6 



is a very profitable one to grow. Quantity and quick handling at a fair average 

 price is the motto. 



The imports at Queenston Bridge for the season of 1911 were 6,740 bushels; 

 for 1913, 3,789 bushels; and for 1913, 363 bushels. This is one port only, and 

 represents largely the quantity that was drawn across the bridge in wagons for 

 canning purposes. Queenston is the port between the two counties before men- 

 tioned through which the largest share of the trade passes, but the figures do not 

 take into consideration any that may have entered at Niagara-on-the-Lake or 

 Niagara Falls. 



This one port is mentioned only as an example, and to still further emphasize 

 the fact that there is an opportunity in plums where conditions for production are 

 similar to those of our neighbors. 



The question of cheaper production is covered largely in the comparison drawn 

 above, but that of methods of packing and sale is not included, as the trade there 

 is local — the large cities of the middle and eastern States — whereas the greater part 

 of the fruit of our competitors is sold either in our Prairie Provinces or the large 

 cities of the East. 



Nearly all Ontario plums are sold in the two sizes of fruit baskets, eights and 

 elevens, so well known to all growers. The baskets are also known to the trade and 

 are an indication of their origin. This fruit is sold largely for cooking or canning 

 purposes. The American product is largely in smaller baskets packed in cases, all 

 fruit carefully placed and the packages faced. These are to be seen in our fruit 

 stores at all times during the plum season; and it is this trade — the fancy trade 

 that seems to have been neglected by our growers. Trade in fancy packages is neces- 

 sarily not as extensive' as the general trade, but still it is profitable. 



It cannot be developed in a year, but if it is given " careful consideration " by 

 our fruit men in the same manner that box-packed pears and apples have been in 

 the last few years a certain amount of the trade at least will fall to the Ontario 

 shipper. 



In order that at least a fair idea might be obtained of the present commercial 

 plum areas of the Province a list of questions was sent each of the District Repre- 

 sentatives. The replies were for the most part very general, but gave some idea 

 of the industry in the particular county. Prom the replies the Province might be 

 divided into three parts : 



( 1 ) -The colder Northern parts where plums are grown only in the home garden 

 as a hobby or not at all. 



(2) The western part of Eastern Ontario and all of Central and Western 

 Ontario, except a few locations where they are grown locally and marketed in the 

 nearby towns and villages; where local production supplies, or almost supplies, the 

 local demand. 



(3) The centres where the commercial orchards are situated; Lincoln, Went- 

 worth, some favored spots on Lake Huron in Grey County, on Lake Erie in Elgin, 

 Kent and Essex, and on Lake Ontario in Prince Edward County. 



It is with these latter districts that we are mostly concerned at present, so far as 

 production is concerned, and also the first division in which are situated many small 

 towns that would take regular shipments during the season from the commercial 

 districts. 



It must not be supposed from the above remarks that every man in the State 

 of New York is an expert plum grower, or that every man in Ontario is making a 

 failure, because such is not the case, and that is not the idea that the writer intends 



