NEW MARKETS FOR OUR FRUITS. 



fore we can once land our golden Craw- 

 fords and Elbertas in Liverpool markets 

 in prime condition, we shall need no 

 Klondike to furnish us gold. 



Pears are grown much the same as 

 peaches, being often trained upon the 

 walls to ripen. These fruits are brought 

 over in large quantities from France, 

 and bring excellent prices ; but none of 

 them, either peaches or pears, attain the 

 rich gold and scarlet colorings of our 

 Canadian grown samples. 



California is wide awake to this 

 golden opportunity of money making. 

 First she flooded our eastern cities with 

 her peaches and her pears until Toronto 

 and Montreal are no longer open to our 

 own fruit growers ; and this done, she is 

 reaching over ahead of us to Great 

 Britain. Indeed, for two years past, 

 she has been pouring her fruit into 

 Great Britain via New York, at first with 

 great losses, but latterly with enormous 

 profits. 



Shall we fruit growers of Ontario 

 allow these chances to slip away from 

 us, and starve for want of a good mar- 

 ket, when California growers, three 

 thousand miles farther away, are grow- 

 ing fat by their enterprise. 



Regarding other markets for our fruits, 

 I notice the praiseworthy eflforts on the 

 part of the N. D. F. G. Stock Co. to 

 introduce our fruits into Manitoba, the 

 North-West. No doubt the country is 

 vast in extent, and one hundred years 

 from now the population will be dense 

 enough to consume a considerable 

 quantity of our fruit. But now the 

 whole population of Manitoba does not 

 exceed that of Toronto, and probably 

 one-half of these are so scattered over 

 the prairies, that our fruits could not 

 reach them. A few car-loads, therefore, 

 at any time will glut the market, and, 

 counting the enormous freight rates, will 

 bring the shipper sadly in debt. 



The United States markets are closed 



to us, but we notice a sort of retributive 

 justice in operation. During the past 

 few seasons, Canadian fruit has been 

 finding favor in Hamburg, and it looks 

 as if we were about to find an unlimited 

 market in Germany, while late informa- 

 tion seems to point toward the exclusion 

 from that country of United States fresh 

 fruit. Some recent shipments of United 

 States apples were found to be infested 

 with San Jose Scale, and were not 

 allowed by the authorities to land at 

 Hamburgh : and not only that, but an 

 edict was passed prohibiting the impor- 

 tation of United States fruit, except 

 upon the most rigid inspection. 



These ports are open to Canada, and, 

 no doubt, will be, unless the scale 

 infests our fruit also. What stronger 

 argument can be brought to bear upon 

 the Minister of Agriculture than this, to 

 show the importance of legislation 

 against the importation of American 

 fruit and fruit trees into Canada. 



We have just received a letter from a 

 • firm in Antwerp, Belgium, which shows 

 that that country too is open for Cana- 

 dian fruit, for it asks for regulai con- 

 signments, giving, at the same time, the 

 best of references. 



Australia is also open for our choice 

 Canadian apples leaving here in Octo- 

 ber and November so as to arrive 

 before January, when their own summer 

 apples are beginning to come into their 

 markets. In a shipment of apples sent 

 to Sydney three years ago, in bushel 

 cases, I had Cranberry Pippins sold at 

 15/ per case. All we want is proper 

 cold storage, and that market will be of 

 great value to us. 



It is encouraging to note that the 

 Minister of Agriculture for the Dominion 

 has decided to push the experimental 

 fruit shipments to a successful issue, dur- 

 ing the present season and thus relieve 

 our fruit growers of the danger now threa- 

 tening them from over production. 



97 



