I. PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 



(1). In the summer of 1903 the writer, after making- some extended 

 inquiries into the matter of transportation of fruit under refrigeration, re- 

 commended to the Minister of Agriculture an experimental shipment of 

 fruit from Southern Ontario to the Northwest of Canada, with a view 

 to obtaining information on the whole question of the Western fruit trade. 

 The situation with respect to this trade, though it should be full of hope, 

 is as a matter of fact discouraging to the Ontario fruit-grower. On the 

 one hand, as an enticing prospect, there lies the great Northwest, a large, 

 increasing, and ever profitable market. The choice fruits peculiar to 

 Southern Ontario will never be produced in those northern latitudes, and 

 an exchange of Ontario fruits for No. 1 hard wheat seems reasonable and 

 proper. On the other hand, as a discouraging reality, fruits from the 

 Pacific Coast are rapidly pre-empting the Western market, and rarely 

 can Ontario peaches, grapes, and plums be seen displayed in the shop- 

 fronts of Winnipeg. Very little fruit, if any, except apples and pears» 

 is being shipped to the West by freight, and express charges are almost 

 prohibitive. Prominent and well informed fruit growers, who have done 

 some shipping on their own account, upon being consulted on this matter, 

 gave the opinion that, for several reasons, a freight traffic in tender fruits 

 between Ontario and the Northwest was impracticable- The reasons 

 given are, in the main as follows : First, our fruits are not of good ship- 

 ping quality ; secondly, the railroads do not give sufficiently rapid des- 

 patch ; thirdly, in refrigerator cars, icing is not properly attended to in 

 transit ; fourthly, the market, and the means of disposing of the fruit in 

 the West, are uncertain. 



With respect to the first of these objections, namely, the poor shipping 

 quality of our tender fruits, the force of the objection remained to be tested 

 by an actual shipping experiment. In the meantime, storage experiments 

 conducted at the College had demonstrated that Crawford peaches will 

 hold their form and quality for eighteen days at a temperature of 38 de- 

 grees ; peaches of the Longhurst type will keep sound and firm for thirty- 

 six days, and Washington and Bradshaw plums for twenty days, at the 

 same temperature. It is generally supposed, however, that fruits do not 

 keep so well during shipping as they do in the warehouse, by reason of 

 the injuries incident to transportation. At the same time, careful packing 

 and loading in carload lots not to be rehandled during transit, would, it 

 was believed, reduce to a minimum the damage incurred in shipping. 



The remaining objections, namely, those relating to time of transit, 

 icing, and the market, while undoubtedly serious, are not insurmountable, 

 and relate to conditions capable of improvement and correction. It was 

 the aim of the proposed experiment to secure information upon these very 

 points, and to bring such matters as require righting to the attention of 

 authorities competent to deal with them. 



Early in the season of 1904, with the approval of the Minister, active 

 preparations for this shipment were commenced- Much preliminary work 

 had to be covered before the shipment could be undertaken, such as decid- 



