October, 191 o 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



231 



plantation and take out all old wood. 

 This allows all strength and growth to 

 go into the new wood for the crop of the 

 following year. The soil is kept culti- 

 vated throughout the summer and the 

 rows plowed up too during the fall. 



The Kittatinny and the Snyder are 

 favorite varieties. They are the best 

 shippers. The Kittatinny is a little ten- 

 der and is inclined to winter-kill. The 

 Snyder is very hardy. It is a good shipper 



and may be sent anywhere. The Erie 

 is a magnificent berry, both for flavor 

 and size. It is a softer berry, however, 

 and is very tender, killing out badly in 

 winter and hence only cropping about 

 every other year. I much prefer the 

 Snyder. It beats the other varieties 

 with us almost every year. We are try- 

 ing the Mercereau. It is of good quality 

 and size but is going to be a very shy 

 bearer. 



The Packing of Ontario Fruit 



By " Weary Worm," Winona 



THE marketing end of the fruit busi- 

 ness is a very live and burning 



question to-day in Ontario gener- 

 ally, and in the Niagara District in par- 

 ticular. As far as apples are concerned, 

 much has been done throughout On- 

 tario in the way of improvement by the 

 various cooperative associations that 

 have been formed of late years, even al- 

 though some of them are far from per- 

 fect yet. Dominion Inspector Carey 

 states that a great improvement in the 

 packing of apples has taken place dur- 

 ing the last few years, and that a large 

 proportion of the packers are now en- 

 deavoring to do good work. 



BOX PACKING MORE POPULAR 



Box packing of fancy fruiti — especi- 

 all)' for long distance shipments — is 

 growing in favor with the consuming 

 public, even although the dealers in cer- 

 tain markets still prefer the barrel. As re- 

 gards our tender fruits, such as peaches, 

 plums, etc., some improvement has also 

 taken place, but a great deal yet remains 



to be done. Some of the large dealers, 

 and the large private growers, are doing 

 something along this line, but the most 

 is being done by cooperative associa- 

 tions. 



The founder of the box .system of pack- 

 ing apples in Ontario was, I believe, Mr. 

 George E. Fisher, of Burlington, and 

 the Burlington Association, of which he 

 is a member, has done good work in box 

 packing successfully, the tender fruits as 

 well as apples. Mr. Biggs, of Burling- 

 ton, is also doing good work in this 

 matter. Recently some very good work 

 in this direction has been done by such 

 organizations as the St. Catharines Cold 

 Storage Company, and the Ontario and 

 Western Cooperative Company. 



As far as the Western market is con- 

 cerned, Ontario shippers must do better 

 grading of their fruit if they wish to com- 

 pete successfully against British Colum- 

 bia and American competition, and to 

 keep for their own that large share of 

 the western fruit trade to which thev 



An Exhibit of British Columbia Fruit at tba Canadian National Exhibition, which wai Much Admired 



ought to be justly entitled. In the mat- 

 ter of our tender fruits the St. Catharines 

 Cold Storage Company has been packing 

 peaches, plums, etc., for some time in 

 boxes, and have some very well trained 

 packers on their staff. 



The Ontario and Western Company 

 made a wise move this summer when 

 they obtained three expert packers — one 

 from Michigan, one from Georgia, and 

 one from Virginia — to give scientific and 

 practical advice and instruction to the 

 company's packers, and to put them up 

 to all the latest wrinkles employed in 

 other peach growing districts. Thev 

 have had these packers at work for some 

 time now, and one of the chief officers 

 of the company informs me that good re- 

 sults have followed, and that he expects 

 even better results next season from the 

 instructions received from these experts. 

 A large number of this company are hav- 

 ing their apples packed in boxes this 

 season. 



Some of the shippers inform me that 

 in sending tender fruits to the West, 

 fancy packages are still somewhat hard 

 to sell, the people there objecting to pay 

 the extra price for fruit put up in such a 

 way. When shipping cars of fruit on 

 order plenty of orders are received for 

 baskets, and comparatively few for cases 

 or other fancy packages. Be that as it 

 may, it seems to me that the public there, 

 as they grow in wealth, will more and 

 more demand the better class of fruit, 

 and that the prejudice of the dealers and 

 retailers against the change will gradu- 

 ally disappear. 



THE PEACHES FOE ENGLAND 



I have recently had the privilege of 

 inspecting the packing, at the St. Cath- 

 arines Cold Storage Company's packing 

 house, of one of the shipments of peaches 

 for England. Mr. Dobson, of Hamilton, 

 who has an extensive orchard at Jordan 

 Harbor, and the St. Catharines Cold 

 Storage Co., are sending several con- 

 siderable shipments of peaches to Eng- 

 land, under the superintendence of the 

 Dominion and Ontario Governments. 

 The shippers are guaranteed a certain 

 price for this fruit by the Government. 

 Mr. Dobson 's first shipment of tearly 

 Crawfords, made on the loth of Septem- 

 ber has arrived in London in good con- 

 dition, and has excited f.avorable com- 

 ment there. The box adopted is similar 

 tf the South African box, and is 18 nches 

 long, II wide, and 3 '4 deep. Wood 

 wool made from the aspen willow is used 

 for packing niateri.il, and a good layer 

 of this is placed at the bottom, top and 

 sides of the box. Every peach is first 

 wrapped in paper, then in wool, and 

 carefully fitted to its place ; the boxes 

 then are nailed up, and every three boxes 

 are placed on top of one another and 

 nailed top and bottom together, thus 

 making a xcry handy crate weighing 



