136 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



work, but the terrible state of the roads is en- 

 tirely the cause. Farmers are quite unable to 

 get out to attend the meetings, and with the 

 best desire in the world to hear what the speak- 

 ers have to say, they are impotent to help them- 

 selves. Last year was about the best in the in- 

 stitute work. 



SPREAD THE FRUIT AROUND. 



How Canadian Shippers May Obtain Good 

 Prices. 



Mr. Peter Ball, Canadian Commercial Agent 

 at Birmingham, advises Canadian apple ship- 

 pers not to pour the whole of their fruit crop 

 into London, Liverpool, Manchester and Glas- 

 gow, within a few weeks, for sale in auction 

 rooms, but to spread them over the different 

 towns, placing them in the hands of firms who 

 could take regular supplies. The latter course 

 would pay better. 



," I could place," he states, " among different 

 towns in this district up to 10,000 barrels a 

 week, divided among respectable men, if any of 

 our apple shippers would care to get into com- 

 munication for regular supplies." It was most 

 unfortunate that Canadians shipped so many 

 apples just before Christmas. At the present 

 time it is almost impossible to purchase Cana- 

 dian apples in the market. Spys, Russets and 

 Baldwins, which went for 12s 6d and 14s a bar- 

 rel, now command fro^m 21s to 25s. 



CANNED AND EVAPORATED GOODS 

 TRADE. 



Mr. A. W. Grindley, agent of the Department 

 of Agriculture in Great Britain, gives the fol- 

 lowing information in regard to the trade in 

 canned and evaporated goods during 1903, in ad- 

 dition to the extracts from his annual report, 

 published last week. 



Fruit Pulps. 



There is a good demand for the following 

 fruit pulps, which can be put up in Canada : 

 Strawberry, raspberry, gooseberry, black cur- 

 rant, peaches, pears, apricots. 



The above fruits are largely used in jam fac- 

 tories in Great Britain. 



Canadian packers of fruit pulps should ob- 

 serve the following points : 



1. Use a heavy grade of charcoal tin plates 

 for making the cans. 



2. Do not use resin for soldering the inside 

 seams, as the least portion imparts a bad flavor 

 to the contents. 



3. One gallon tins are preferable to cans 

 holding five gallons, chiefly because there is less 

 loss in case of a puncture or other cause of 

 damage. 



4. For colored pulps an internally lacquered 

 tin is very much preferred. 



5. No coloring matter or preservatives of any 

 kind should be added. 



6. Have cases holding cans made strongly 

 and with tight covers, not slats. 



NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF FRUIT 

 GROWERS. 



At the annual meeting of the Nova Scotia 

 Fruit Growers' Association at Bridgewater it 

 was mentioned that the Dominion Minister of 

 Agriculture had received a communication from 

 leading fruit growers of Prince Edward Island, 

 New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, asking him 

 to call together at Ottawa a conference of re- 

 presentative fruit growers from all the provin- 

 ces of Canada to discuss matters of national in- 

 terest, such matters as might call for legisla- 

 tion by the federal parliament, or matters that 

 might require unanimous action on the part of 

 the fruit growers of this country. In this con- 

 nection Mr. W. A. McKinnon, chief of the Fruit 

 Division, Ottawa, referred to the advisability 

 of concerted action regarding such subjects as 

 transportation, legislation, uniformity of pack- 

 ages, etc., and said that the Hon. Sydney Fisher 

 and Prof. Robertson would welcome a full dis- 

 cussion of the proposal and an expression of 

 opinion from the Nova Scotia and other provin- 

 cial fruit growers' associations. The matter 

 will accordingly be taken up by a committee of 

 the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers' Association, 

 some members of which suggested the forma- 

 tion of a Canadian Pomological Society of na- 

 tional character and scope. 



APPPLE BARREL STAVES. 



A leading Guelph apple shipper writes the 

 Fruit Division, Ottawa, that he can use from 

 12,000 to 15,000 barrels every year, and that it n 

 is his intention to buy the staves and make his 

 own barrels hereafter. He says: "The trade 

 will have to make great preparations, because 

 all staves in the country will now be very green 

 wood, and I should specially warn your depart- 

 ment to urge all stave dealers to get drying 

 kilns vrarking so that stock will be O. K. when 

 needed." 



FRAUDULENT APPLE PACKING. 



Under the above heading the Winnipeg Com- 

 mercial of February 6th hd^ an editorial of 

 more than ordinary interest to the fruit ship- 

 pers of Ontario. The article says: "Another 

 Ontario fruit man was fined at Winnipeg last 

 week for attempting to sell apples in this mar- 

 ket which had been falsely marked and packed. 

 The offender had not even the excuse that he 

 was ignorant of the law to offer, and his guilt 

 was even increased by the fact that he had been 

 warned for the same offence before. If we are 

 to judge the Ontario fruit shippers by the pro- 

 portion of them fined here for dishonesty of this 

 kind the opinion would be formed that more 

 than an ordinary percentage of them are worth 

 watching in business; and if we are to judge 

 Ontario business men generally by the standard 

 which this would set up for the fruit men, there 

 is danger that the good opinion of them hereto- 

 fore held will have to be considerably modified. 

 The number and extent of the frauds exposed 



