THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



Government of Canada had done more 

 than any governments in the world in 

 the matter of paternalism in connection 

 with agricultural product and their sale. 

 He held that it was useless to look to 

 the United States market, and that Great 

 Britain was our only hope. It was an 

 inexhaustible market for surplus products 

 of both the United States and Canada, 

 and having recently returned from Eng- 

 land, he was able to say that there was 

 a great desire to encourage trade with 

 Canada, and a very strong and growing 

 feeling in favor of giving preferential 

 trade to the colonies. He saw Canadian 

 products of all kinds landed in England 

 last autumn in such bad condition that 

 he was ashamed to be recognized as a 

 Canadian. Apples had been shipped 

 with fruit of first class quality at each 

 end of the barrel and perhaps a bushel 

 of culls in the centre. If such a thing 

 became common the English people 

 would not be fooled, and Canada's trade 

 would be ruined. He urged Canadian 

 apple growers to be careful in future in 

 catering to the taste of the English con- 

 sumers. For small consignments of 

 specially selected fruit he would advocate 

 shipping in cases of about fifty pounds, 

 but for large shipments he did not know 

 that they had yet discovered any im- 

 provement on the barrel. 



Mr. Brodie asked in what manner 

 should tomatoes be sent to England. 

 This was a matter of great importance 

 to producers on the island of Montreal. 



Mr. Crandall said that it did not 

 matter much if the tomatoes arrived in 

 good condition. The Grimsby people 

 first shipped very large tomatoes last 

 year, but it was a failure as the English 

 people wanted a small round tomato 

 with a fine skin. 



Mr. Shepherd said that for fifteen years 

 he had been shipping to England the 

 choicest table apples in cases, but got 



no profitable result until he made trade 

 connections with special firms who sold 

 them. He believed there was no use 

 shipping to ordinary produce dealers in 

 cases. They allowed nothing for the 

 special care and extra expense in putting 

 them by. In fact, in 1895 he lost five 

 shillings a case on some. 



Mr. Crandall said that next year they 

 would endeavor to make further im- 

 provements on steamers in the matter of 

 getting rid of the hot air in the hold of a 

 vessel carrying apples. This would 

 improve their conditions. 



Mr, J. M. Fisk, of Abbotsford, read 

 an instructive paper on " Pruning." 



Mr. R. W. Shepherd, speaking on the 

 failure of the apple crop of 1897, said : 



No doubt, to a great extent, at least, 

 the phenomenally heavy crop of 1896 

 was the cause of the small crop of 1897. 

 But we must look further for the cause 

 of the bad quality of this small crop. 

 Excepting, perhaps, a few early varieties, 

 the whole crop of this province was 

 undersized and ill looking. Never in my 

 experience have I seen such a miserable 

 crop of Fameuse, as that of the past sea- 

 son. No district seems to have been 

 more favored than another, and the pro- 

 portion of number one fruit in the crop 

 was not, I believe, more than five per 

 cent., and in some cases even less than 

 that. As a general rule, we orchardists 

 of the Province of Quebec have the 

 great advantage of snow protection to 

 the roots of our trees ; but the winter of 

 1896 97 was an exception to that rule, 

 and, consequently, the roots of the trees 

 were exposed to the very severe and 

 continuous frosts of last January and 

 February, which penetrated four and 

 five feet below the surface of the ground. 



Those orchards in sod, although the 

 trees were much shocked and injured, 

 were able to survive and feebly develop 

 their fruit. The small size of the fruit. 



no 



