When
the population of the village of Grimsby was taken in 1841, it figured at a
total of 200, which was a mixture of Canadians, Americans and Europeans. The
value of the taxable real estate in the village and township was $141,922, an
amount which would do much more now than buy a half dozen of the fruit farms in
that locality. No one dreamed in the olden time that the Township of Grimsby
would become celebrated for its fine cultivation of all varieties. In 1841,
there were only 9,475 acres under cultivation in the entire township, plus
timber, ma mixture of hardwood pine. Through the village ran a stream of water
with power enough to turn the wheels for two grist mills and two saw mills. The
trades and professions were represented by two physicians, 1 brewery, 1
distillery, 1 foundry, 2 wagon shops, 3 blacksmiths, 2 shoemakers, 1 cabinet
maker, 3 tailors, 1 saddler,, 2 stores and 2 taverns, and 2 churches to
overcome the influence of the two taverns, with the breweries and distillery to
combine their power for evil. Grimsby is now the centre of the Niagara fruit
district, and it’s fruit farms are of great value, ranging from $400 to $500 an
acre. These farms are of the highest state of cultivation and are for the most
part owned by men who have built fine homes and outbuildings. In the spring of
the year, when the trees are in blossom, it is like a trip through fairyland to
ride from Hamilton down as far as Beamsville. What is designated as the Niagara
fruit district begins northwest of Hamilton and extends a distance of fifty
miles east to the Niagara river. Taking the territory as a whole, its width averages
ten miles, though in the centre of it the range is two miles and less in width
in some places. Apples, pears, cherries, peaches, plums, grapes and small
fruits of all varieties are grown in the district, and during the fruit season,
hundreds of tons are shipped to all parts of the Dominion and to the British
markets. The apple crop is the most profitable, for when carefully picked and
packed, it can be shipped to foreign countries with but little damage or loss.
Pears come next in value for shipment. Linus Woolverton is the authority on
fruit culture in the Grimsby district, and from him we gathered much information
of interest. He lives in an elegant home on the mountain road from Hamilton to
Grimsby, and about a mile west of the latter village. He estimated the apple
crop of this year at about 5,000 barrels a mile for the entire length of the
Niagara district – a quarter of a million barrels in all. As each barrel
contains three bushels and sells at $2 a barrel, this crop alone returns to the
growers half a million dollars. As the apple is only about one-fourth of the
fruit product of the district, the returns from the entire fruit crop will
figure up to $2,000,000. No wonder the fruit growers are getting rich, live in
elegant homes, and are able to pay from $300 to $500 an acre for their farms.
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It requires brains to be a successful
fruit grower as well as patient industry in cultivating the land. In the early
days of fruit culture in the district, when apples and pears were ready for
gathering, the fruit was violently shaken from the trees and gathered in heaps
in the orchard till the farmer was ready to dump it into barrels. The bruised
fruit mixed with the sound fruit, and in a very short time, the contents of the
barrel were in a rotting condition. The fruit grower now has the apples and
pears picked from the trees and carefully packed in barrels solidly so they can
be handled by the transportation companies without danger to the fruit. Apples
weighing seven ounces and upward, carefully wrapped in tissue paper, and packed
in boxes holding half a bushel would command a high price in the English market
and give the grower a better profit than those sold nearer home. In order to
secure the fruit trade from Canada, the steamships sailing from Montreal were
suited up with cold storage compartments and with ventilating fans in the holds
of the vessels. Pears wrapped in tissue papers and packed in two layers in
boxes holding half a bushel also command a high price. They are sent in cold
storage, while apples and pears in barrels can be shipped in the holds of
vessels, the ventilating fans keeping the air pure and fresh. It is the
foulness in unventilated holds that causes the fruit to decay, and where proper
care is taken to keep the temperature between 40 and 50 degrees, there is but little
danger of l9oss. As there is quite a difference between the cost of cold
storage and the ventilated holds of vessels, the latter is selected for fruit
in barrels.
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However, all kinds of fruit are raised
in this Garden of Eden, but as most of it must be sold to consumers while
fresh, there is not much profit in shipping it long distances. The surplus goes
to the canning and preserving factories, and for this class of fruit, there is
paying demand for local and foreign consumption. There is a suspicion that
other things besides fruit enters into the manufacture of jams and jellies, and
this tends to create a distrust as to the purity of the goods. Our American
cousins buy largely of Canadian turnips, which are used in the jam factories,
and this fact brings into disrepute the jams made by honest manufacturers out
of pure fruit. Apple cores and apple pulp are made the basis for jams flavored
and sold for raspberry, peach and other fruits. The fruit growers are
interesting in exposing such frauds, for where fruit is as plentiful and as
cheap as it is in Canada, there is no excuse for using substitutes.
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It is a remarkable fact, and we give
it on the authority of a leading fruit grower that there are but three cold
storage warehouses in Canada – one in Toronto, and two in Montreal – and that
apples and pears are shipped from the Grimsby district to Montreal, a distance
of 200 miles, to keep them for the spring market, when prices are better than
in the fall season. Men engaged in the fruit business say that a cold storage
warehouse would be of value in Hamilton for the preservation of apples, pears
and grapes for consumption during the winter. The Northwest, as it becomes more
thickly settled, will be a profitable market for the early fruits raised in
this district. The climate out there is not suited to fruit culture, and the people
will have to depend upon this more favored clime for such luxuries. Three weeks
ago 50 car loads of grapes were shipped from St. Catherines to the Northwest,
and it is presumed that the shippers found a quick and profitable market.
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Forty-nine years ago, there came to
Hamilton from Devonport, England, an old printer named John Hooper, and two
boys who had learned the printer’s art. The father was an expert job printer,
and secured a position in Chatterton’s job office. The two sons got work in
other offices. It is of William C. Hooper that this little scrap of history has
to do. In the year 1845, William was indentured to the printing business in
Devonport, England and served his full term. The conditions of indentures in
those days were iron-clad, and a violation of any clause subjected the
apprentice to punishment. The phraseology of the instrument sounds queer even
now when compared with the highfalutin phrases of legal documents. The
apprentice was to “obey all lawful commands and keep the secrets of his master’s
business from a prying world, and the goods of his master he shall not waste,
consume or embezzle. Matrimony he shall not contract. At dice tables, ort any
other unlawful games, he shall not play. Taverns, inns, alehouses, he shall not
frequent, nor by day or night he absent himself without leave from his master’s
premises.” It would not be a bad thing if apprentices of the present day had a
few of those safeguards thrown around them. A day’s work consisted of twelve
hours and the hands had to be ready to begin their tasks on the stroke of the
clock. Nowadays the demand is for eight or nine hours to be counted as a day’s
work, and there is not much promptness about beginning. For all of this,
William was paid an English shilling a week for the first year, and each year a
shilling was added until the seventh and last year, he received seven shillings
a week, and out of this liberal salary he had to furnish his own board and
clothing. On the 11th of April, 1841, as the indenture shows, he
received his discharge, his employers endorsing on the back of the document a
certificate of good character. For forty-nine years, William has lived in this
city. He is now in his seventy-fourth year, and while his hands have not yet
lost their cunning in the art of typesetting, there is no place for him in any
printing office. The linotype machines now do the work of the old compositor, and
in the job offices only young men are wanted. The old man proudly exhibited his
indentures the other day, and it is doubtful if more than one or two other
printers in Hamilton served out the full term of apprenticeship. For years he
has been janitor of an Oddfellows’ hall in this city, and the small stipend he
receives is all that he has for the
support of himself and the good wife he married in old Devonport fifty years
ago. In the year 1854, Billy Cliff, Gus Freed, Bill Hooper and the writer
worked at case together in the Banner office. There are not many of the old
printers left who can date back to those days, only two more are living in
Hamilton to answer at roll call – Roscoe Evans and W. J. McAllister.
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