THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENTS IN HORTICULTURE

Prior to the mid 60's, many Agriculture Canada Stations and Experimental Farms had an active horticultural section. The mid-60's saw the dropping of horticulture programs in most areas. The only stations currently involved in horticulture to any degree are:

Location	Zone
Kentville, Nova Scotia	6a	30
Harrow, Ontario	7a	15
Vineland, Ontario	7a	15
Ottawa, Ontario	5a	12
St. Jean, Quebec	5a	19
Summerland, B.C.	6a	22
Morden, Manitoba	3b	8

As can be seen, the northern areas of Canada are represented by only Morden, Manitoba which leaves much of the area with no current research. As it is, Morden is presently being affected by cutbacks and has lost the head of their horticulture staff recently, with no indication of when he will be replaced. The only reason that Morden is still involved in northern horticulture is because its research is tied in with the work of the Western Canadian Society for Horticulture whom I will discuss later. In the past, Beaverlodge, Alberta had horticultural programs involving ornamentals and fruit for the north. Some of the work done was on selecting Saskatoons and out of this came the Pembina and Smoky saskatoons as well as the Altaglow ornamental saskatoon. Protem Strawberries and 6 new varieties of apples were released in 1976. There are still more varieties of fruit that have merit but that have not yet been released. Unfortunately, the horticultural staff at Beaverlodge was downgraded from 5 persons 15 years ago to less than 1/2 of a person now. This remaining person is the plant pathologist. note: these figures represented the status of the sites in 1986. Further cutbacks have occurred.

B: BRITISH COLUMBIA

This section is very short. There is no research done for the northern areas of this province. If they are doing any, no one seems to be aware of it. All research is concentrated on the fruit growing area of the south. There is very little information available as to hardy plant material and most residents of the Peace River area of B.C. rely on the little information that they can get from Agriculture Canada.

C: ALBERTA

In Alberta, all horticultural research is being done at the Alberta Tree Nursery and Horticultural Centre, Edmonton, and at the Horticultural Research Station, Brooks, both of which are in zone 3a. They are presently testing existing plant material to determine the hardiness zones. 160 species and varieties are being tested at 7 sites throughout Alberta. Previously Brooks was involved in developing new hardy cultivars. Some of their releases are Dolga crab, Columbia, Duchess and Heyer 12 apples. In 1978-79, they released Sunnybrook, Rosybrook, and Brookland apples, Brookgold and Brookred plums, and Brookcot apricot. They have more selections yet to be released. Because the Government of Canada decided that the development of new cultivars and varieties was the exclusive right of the Federal Government, they had to cease their work but was allowed to continue with the projects already started. This has greatly restricted the development of new hardy material.

D: SASKATCHEWAN

Horticulture has a very low priority in Saskatchewan. They rely heavily on research done by Agriculture Canada at Morden, Manitoba and by Alberta Agriculture at Brooks, Alberta. Saskatchewan Agriculture has only 2 horticultural staff members. The University of Saskatchewan, Department of Horticultural Science has only 4 researchers on staff.

E: ALASKA

To some people it may seem strange to include Alaska in this section, but the University of Alaska, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, carry out extensive testing of plant material for the north. They publish many lists of recommended varieties for the various zones in Alaska. Although their zones are not directly related to ours, it is easy to correlate between the two. In their publication, "Agroborealis" they have included many excellent articles about northern horticulture. The amount of research done at this University in this area of horticulture puts all our agriculture departments to shame.

GOVERNMENT FUNDING FOR HORTICULTURE

Because there is no large scale horticultural industry in the north, there are very limited funds available for research and development of horticultural enterprises. In an effort to obtain what little funds that are available, many groups such as the Albright Group for the Advancement of Northern Horticulture were formed. Unfortunately this group has no interest in northern horticulture on the whole. Their whole aim is to establish a fruit growing industry in the Beaverlodge- Hythe area of Alberta. There is already an existing group to further this cause, The Fruit Growers Society of Alberta, and having two groups fighting over the same funding has only resulted in less advancement in horticulture. It also denies anyone seriously interested in pursuing horticultural research the funds. There is some funding for small fruit production through the federal government but the Alberta government has reduced their funding. Funding for the development of ornamentals on the prairies is almost non-existent. Apart from Professor Louis Lenz, Department of Plant Science, University of Manitoba and Miss Lynn Collicutt at Morden Research Station, ornamental plant breeding is at a standstill.

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This page by Pat
updated August 18, 2000

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