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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



Canadian Fruit in England 



" While in England last winter," said Mr. M. 

 E. Kyle, of Oakville, Ont., to The Horticulturist 

 a few days ago, " I found the Fruit Marks Act 

 had done a great deal to improve the standing 

 of Canadian fruit on the British markets, al- 

 though even yet some of the fruit shipped from 

 Canada is not what it should be. Unless ship- 

 ments of inferior fruit can be stopped, our trade 

 will continue to receive more or less injury. 



" While in Bath I entered a grocery store, 

 where I saw several barrels of very inferior 

 Baldwins. I asked the proprietor where he had 

 oibtained such ru/bbish, and he informed me, 

 much to my surprise, that they were Canadian 

 apples which he had purchased at auction in 

 Bristol. He ha^, he claimed, lost at least $50 

 through his purchase of that one lot of apples. 

 I was so struck by this information that I sent 

 to Bristol and had one of the Dominion inspec- 

 tors come to Bath to inspect the apples. Un- 

 fortunately the grocer had lost the heads of the 

 barrels and it was impossible to trace the ship- 

 ment. 



" On being asked if he did not think that 

 United States growers might be taking advant- 

 age of the good reputation of Canadian apples 

 to send tiheir apples under a Canadian label, as 

 has been done with shipments of United States 

 cheese, Mr. Kyle replied that he could not say 

 definitely, although he rather doubted it. 

 " American barrels," he said, " are of a differ- 

 ent shape, being smaller and having a different 

 hoop from the Canadian barrels, although it is 

 quite possible some of their shippers may have 

 obtained barrels similar to those used in 

 Canada. 



" A very large trade," Mr. Kyle continued, 

 " can be done by Ontario shippers who once be- 

 come known as relia'ble packers. One large 

 imiporter expressed his willingness to me to 

 handle 500 to 800 barrels of Canadian apples 

 weekly, if the quality of the shipments could be 

 guaranteed. I have seen Spys, Baldwins and 

 Russets retail for 8 to 12 cents per pound. Out- 

 side a special demand for fancy large apples in 

 the large cities from November to May, small 

 apples seem to be generally preferred. As 

 apples in England are generally retailed by the 

 pound, the buyers like to obtain three or more 

 for a pound instead of one or two large ones. 

 Apples which weigh three-quarters of a pound 

 are not liked for this reason." 



" Ontario growers who have fine large apples 

 should be able to obtain handsome prices for 

 them if they would ship them in boxes and 

 wrap them with paper. While it costs more 

 to grade uniformly and wrap fruit in this way, 

 the increase in the prices obtained should much 

 more than pay for the trouble and additional ex- 

 pense incurred. Leading buyers told me that 

 if our growers would take the same trouble in 

 packing and grading their fruit as is taken by 

 the California growers, much better prices 

 could ibe realized. There Is hardly a city of 

 any size in Great Britain in which there are not 

 dealers who would be glad to handle fancy fruit 



from our Ontario shippers, especially if shipped 

 direct, but if our men are going to open up this 

 trade they will have to make a search for these 

 dealers. Once an Ontario shipper has found 

 such men to handle his fruit it should be possi- 

 ble for him to work up a very fine trade." 



Shipping Apples to the Old Country 



" The great bulk of my apples," said William 

 Rickard, M. L. A., of Newcastle, to The Horti- 

 culturist recently, " go to the old country, be- 

 ing shipped to Oiasgow, Liverpool, London and 

 Manchester. Up to the present I have pre- 

 ferred the barrel package. The box has not 

 yet demonstrated its usefulness for the ship- 

 ment of the bulk of the crop. It has, so far, 

 been devoted to the fancy apple trade, but may 

 yet, however, grow into favor and become more 

 generally used. Even this year I think the 

 standard barrel will be used for the bulk of the 

 crop. 



" The Montreal, Liverpool and Glasgow deal- 

 ers do not want boxes, although some Ontario 

 shippers who have forwarded all their apples 

 in boxes have done well. It is a question in 

 my mind whether it would be possible for 

 Liverpool dealers to handle 150,000 barrels of 

 apples a week, as they frequently do, were all 

 the apples to be shipped in boxes." 



Two Shipments of Apples 



Ontario apple growers who export to Great 

 Britain meet with queer experiences, some of 

 which are hard to account for. One of these 

 was drawn to the attention of The Horticul- 

 turist lately by Mr. W. H. Dempsey, of Tren- 

 ton. 



" On March 25 last," said Mr. Dempsey, " I 

 loaded a car of apples; three days later I 

 loaded a second car. The apples in each of 

 these cars were equally good. They went to 

 Portland, ana were shipped to Liverpool on the 

 same steamer, but were consigned to different 

 buyers. The apples in both cars were branded 

 the same. One car realized about two-thirds 

 more than the other. The apples which 

 brought the lowest prices were reported by the 

 buyer to have sunk six inches in the barrel, and 

 that the juice was running out between the 

 staves. The other reported the apples in his 

 car in perfect condition." 



HOW DID IT HAPPEN ? 



"What I would like to know," continued Mr. 

 Demipsey, " is how one load of apples could 

 have been injured in this way, while the other 

 remained in such perfect condition ? I «.m' 

 satisfied both firms were honest and reported 

 the case as it was. When I was loading the 

 second car, which was the one bringing the low- 

 est prices, the engine in the yard was doing 

 considerable shunting and the cars were being 

 jarred rather severely. I have thought that 

 the apples may have been injured by the 

 shunting. On the other hand, the injury may 

 have been caused by heat in the hold of the 

 steamer, as one lot of apples might have been 



