The Canadian Horticulturist. 



219 



CANADIAN APPLES IN BRITAIN. 



I'kOM a SL llSCKIUl.U IS Lngi-anu. 



T READ in the Canadian Horti- 

 ■^ CULTURIST. that the Canadian 

 crop of apples last year was unusually 

 large, and the unusually heavy ship- 

 ments from Canada and the United 

 States wholly overstocked our mar- 

 kets, and brought down prices below 

 paying prices. Now I believe that 

 Britain has a stomach for all the 

 apples you can send provided good 

 ones and well packed only are sent. 

 It should be obvious that none other 

 can pay. You must incur the ex- 

 pense of $1 or so to place a barrel of 

 apples here, good or bad. While the 

 good may sell for from 15 to 20s. and 

 some 25s., and the inferior kinds 

 only I OS. and downwards. If Can- 

 adian shippers do their part by pack- 

 ing honestly and sending only good 

 fruit, it will be sure to conmiand sale 

 at remunerative prices. The means 

 nuist be taken, however, to make it 

 known throughout the length and 

 breadth and corners of Britain, that 

 Canadian apples are to be had, and 

 how they are to be obtained. Local 

 dealers will spring up everywhere to 

 order them from such important 

 depots as London, Liverpool and 

 Glasgow. No such means are now 

 taken, which you will readily believe 

 when I tell you why I say so. Here 

 am I, a Canadian nominally, a Can- 

 adian fruit grower and constant 

 reader of the Canadian Horticul- 

 turist, so that I am fairly posted up 

 as to what is going on in the 

 Canadian apple trade. I am liv- 

 ing in one of the suburbs of Lon- 

 don, within five miles of the Bank of 



England. I get my London dail\- 

 paper at my breakfast table every 

 morning, and I see no end of maga- 

 zines, periodicals, etc., which are now 

 made available for the circulation of 

 advertisements of every conceivable 

 thing that the makers or vendors 

 desire to bring under public notice, 

 and yet I do not know and cannot 

 easily learn where or how to put my 

 hands on a barrel of Canadian apples. 

 I get a portion of my supplies of 

 household necessaries from one o^ 

 the many co-operative supply asso- 

 ciations in London, from which I 

 have for years had American, that is, 

 United States, apples. Enquiring of 

 them, they tell me that they keep 

 only Greenings and Baldwins, which 

 they know and tlieir customers like. 

 Their prices for these are 22 and 20s. 

 per barrel. They know nothing about 

 Canadian apples, and as to apples 

 being more plentiful than usual, they 

 were quite unaware of it, and could 

 not purchase their supplies any lower 

 than usual. London has so vast a 

 population, equal as you know to 

 that of all Scotland or Ireland, that 

 it ought to be your chief market. Of 

 all your shipments to Britain this 

 year, the proportion that has gone to 

 London must be but a flea-bite com- 

 pared %<'ith the consumption, and 

 could not affect the market prices at 

 all. 1 see that the largest propor- 

 tion of your apples goes to Glasgow. 

 Probably the freights are lower than 

 to Liverpool and London, and these 

 I know have been affected by the lib- 

 eral supply. Friends in remote parts 



