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Gary Symons
PARC
The Summerland research station, as it is often called by locals, is best known for its work with tree fruits, having developed several varieties of apples and cherries that are now among the most popular in the world.
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David Gregory
Historian David Gregory shares a laugh with the crowd at the first of PARC's centennial series of seminars at the Summerland Research Station.
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Crop estimating at PARC 1932.
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Staff at PARC in the 1920's.
It will take a LOT of candles to celebrate the ‘birthday’ this year for the Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre.
PARC turns 100 this year, and has a lot to celebrate, says Acting Director of Research Development and Technology Kenna MacKenzie.
“You can just look at one statistic that shows some of the influence PARC has had over this past century,” says MacKenzie. “Just consider that 75 to 80 per cent of all the cherries consumed worldwide came from varieties developed at PARC.”
The Summerland research station, as it is often called by locals, is best known for its work with tree fruits, having developed several varieties of apples and cherries that are now among the most popular in the world.
But the work at PARC is actually more far-ranging, and includes everything from animal husbandry to researching plant viruses. PARC is all about practical hard science, and the scientists who put eye to microscope here are highly regarded on the global research scene.
One of those scientists is Frank Kappel, now retired, who was a featured speaker at the first seminar of the centennial year, on June 11.
Kappel told the capacity crowd that PARC was actually the fourteenth agricultural research stations established in Canada when the barn doors opened in 1914. At the beginning of the First World War the BC Interior was primarily used for rangeland, but was shifting toward more intensive farming, Kappel said.
In the beginning, research work under the first superintendent, R.H. Helmer, focused on feeding trials for livestock, growing cereals, work on commercial fertilizers, and even the growing of hemp, which later became illegal. Summerland also did early work on experimentation with new varieties of fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants.
Helmer’s replacement in 1923 was William Hunter, who built more critical infrastructure, including a water storage dam, barns, housing, and the Superintendent’s house that still stands in the Ornamental Gardens.
Hunter continued the station’s work with fruit, vegetable and ornamental breeding, but in 1924 brought dairy cows on to the property, and in 1925 initiated research into spraying for fruit pests.
It was the dairy program that brought PARC early fame, as the small herd won major awards around the globe, and became stars of the dairy cow firmament. Calgarth Starlight was the diva of the group, becoming World Champion for Lifetime Butterfat Production. It would be fair to say Calgarth Starlight may have acquired more fame than the scientists themselves!
The next superintendent, Richard Palmer, began working at PARC in 1920 as a student assistant, and was promoted to superintendent in 1932. He continued there until his death in 1953.
Palmer changed the focus of the research station, pushing more heavily toward fruit and vegetable processing and continuing work on dairy, field husbandry and forage crops. But it was the fruit industry that was surging, and the research station under PARC was instrumental in the formation of BC Fruit Processors Ltd., which helped the industry develop value added products such as apple juice and cider, particularly as Sun Rype grew to become a giant in the industry.
It was also PARC that during this era helped develop dwarf rootstocks by importing Malling IX rootstock from England for experimentation in the Okanagan. The station also launched new innovations in chemical blossom thinning of apple trees, sprinkler irrigation, and introduced the so-called ‘Vee’ peaches (Vedette, Valiant, and Veteran) from Ontario.
Still, it was the breeding of apples and cherries that pushed PARC firmly onto the world stage. The Spartan apple was named in 1936 and remains one of the most popular apple varieties today, and the cherry breeding program launched in 1936 resulted in the first of PARC’s cherry varieties (the Van) being named in 1943.
This research into cherries is having a huge impact on BC agriculture today, as exports have now reached $43 million annually, with BC now approved for a huge expansion into mainland China.
MacKenzie also points out the development of BC’s modern wine industry was heavily influenced by PARC.
“We actually have one of the best small-lot experimental wineries in the world here at PARC,” MacKenzie says. “And it was the work done here that ended with the VQA (Vintner’s Quality Alliance) being adopted, although it was moved out from PARC to the industry.”
While the research at PARC remains vital today, historian David Gregory told the crowd it was the unique history of Summerland that made it all possible. Few people outside the area know it today, but Summerland at the time was primarily developed by the richest and most powerful businessmen in Canada.
The early European settlers in Summerland came from the famed Harrow School in England (Winston Churchill was a schoolmate), where the romantic idea of emigrating to the wild, adventurous lands of Canada was quite in vogue.
Among those early Harrow grads was George Barclay, who later put together a deal to sell his ranch lands to Lord Shaughnessy, the President of Canadian Pacific Rail. The CPR was looking for a place to grow fresh fruit for their luxury hotels … but as it turned out, the directors of the CPR board themselves took an interest in Summerland.
Many of them ended up buying part of the land, and that area became known as ‘Millionaire’s Row’.
In addition to Shaughnessy, the owners included CPR co-founder RB Angus, whose immense wealth was only outstripped by fellow director Sir Robert Holt, who at the time was among the world’s richest men; Horace and Henry Joseph, two brothers whose brokerage firm made them among Canada’s wealthiest men, and the latter being one of the most famous athletes of his day; Sir Edward Clouston, manager of the Bank of Montreal; Charles Hosmer, the president of the Canada Telegraph Co. and West Kootenay Power and Light; and Charles Smith, who owned a shoe company and was director with many of the largest companies in Canada at the time.
Due to the investment pumped in by this Who’s Who of Canadian commerce, Summerland developed the first real agricultural operations in the Okanagan, and of course made sure the CPR line ran right through these agricultural operations.
Due to their powerful connections, capital investment, and the development of PARC, Summerland remains arguably the centre of agriculture in the BC Interior, and its influence is felt all over the world.