THE EXPORT OF OUR TENDER FRUIT. 



temperature below 36° and 40^ Fahr., 

 as warm fruit generates heat by the 

 changes which proceed in it. It is thus 

 much more difficult to cool than inert 

 products, such as meat, etc. If 

 the fruit can be even partly cooled 

 before it is wrapped, the risk of spoiling 

 will be lessened to that extent. 



Packages containing warm fruit 

 should never be loaded close in a rail- 

 way car in warm weather. If a refriger- 

 ator car be used, well iced, the genera- 

 tion of heat in cases of warm fruit will 

 more than counter-balance the cooling 

 power of the ice. The fruit will con- 

 tinue to ripen, and decay will begin. 



APPLES. 



Early ripening and soft varieties of 

 apples should be packed in ventilated 

 barrels or boxes, and sent in cold 

 storage. Otherwise, a large proportion 

 of ihem are likely to arrive in a slack 

 and wet condition and to be sold for a 

 price which can entail only loss. 



A report was made to me by Mr. 

 Arthur R. Fowler, of Montreal, agent 

 for Messrs. Garcia, Jacobs and &: Co., 

 on two shipments of early apples 

 sent by him in August. The two ship- 

 ments were from one lot of apples from 

 the same section in Western Ontario. 

 So far as Mr. Fowler knew, the apples 

 in each of the two shipments were sim- 

 ilar as to variety, condition when 

 packed, and manner of packing. That 

 is to say, the one lot of apples, received 

 from a place in Western Ontario, was 

 divided into two shipments, without 

 particular selection. One of these ship- 

 ments, containing 267 barrels, was 

 shipped on the steamship " Kastalia " 

 to Glasgow in cold storage on 26th 

 August. The apples of this shipment 

 were reported as being delivered all in 



good condition, and were sold at an 

 average price of i8s. per barrel, which 

 netted $2.45 in Western Ontario. The 

 other shipment, consisting of 325 bar- 

 rels, was sent forward as ordinary cargo 

 to Liverpool. The apples of this ship- 

 ment were reported as bemg delivered 

 in an unsatisfactory condition : 124 bar- 

 rels were reported "wet"' or "slightly 

 wet," and 81 barrels as "slack." Thus 

 63 per cent of the shipment, sent as 

 ordinary cargo, were landed in a 

 damaged condition. The whole ship- 

 ment ivas sold at an average price of 8s. 

 per barrel, which netted 75 cents per 

 barrel in Western Ontario. Evidently 

 the wet and slack condition of the apples 

 when delivered from the steamship, was 

 due not to the kind of fruit or the man- 

 ner of packing, but to the fact that they 

 had been heated during transit, and 

 were greatly damaged in consequence. 



It is therefore evident that for the car- 

 riage of early and soft apples, cold 

 storage is necessary to ensure good con- 

 dition and reasonably good returns to 

 the shippers. 



The later and firmer varieties of 

 apples can be shipped safely if cooled 

 below 50'' Fahr., packed in ventilated 

 barrels, and carried in the holds of 

 steamships provided with air ducts for 

 causing thorough ventilation. The cold 

 air should be conveyed to the bottoms 

 of the holds, perhaps in a manner sim- 

 ilar to air shafts for carrying cold air to 

 the stokers ; and fans should be used 

 for sucking the warm air out. If these 

 were used mainly during the night only, 

 the holds could be kept sufficiently cold 

 to land apples entirely undamaged by 

 their transit across the ocean. 



The following table shows the quan- 

 tity and value of apples imported by 

 Great Britam, year ending 31st Decem- 

 ber, 1896. 



305 



