32 



having the same trouble in Michigan. I think there are only two practical solutions to 

 this question. One is to sell everything by weight. That is a thoroughly practical solu- 

 tion. Another is to brand every basket with its size, and let a man sell any size he 

 pleases. Half the berries in the market of New York are in third pint packages ; 

 and men who grow extra nice berries put them in even smaller baskets than that. They 

 call them third pints, or half pints, or quarter pints ; whatever they are you will see them 

 quoted at that. 



Mr. Dempsey. — I would be satisfied if the Legislature would compel the seller to 

 mark the basket with just what it contains. 



Mr. Drury. — That would just meet the difficulty. I know it is a cause of complaint 

 all though this northern country that there is a variation in the size of the peach baskets ; 

 and we find we are not getting what we expect. 



Mr. Pettit. — If the packages were marked — take those for peaches, for instance — if 

 you shipped a twelve-quart basket of peaches, and they got pretty soft before they got to 

 their destination, so that they would not measure the twelve-quarts then, should they 

 be confiscated on that account ? Are you to guarantee they are twelve-quart baskets 

 or not 1 



A Member. — Guarantee the twelve-quart basket. 



Mr. BiGGAR. — In shipping a basket of peaches from here to Quebec, if the peaches 

 are not very hard they will sink an inch and a half on the passage. The only way to sell 

 peaches or anything of that kind that shrinks is to sell by weight. I have known peaches 

 to sink as much as two inches in going to Collingwood. It is utterly impossible to pack 

 them so that they will not shrink. 



Mr. Orr. — Bei-ries picked in a damp day and then passing through a dry day would 

 shrink perhaps more than one-tenth in weight, so that there would be the same objec- 

 tion to weighing. 



Mr. HoNSBERGER. — In my business I am using three different sizes of packages, a 

 four-quart basket, a twelve-quart basket, and a sixteen-quart basket ; and I ship the most 

 of my fruit. Sometimes, however, I go to the St. Catherines market. I had onetimeboth 

 twelve-quart and sixteen-quart baskets for the sale of peaches, and, when a customer would 

 come up and want a basket of peaches and I would say to him, " Here is a twelve-quart 

 basket and here is a sixteen-quart basket, which will you have V He would say, " Oh, I 

 will take the twelve-quart basket, it is lighter ; I can carry it easier." He was willing for 

 that reason to take the twelve-quart basket at the same price as the sixteen. 



A Member. — Was the pi-ice for each of them the same? 



Mr. Honsberger. — The price for the twelve was exactly the same as for the sixteen. 



A Member. — The same quality of fruit 1 



Mr. Honsberger. — Exactly the same. 



Mr. Drury. — I move that Mr. Bucke be added to the Committee, and that the mat- 

 ter be referred back to the Committee, with instructions to reconsider the subject, and to 

 report to this meeting if possible. 



The motion was carried. 



Mr. Beall was called on for the Report of the Committee on Roses, but said he had 

 not had time to prepare it. 



Mr. Beadle moved that the committee be continued, with a request that they hand in 

 their report to the Publication Committee in time for the next annual report. 



The motion was carried. 



CELERY. 



Mr. Taylor was asked to introduce a discussion as to the best method of cultivating 

 celery and the best varieties of it. He said : I do not know that I can offer you much 

 on the subject. Celery has been almost a failure in this neighbourhood of late. We tried 

 to grow it, but the thrip has almost destroyed it. My idea is that it does not pay to grow 

 it for the market. In cultivating it we manure it well. We bank it up the first time we 



