SELLING CANADIAN FRUIT IN GREAT BRITAIN 



The charge that certain British importers of 

 x:;anadian fruit have had an understanding 

 whereby they have been able to keep down the 

 price is not supported either by Mr. A. W. Mac- 

 Kinnon, Canadian Commercial Agent at Bristol, 

 Eng., and formerly chief of the Dominion Fruit 

 .Division, or by Mr. Grindley, Chief Inspector 

 for the Department of Agriculture at Liverpool. 

 Letters on this subject have been received l<y 

 The Horticulturist. In his letter Mr. MacKin- 

 non writes as follows : 



" It is utterly impossible for me to endorse 

 such charges of dishonesty on the part of 

 brolcers here, without reflecting upon the just 

 and the unjust alike, and hearsay evidence is 

 not sufficient to convict even the individual ac- 

 cused, much less an entire class of merchants. 

 On the other hand, I have always recommended 

 growers to unite in such a way as to enable 

 them to conduct their own sales, either for a 

 fixed price in Canada, or by means of auction 

 or private sale under the supervision of one of 

 themselves in England. The old saying is true 

 in the fruit business as elsewhere, if you want 

 a thing done well do it yourself. 



" No one can possibly have the interests of 

 the growers as fully at heart as a committee of 

 themselves, and, therefore, I recommend once 

 more the cooperative plan to all progressive 

 growers. While I think the Ontario growers 

 occasionally get more than their fruit is worth, 

 owing to peculiar market conditions at the mo- 

 ment of sale, the surest way for them to get 

 just values is for the British buyer to make his 

 purchases in Canada, subject to inspection, and 

 acceptance or refusal at the Canadian port. 

 Growers would then take the risk of the rail 

 journey to the seaport, after which the buyer 

 would assume all risks." 



CHARGES DISCREDITED. 



In his letter, which is addressed to Mr. W. W. 

 Moore, Chief of the Markets Division of the 

 Department of Agriculture, who wrote to him 

 at the request of The Horticulturist, as men- 

 tioned in the February issue, Mr. Grindlay 

 writes as follows . 



" I have your letter asking for a statement 

 regarding the charges of fraud that have been 

 made against the Liverpool fruit brokers. 

 Some time ago a letter, written over the name 

 of Mr. George A. Cochrane, of Boston, appeared 

 in the New York Journal of Commerce, which 

 was copied by the Canadian press. At the 



time the letter came under my notice I did not 

 consider it worth attention, there being no 

 specific charge to warrant a special investiga- 

 tion. The bulk of the American and Canadian 

 apples shipped to Liverpool are sold by auction 

 at the Commercial Sale Room by an associa- 

 tion of fruit growers. A full description of the 

 manner in which these fruit sales are conducted 

 will be found in Bulletin No. 19 (new series). 



" Mr. Cochrane states in his letter that the 

 fruit auctioneers are fair, but that the dealers 

 manage at the auctions to secure the most de- 

 sirable lots, and to resell the apples at private 

 sale at high prices. 



" These sales are attended by several hun- 

 dred buyers from all parts of Great Britain. 

 The competition is so keen that there is no 

 chance of forming rings or of a dealer or buyfer 

 having a lot of fruit knocked down at a lower 

 price than the actual market value. The hun- 

 dreds of other buyers present would not tolerate 

 such work. The people who buy at these sales 

 are in the wholesale trade, and many buy to re- 

 ship to different parts of Great Britain and Ire- 

 land, and naturally expect a profit. 

 PRINT A CATALOGUE. 



" Each of the fruit brokers who belong to the 

 Fruit Brokers' Association prints a catalogue 

 giving full details of fruit sold at each sale with 

 prices realized. A rule of the association 

 stipulates ' That no prices shall appear in 

 printed catalogues, except those actually ob- 

 tained, and at which invoices are issued to buy- 

 ers, other than owners.' This rule, which Ls 

 strictly enforced, prevents bogus sales; and the 

 printing on the catalogues of the actual prices 

 realized prevents sending the shippers fictitious 

 account sales. 



" Another rule specifies that all goods offered 

 in saleroom belonging to buyers must be in- 

 dexed at end of catalogue, and receivers other 

 than auctioneers cannot bid for their own fruit. 

 Our department has had a seat in the Commer- 

 cial Sale Room for the past three seasons, and 

 Mr. "Carter, our Liverpool inspector, w^ho has 

 been connected for some years with the 

 British fruit trade, is present at nearly 

 all, if not all, the sales, and neither he 

 nor myself have ever seen or heard of a case 

 which would warrant such an iinpeachment of 

 the honor of the members of the Liverpool Fruit 

 Brokers' Association, as was made by Mr. 

 Cochrane." 



THE PROSPECTS FOR EARLY VEGETABLES 



The Winnipeg market would take early vege- 

 tables if we could get them early, but I do not 

 think it pays for the trouble, owing to the fact 

 that our arrangements are all made for early 

 vegetables, such as tomatoes, cabbages, cukes, 

 beans, and all that kind of truck, early in the 

 season. Prices are gradually going down in 

 the south and are very low. The southern 

 vegetables invariably interfere with the early 

 products of Ontario growers. I do not, there- 

 fore, hold out any inducements for a profitable 

 business along this line. There is no argu- 



ment at all as far as the quality is concerned, 

 as the Ontario vegetables are certainly very 

 superior. When it comes down to vegetables, 

 however, quality is largely thrown aside, and I 

 do not think, as already stated, it would pay to 

 Increase the production to any great extent. — 

 (G. M. Hunt. Manager Fruit and Produce Ex-" 

 change. Winnipeg, Man. 



All the early vegetables that we handle in 

 this market would make no material difference 

 to what would be grown in South Essex. We 

 import a few from the American side, but we 



