March, 191 2 



THE CANADIAN HOETICULTURIST 



5Q 



laid with the thick ends facing ahead and 

 were chained about four feet apart. On 

 these saplings were nailed cross pieces 

 about eighteen inches apart. These were 

 placed at these intervals until within two 

 feet from the thinnest ends of the sap- 

 lings. Only one four inch nail can be 

 put in each board as the rack must not 

 be too rigid or it will break in turning 

 corners. The broad crosspieces projected 

 about a foot over the poles at each end, 

 giving the rack a total width of six feet. 

 On the last board an extra heavy cross- 

 piece, two by three inches, was bolted to 

 the poles. From the cross-piece we ran 

 a rope forward to the first board. This 



completed the making of the rack. 



On reaching the place in which the 

 load was to be dumped, we lead the rope 

 up over the front of the load and passed 

 it back behind the rack where it was held 

 by one or two men as the load required. 

 By starting the team ahead the load 

 rolled off at the back in a neat pile. The 

 dumping of a load by this means does 

 not take as long as the telling. 



By using one of these brush racks the 

 wear and tear on horses and men is re- 

 duced to a minimum, and the time re- 

 quired for removing brush is cut in two. 

 It takes a little less than an hour to 

 make such a rack and it is easily made. 



Refrigeration in" Relation to Fruit Gro^ng 



Dairy and Cold Storage Commissioner, J. A. Ruddick, Ottawa. 



THE modern use of refrigeration is 

 nothing more than the systematic 

 application of principles that have 

 been recognized from time immemorial, 

 and which have been universally practis- 

 ed by every housekeeper in the land. The 

 vegetable and fruit cellars in connection 

 with our houses, differ from regular cold 

 storages only in degree or in the lack of 

 that absolute control of temperature 

 which refrigeration gives. The practice 

 of hanging meats or poultry in a cold 

 place during the winter months has ex- 

 actly the same object behind it as if the 

 goods were placed in cold storage. The 

 fruit grower who holds his apples in a 

 "frost proof" warehouse is using cold 

 storage, which is more or less effective 

 as the temperature of the warehouse is 

 reduced to the minimum of safety. These 

 methods, that take advantage of what 

 may be called natural cold storage, are 

 of course defective inasmuch as they are 

 least useful, if not entirely valueless just 

 at the time when the protection is most 

 needed. 



All admit the value of a low tempera- 

 ture in the preserving of milk, butter, 

 meats, fruits, or vegetables for family 

 use. Such foods are always placed in 

 the coolest spot available and very gener- 

 ally in a miniature cold storage ware- 

 house in the shape of a kitchen refriger- 

 ator. And yet it is a fact that there is 

 still some prejudice against cold storage 

 foods, not only on the part of the con- 

 sumer, but with the dealer as well. It 

 is true that food products do not always 

 come out of cold storage in a satisfac- 

 tory condition, for the simple reason that 

 they are often out of condition, or over 

 mature, when they are placed in cold 

 storage. The function of cold storage is 

 preventive, not corrective. I mention 

 this because I find there is much iieed 

 for more attention being paid to this 

 point in the application of refrigeration 

 to the preservation of food products. 



It has frequently been asserted that 

 the large quantity of apples which are 



*Extr£U5t« from an address delivered at the re- 

 cent Dominian Fruit Oonierence in Ottawa. 



wasted every year, and especially when 

 there is a heavy crop, could be saved if 

 sufficient cold storage space was avail- 

 able. The writer of a paper at the last 

 meeting of the Royal Society of Canada 

 advanced this view, and his figures of 

 the saving which might be effected ran 

 into millions of barrels. I need not tell 

 experienced apple growers that this view 

 of the matter is erroneous. In the first 

 place it is not possible to save th'ese 

 scabby, bruised, and wormy windfalls, 

 and in the second place it would not pay 

 to employ cold storage to save them even 

 if it were possible. The proper destina- 

 tion for such inferior fruit is the evapor- 

 ator or the cider mill. Moreover, there 

 would be little or no advantage in cold 

 storing a large proportion of the fruit 

 that is actually marketed owing to the 

 presence of defects or injuries which 

 would result in early decay in spite of 

 cold storage . 



The losses arising from diseased fruit, 



or from mechanical injuries received in 

 picking and packing far exceed any 

 losses which may result from a lack of 

 cold storage facilities especially for late 

 or winter varieties. I do not say that 

 to minimize the importance of cold stor- 

 age, but rather to emphasize the other 

 thing . We will never derive full benefit 

 from cold storage until we first learn to 

 handle our fruit carefully, so as to avoid 

 bruises and other injuries. 



Refrigeration can be made to serve 

 the fruit trade of Canada in the follow- 

 ing different ways : 



1. The use of iced cars for the trans- 

 portation of fruit in warm weather. 



2. The chilling of early apples and 

 tender fruit before shipment in iced cars. 



3. The cold storage of fruit intended 

 for long keeping, and to extend the sea- 

 son for choice varieties. 



USE OP ICED OAES 



The use of iced cars for the carriage 

 of fruit is increasing year by year. Fruit 

 growers are learning that the question of 

 temperature in transit is of as much 

 importance as the length of time occu- 

 pied in carrying the fruit from one place 

 to another. As an illustration of what I 

 mean I would draw your attention to the 

 experience of this Department in the 

 shipment of peaches from St. Catharines 

 and other Niagara points to Montreal for 

 export to Great Britain, in 1910, the 

 details of which are to be found in bulle- 

 tin number twenty-seven of the Dairy 

 and Cold Storage Series. We found 

 that we got better results when the fruit, 

 was despatched in iced freight cars than 

 we did when it was sent by express with- 

 out ice, although it took one day longer 

 to go by freight. The same thing will 

 apply in the shipment of any fruit. 



Check Plots on Which No Fertilizer Was Used. No. 1. 



