494 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



A Dangerous Practice 



ADOL.PHUS PETTIT, GRIMSBY. 



From statements I have heard made, I under- 

 stand that many of our great Ontario growers 

 have been in the habit of shipping their inferior 

 fruit to the Winnipeg market. This is most 

 unfortunate, for as long as it continues, our 

 fruit will never be able to supplant American 

 fruit at that point. 



Would it not be well for our fruit inspectors 

 to watch this trade very carefully ? A few con- 

 victions against growers who carry on this 

 practice would result in much good and improve 

 the western buyers' opinion of our Ontario fruit. 



Shippiug Immature Fruit Condemned 



A Montreal fruit inspector says : In exam- 

 ining the fruit being shipped to the Old Country 

 from Montreal, I notice a large number of bar- 

 rels of Stark and Ben Davis apples and other 

 late winter varieties. I do not think there is 

 as much excuse for shipping Stark or Ben Davis 

 in October as there is for shipping Northern 

 Spy in August; and the practice should be 

 recognized as distinctly detrimental to the fruit 

 trade. 



These apples will not be fit for consumption 

 for three months, and yet if shipped now they 

 go direct to the consumers, who will find them 

 scarcely more palatable than a Swede turnip. 

 When the question of shipping immature fruit 

 is being discussed, it should not be forgotten 

 that to ship late winter varieties as early as this 

 is quite as reprehensible as shipping fall varieties 

 in August or September. 



A Useful Machine for Grading Apples 



While visiting at the home, of Mr. A. H. Pettit, 

 of Grimsby, recently, a representative of The 

 Horticulturist was shown a machine for grad- 

 ing apples. Grading is a matter to which Mr. 

 Pettit has given considerable attention for a 

 number of years. In this connection, he has 

 invented several machines, including the one 

 he is now using, which he considers Is about 

 perfect. 



The apples are poured onto a rubber sheet. 

 In the sheet there are holes, the smaller ones 

 being 2% inches in diameter, for the small stuff. 

 These are followed by holes 2% inches in 

 diameter. Larger apples roll off the end of the 

 sheet. The apples as they are forced over the 

 sheet drop through the holes according to their 

 size and thus are graded very evenly. Holes 

 of as many different sizes as are desired may 

 be added. 



Underneath the sheet are rollers, which, by 

 means of a crank, are operated in such a way 

 as to keep the apples rolling easily down the 

 sheet. The whole implement has been made 

 in such a way that the apples are not bruised 

 in any way. Its simplicity is its best feature. 

 By means of its use it Is easily possible to grade 

 a barrel of apples every four minutes. This 

 machine has been in use by Mr. Pettit for three 

 years, until he has come to consider it a neces- 

 sity. 



MR. Wn. WILSON. 



In its August issue The 

 Horticulturist published an 

 interesting article by Mr. 

 William Wilson, of London, 

 whose likeness is here 

 shown, describing a very 

 adaptable package for fruit, 

 which is his own invention. 

 This package is now recog- 

 nized as one of the very 

 liest on the market and has 

 been used by the Canadian 

 government for its exhibits 

 of fruits at foreign exhibi- 

 tions. Bern in Ayrshire, 

 Scjtland, in 1849, Mr. Wil- 

 son lived in .Scotland and 

 Ireland until 1877, when he 

 came to Canada and finally 

 settled in London in 1879. 

 It was while on a visit tp 

 Britain in 1894 that he first 

 conceived the idea of inventing a complete egg and fruit case. The 

 thought originated in the great market in Covent Garden, London, 

 while watchmg a man trying to auction some really first-class fruit 

 to a very stiff audience. In 1897 he developed an egg and fruit 

 package, which has since been improved in many ways, until it is 

 now one of the best known in the world. 



Scotch Buyer Expects Prices Will Improve 



The following interesting letter, dealing with 

 market prospects, was received recently by The 

 Horticulturist from Messrs. Clark and Sinclair, 

 fruit merchants, of 9 and 11 West Dock street, 

 Dundee, Scotland, whose advertisement ap- 

 pears in this issue of The Horticulturist for the 

 first time: 



" Fall apples have been doing very badly over 

 here, but this was expected in face of the heavy 

 crop both in England and on the continent. We 

 have had about 1,000 barrels and results have 

 been anything but satisfactory. We, however, 

 expect a firming up of prices very soon. Harder 

 varieties arriving show an upward tendency. 

 We shall be very pleased if you can put us in 

 touch with some reliable growers and shippers. 



" Last year we handled about 6,000 barrels, 

 and imported the bulk of them direct, but some- 

 times the dealers acted very unfairly with us. 

 We could handle 500 to 1,000 XXX Baldwins and 

 some of Spys, if reliable, finest fruit. 



" The market reports contained in the Sep- 

 tember Horticulturist were very useful." 



What Fruit Growers are Saying: 



A great drawback to planting apple orchards 

 is the inability to get good stock to plant. Nur- 

 serymen supply you with anything but the kind 

 you order, mostly fall varieties, which come 

 into bearing at the wrong time and are worth- 

 less on the market. — (Thos. O'Brien, Durham 

 Co., Ont. 



The slipshod methods of buyers who buy the 

 farmer's fruit and then send a lot of boys to 

 pack it disgust many growers. There is little 

 encouragement for farmers to grow fruit. 

 When there is a good crop the price is so low it 

 does not even pay for the labor. — (Amos Cutler, 

 Middlesex Co., Ont. 



Farmers think it will not pay to spray simply 

 because they have ^been taken in so many times 

 by men who go about spraying and who do the 

 work improperly. The man who is spray- 

 ing looks out for his own pocket. — (Anson 

 Crosby, York Co., Ont. 



