Situated in a valley, or rather on a terrace gently sloping southeasterly to Burlington Bay and Lake Ontario, covering an area probably four miles wide by ten in length, and protected on the northwest by a limestone mountain, this district produces fruits, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, grapes, peaches, plums, pears, quinces and apples, as well as melons and tomatoes in lavish abundance, and of a quality not excelled in the home or foreign markets. The fruit grower has been taught the most profitable varieties of the different classes to grow, how to plant them properly, what sort of soil and situation is best adapted for a given kind of fruit, how to prune, fertilize, cultivate, spray and otherwise deal with injurious insects and fungiin short, how to care for a plantation so as to produce the greatest quantity of the best quality of fruit.
The Association has made for itself more than a provincial reputation by exhibiting fruits at the leading expositionsthe World’s Fair, Chicago, in 1896 ; the Paris Exposition, in 1900 ; the Glasgow, in 1900 ; and the Pan-American, Buffalo, in 1901. At each of these it received awards in the form of medals and diplomas.
During the last ten years it has made an annual exhibit at the Industrial Exhibition, Toronto, and has been given the first prize each year for the best collection of fruits.
Such is a brief sketch of the past work of this Society. A tree is known by its fruits. Is it too much to say, that for effective organization and progressive enterprise, the Burlington Horticultural Association has few, if any, equals today in the Province of Ontario ?