FRUIT SHIPMENTS TO GREAT BRITIAN 



NOTHARD & LOWE, TOOLEY STREET, LONDON, ENG. 



The best way to ship apples is in barrels, 

 with a thick pulp head on top of the apples to 

 prevent bruising. A few extra fine varieties 

 might do in cases if packed as the California 

 fruit packers pack theirs, but we are opposed 

 to the use of oases as a rule. Every steamer's 

 holu, where iruit is carried, should have a 

 therm'ograph. This should be opened and ex- 

 amined in th'e presence of your inspectors in 

 London, and the temperature officially pub 

 lished for the benefit of the fruit growers and 

 shippers. There would be no difficulty then 

 finding out which boats carried fruit in the most 

 satisfactory manner. 



Varieties That Have Done Well. 



The bulk of the apples "we handle are from 

 Nova Scotia, from which province we receive 

 very large quantities. We have fruit houses in 

 most of the principal stations from where fruit is 

 shipped on the railways. The principal varie- 

 ties that are shipped are Gravenstein, King 

 Tompkin, Ribston, 'Spy, Baldwin, Greening, G. 

 Russets, Fallawaters, Nonpareils, and this last 

 season there have been quite a good few ship- 



per ^^ a new variety known as the Stark. This 

 apple is growing in popularity here. 



A few seasons ago we sent out a considerable 

 number of grafts of the celebrated English 

 varieties, the Cox's Orange Pippin and the Wel- 

 lington. There have been a few hundred pack- 

 ages of Wellingtons shipped to us this season; 

 they have made a very high price, and there 

 have been a few packages of Cox's Orange ship- 

 ped, also which made still higher prices. 

 This latter variety appears to be a light bearer. 

 The Ben Davis discolors badly. 



There has not yet been any great improve- 

 ment in the packing, although the Fruit Act is 

 in force to prevent fraudulent packing. There 

 are, of course, a great number of shippers who 

 never pack inferior stuff, and there are also a 

 lot of them who do pack inferior apples, and 

 there were a great number of cases of this dur- 

 ing the past season. The inspectors at this 

 end should report every case they can trace of 

 false packing, to the inspectors at the other end. 

 No doubt this is done. It is the most effectual 

 way of tracing false packing. 



BRITISH GROCERS DISCUSS THE PACKAGE QUESTION 



At the quarterly meeting of the federation of 

 the Grocers' Association, held in London, Eng- 

 land during the early part of June, an interest- 

 ing discussion took place on the subject of 

 packing apples in boxes. The following report 

 of the meeting is taken from The Grocer : 



Mr. Button, on behalf of the Chester Asso- 

 ciation, moved : 



" That in the opinion of those grocers in the 

 General Purpose Committee who deal in fresh 

 fruit, the movement in -America in favor of the 

 packing of apples in boxes of a reasonable ca- 

 pacity, insteaa of barrels, is deserving of the 

 strongest support at the hands of all retail 

 fruit dealers in this country, such reduced size 

 packages having very many advantages, whilst 

 the cumbrous barrels hitherto used have many 

 >_isauvantages; and to recommend tbat this 

 opinion be sent to all American fruit associa- 

 tions." 



Mr. Button saiu he had noticed from time to 

 time that there was such a movement In pro- 

 gress in America, and he had the advantage 

 that morning of conversing with Mr. George 

 Monro, one of the largest fruit dealers 

 in Covent Garden, who thought it would be 

 an excellent thing if they could send the reso- 

 lution forwaru to the various authorities in 

 America who were responsible on that side for 

 the packing of goods. He had an article writ- 

 ten by Mr. G. A. Cochrane, of Boston, on this 

 barrel problem, in which the writer said : " I 

 think this great scarcity of barrels is going to 

 result in good to growers in the end. The 

 barrel has always been a most unsuitable pack- 

 age to pack such delicate fruit in, as it gets an 

 immense amount of abuse on all hands, in con- 



sequence of its being so easy to move from 

 place to place by rolling. Another thing, its 

 contents, for one compartment, contain too 

 great a quantity of fruit, and in order to carry 

 well a pressure has to be used that virtually 

 bruises every piece of fruit it contains. 



" When one looks at the intelligence shown 

 by the Californians and the Floridians in the 

 matter of grading and packing of their fruits, 

 as well as the inviting packages they use, one 

 is forced to admit the utter lack of intelligence 

 or an indifference on the part of growers of 

 fruit in New England and the middle states in 

 this matter. No advancement whatever is dis- 

 cernible, as they continue in the same old ways 

 of their grandfathers in adhering to the bar- 

 rel, and with a little less honesty in the matter 

 of packing their fruit. There are no fruit 

 growers in the world who have such a low 

 standard of grading fruit and using such an 

 unsuitable package as the barrel to pack in as 

 the apple growers in the middle and New Eng- 

 land States of America; and the Canadians are 

 not better, except in better barrels, as they 

 generally use new ones. 



"They continue to try to market one-third 

 to one -half of their apples that should never 

 have left their orchards, and if they could only 

 realize this, and that they would receive from 

 one-third to one-half more for their perfect 

 fruit than they do now, as well as saving the 

 cost of packages, labor, freight, cartage, and 

 other charges on this worthless portion of their 

 shipments — ^when they realize this and bring up 

 their standards of quality, they will find their 

 apple trees will yield them a profit to exceed 

 anything they can raise on their farms." It 



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