia 1908 CORRESPONDENCE. Ladner, B. C, April 2nd, 1908. Honourable Sydney Fisher, Minister of Agriculture, Ottawa, Ont. Dear Sir,—Three years ago a petition from the fruit-growers of British Columbia was forwarded to you, asking for the establishment of an Experimental Orchard in the Kootenays, one in the Dry Belt, and one on Vancouver Island. The Central Farmers' Institute has also made the same request, but so far without results. I was directed at the quarterly meeting of this Association to again draw your attention to the necessity for these Experimental Orchards. The very varied soil and climatic conditions which exist in this Province make it impossible for the fruit-grower in one section to profit by the success or failure in another section, and we trust that the Department will immediately take steps to accede to the unanimous request of the fruit-growers of British Columbia. Yours truly, W. J. BRANDRiTH. Ottawa, April 9th, 1908. Mr. W. J. Brandrith, Secretary British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association, Ladner, B. C. Dear Sir,—I beg to acknowledge the receipt of vour letter of April 2nd, in regard to a petition forwarded some time ago by the fruit-growers of British Columbia, in regard to the establishment of an Experimental Orchard in British Columbia, and drawing my attention to what was stated in this request. At the present time I am considering what can be done in this regard, but am not in a position to make any definite statement. Yours very truly, Sydney Fisher. 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 67 CHILLIWACK FARMERS' EXCHANGE. Chilliwack, B. C, February 22nd, 1908. In spite of the disagreeable weather, there was a well-attended meeting of fruit-growers at the Court House on Wednesday evening to hear L. M. Hagar, of Revelstoke, James Johnstone, of Nelson, W. J. Brandrith, of Ladner, and P. H. Wilson, of Sardis, speak in the interests of the British Columbia Fruit and Produce Exchange. Mr. Wilson, in introducing the first speaker, said that at the time of organisation in this district there had been no opportunity of explaining very fully the objects of this Centnal Exchange. This Exchange was organised for the purpose of having our fruit and produce equally distributed throughout the markets of the Prairie Provinces, so that there would not be any glut in any one market. James Johnstone, President of the B. C. Fruit and Produce Exchange, in addressing the meeting, said that he had decided to speak of some of the difficulties to be contended with in this Fruit and Produce Exchange: "Your President has told you that very probably next season we will have practically the whole of the Province united, which will certainly be one of the most important steps that has ever been taken on this continent. It is the only way that we can advance our interests intelligently and properly and prevent competing with each other in our markets. As soon as we are together, then the only markets we have got to consider are the outside markets, such as the Ontario markets and the American markets south of us. But there are certain things that we have learned this year, and one is that a great deal of fruit is often picked in a condition that will not ship any distance. We have found at the points in the Okanagan where they have canning factories that it has been a vital help in furthering their interests. Now, here, where we grow plums—plums will not ship any distance, nor prunes. If you had a plant for drying prunes, it would not only be a great saving but would increase your reputation, because any prunes that were slightly overripe could be dried. At Grand Forks they did an enormous business in drying prunes and they got the highest prices for them. At Nelson, I know, they were getting higher prices than for any California prunes. They were put up in first class condition, nicely dried and deliriously tasting. That is what they did there. They had a great deal of trouble. They lost car-loads owing to the fruit being over-ripe. One of the most important things to be gained in a tour of this kind is to take up any useful information and try to disseminate it through the Province. This is one of the points which I think is essential for every local exchange. This plant did not cost much. A few hundred dollars will build a plant sufficient. I do not advise you to build a large plant. Simply this, if you had a canning factory you could, in the event of having too many over-ripe cherries, or over-ripe plums, can the surplus and send away that which is fit to be shipped. Then you will not be troubled with rebates for over-ripe fruit. We have several of these small plants in the Okanagan and we will have more in the near future. We hope to have one in Nelson next spring. Especially strawberries will be benefited. This last season the strawberry crop was finished before the Central Exchange was in operation. Most of our growers shipped through a commission agent, and the result was simply disastrous. In the beginning of the season it was rather wet. These berries were shipped to distant points. The cars were not properly ventilated. Strawberries were coming in every day in seven or eight hundred crate lots, to be consigned by our local men to Winnipeg. Instead of getting $3 a crate, we got $1.50 or $1.25. In fact, it hardly paid for picking. If we had a canning factory this trouble would be obviated; these berries could have been canned. They had to be picked during the wet season. Everybody knows that strawberries are not fit to go any distance when picked during the wet time, and I would like to draw this especially to your attention, because I know that there would be no better investment than a small canning plant, so that when you have over-ripe fruit you can turn it into the factory, and even though you get a very small price, it will more than make up for extra quality you will get for the fruit and increased reputation; and in this connection I must say that reputation is everything. I must congratulate you here. It has been generally A 68 British Columbia 1908 considered, and I think rightly so, that a few years ago the apples which came from this section were not as good as the apples grown in the Upper Country. Now, through your Exchange here and through careful grading and packing, you have not only sent your apples up into the Okanagan country, but in the market there, through the Central Exchange, you have got a better price than the Okanagan people get for their apples. But you certainly would not have got it had they been in the same condition they were a few years ago; but they were well graded and well packed, and we succeeded frequently in getting a better price than Okanagan apples were selling for. " Possibly you would like to ask questions as to future methods in the working of the Exchange. As Mr. Wilson has stated, the whole idea of the Exchange is simply to prevent competition among different sections of the Province. In the past we have been shipping without any regard to each other to different markets and a glut has occurred. But if properly distributed, as through the central organization, no part of the outside markets will be glutted at any time. Another great saving is this : Supposing you were not united through a Central Exchange, then each district, as the supply increased, must have a staff of men in the markets selling their goods. You would have to have men in the North-West, and also in Vancouver, looking after your interests and selling your apples. In the Kootenay the same way, and also in the Okanagan. Not only would there be a great expense which can be saved by a central organisation, but we can save very much in the way of temptation to accept orders from people who are not financially sound. We have been most fortunate in the Central Exchange in not having any unpaid debts, no accounts that are not sure to be paid. Of course, it takes a little time to make collections, but consider the excessive stringency of the money market (we cannot expect to get money in less than forty days). I find that practically there is nothing outstanding over forty days overdue. It is almost impossible to get money in the North-West now. And when we take all this into consideration, and our new Association, which had to look out for new business from all parts of the Province, I think we must congratulate ourselves. I know of no likelihood of our not being able to pay everything in full. The loss in carrying on the business is much less than I expected, less than I anticipated for the first year, and next year it will be much less. We have handled car-load lots for 5 %. Many Exchanges have signified their intention of joining, and next year our expenditure should not be over 3 %. If there is any surplus there is no dividend paid at all. The charges paid for the Central Exchange is just the actual cost and the Manager's salary, the salaries of the men on the road and other costs that may be incurred, legal or otherwise, in making collections. If we start in by making an arbitrary charge of 5 % on car-load lots, at the end of the season, if it is only 3 °/0, out of this 2 % is going back to the shippers, according to the value of the shipments. " I think this is the best sort of co-operation we can possibly have. Simply giving you the best possible results for your money. We hope to meet every year and learn by experience, and any mistakes we have made in the past we hope to rectify in the future. So far we have made a very good start, but hope to do better in future. The Chief of the Fruit Division in Ottawa has been very much interested in this movement of ours here. When the movement was first made to form a British Columbia Fruit and Produce Exchange, he wrote and got full particulars as to my ideas of it, and they have been workirig along the same lines in Ontario, and now they have one in Ontario and another in Nova Scotia. He writes under recent date the following :— " ' I quite appreciate the heavy task you have on your hands in making a provincial organisation a success. I can readily appreciate that all the fruit-growers would willingly join if you make a success, but, unfortunately, you must have all the fruit-growers to join it first to make it a success. I am in hopes that you can at least secure part of the advantages that should come from an organisation of this kind. It is for growers situate as you are in British Columbia. For want of co-operation in the local association you will overload some markets and leave others bare. The fruit-growers of Ontario have gone through the same experience, and are suffering from it yet, but not to the same extent that you are in British Columbia. There is a strong organisation formed in Ontario and another in the East.'" Mr. L. M. Hagar, of Revelstoke, Secretary and Manager of the Association, next addressed the meeting as follows :— "Last season, when the Central Exchange was started, it was, as you all know, practically at the height of the fruit season, in July, and as we were the youngest institution in the field, 8 Ed. 7 Fruit-Growers' Association. A 69 we necessarily had to take what market was left for us. By that I mean that there were earlier organisations in the field, and they had already canvassed the market for this season, and to all intents and purposes we had to take just what was left; but we have been gradually working in until, I think, we have on our books the best accounts in the North-West. At the outset we had to take outlying points, but since then we have gradually worked in until we have accounts in Brandon, Regina, Edmonton and Calgary. We have adopted the principle which has been operated by the California Fruit Exchange, viz., to have a man at the point at which a car arrives; but as our supply was limited, we could not go to the expense and outlay of having men at all these different points, so we had to shift men around fjom one point to another, and we tried to have a man at all cars. This man would report when fruit was received in bad condition, and the wholesalers would send a similar statement, so between them we tried to adjust it. You seem in Chilliwack to be handicapped in transportation facilities ; fruit has to be handled five times. In the case of plums and pears, this would place the fruit in rather an unfortunate position. In the Okanagan they load the fruit right from the warehouse into the car. " Another point which probably cost this Exchange a good deal of money was the loss on the plums and prunes. There have been losses, some of them heavy. It should not be left to the fault of the Exchange or the wholesaler, but was largely due to climatic conditions and the way the fruit was grown this season." In speaking of the payments for fruit, Mr. Hagar said that, " up to the first of November, in the neighbourhood of 14,000 boxes of fruit was shipped from Chilliwack, and you have received payments for $6,500. There has been a payment, I should say, of 70 % on accounts that are due so far. Any shipments that went forward between the 15th of October and the 1st of November are hardly due yet. The largest bulk of shipments went forward after the middle of October; these can hardly be called due yet. The terms of thirty-day notes had to be made this year, on account of other firms and other Exchanges quoting similar terms. It is hard to get a better price and quote a shorter term. All the other Exchanges up-eountry were quoting thirty days net from the time of shipment. I think next year terms can be arranged which will be more suitable, such as sight draft ten days after delivery of car. I think the other Exchanges have seen the folly of such long terms. Our greatest competitor in the fruit business has made a settlement of, I believe, thirty cents on the dollar. This is an agreed settlement." Mr. W. J. Brandrith next addressed the fruit-growers on the subject of spraying, as follows :— " In the Province of Ontario the Exchanges insist upon every member spraying not less than three times during the year, or they refuse to accept his fruit. From what I have seen of the fruit from Chilliwack the last eighteen years, I think that if you will insist upon your members spraying not less than three times in every year, you will soon be in a great deal better position than they are in the Okanagan. If you will adopt that plan that they have in Ontario of compelling the members to spray, you will in a very short time get rid of the apple scab, and if you will compel them to spray you will get rid of the prune rot in the plum. Whatever other men can do, I think you can do. You know on the Columbia River there is a place called Fort Vancouver, and a man there has 100 acres of Italian prunes. A few years ago he did not ship a dollar's worth of clean fruit out of that orchard ; but after spraying with lime, sulphur and salt, in three years you could not find three per cent, of rotten fruit. Five years ago I bought a place down on the Delta. Some of the trees were planted thirty years ago. It is true there were only two trees of good varieties ; there were a lot of old plum trees ; they were just simply hanging with plum rot. Of course, I believe in practising what I preach, so I had a good spraying pump and got to work with the lime, sulphur and salt on one of the trees that had been planted twenty-five years. The first year we managed to get two quarts out of ten bushels that were not spotted with the rot; the second year about one bushel, and half of that clean; the third year we sold eighteen crates off that tree; they went to Manitoba. We never heard a complaint nor ever saw a rotten plum. But I live pretty close to an Indian Reservation, and their orchards are not any cleaner than they ought to be, and last year I found some infection on the left side of my trees, the side next the reservation, showing that it was carried with the wind from the Indians' orchards. But I am satisfied that persistent, systematic spraying will eradicate this disease out of your orchards. It has been the exper A 70 British Columbia Fruit-Growers' Association. 1908 ience of all our leading horticulturists, both on this side and the other side of the line, that lime, sulphur and salt is the best spray to use for all fungous diseases and the different scales. To increase the efficacy, some have adopted the plan of eight pounds of blue-stone, putting it on during the winter season while the trees are dormant; it saves going over the trees the second time. Simply dissolve the blue-stone in the hot spray. " Another point in connection with securing perfect fruit, and that is pruning. There is no use of spraying if you leave no space, not even enough for a bird to fly through." Speaking of the varieties of apples, Mr. Brandrith said that the Jonathan was the apple for Chilliwack. " The red apple sells the best in the Canadian market. Our people all like a red apple." He also advocated the pyramid-shaped tree in preference to the vase shape. victoria, b. c. : Printed by Richard Wolfbhdkn, I.S.O., V.D., Printer to the King's Moat Excellent Majesty. 1908.
Legislative proceedings
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Original Format: Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Library. Sessional Papers of the Province of British Columbia
ANNUAL AND QUARTERLY MEETINGS OF THE BRITISH COLUMBIA FRUIT-GROWERS' ASSOCIATION FROM JANUARY, 1907, TO JANUARY, 1908.
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