THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



of such varieties as the Duchess and Astra- 

 chan, which in other years were wasted/' 



Mr. Haines, St. Catharines : " Do I un- 

 derstand that each fruit grower loses his 

 identity when he turns his fruit over to your 

 company, or do you allow the growers 

 names to appear on their boxes while stat- 

 ing that the apples have been graded by your 

 company? There is considerable diflference 

 in the quality of No. i fruit. This differ- 

 ence is so great as to make it possible to 

 have various grades of No. i fruit. Grow- 

 ers who produce the best grades of this fruit 

 should, in my opinion, receive proper credit 

 for it." 



Mr. Sherrington : " We only have three 

 grades and growers are not allowed to place 

 their names on their boxes." 



Robert Thompson, St. Catharines : " I 

 would not want to join a company of that 

 kmd. There is a difference of at least 25 

 cents in the value of different grades of 

 No. I fruit, and even more in No. 2 fruit. 

 It seems unjust that the man, who carefully 

 cultivates his orchard and prunes his trees, 

 that he may produce the very best fruit, 

 should not obtain due credit for it." 



Alex. McNeill, Ottawa : " One of the 

 greatest weaknesses among fruit growers is 

 their lack of sentiment and the manner in 

 which they refuse to sink their own identity 

 for the benefit of their fellow growers. We 

 will never succeed with these cooperative 

 associations until each grower is willing to 

 sink his own interests for the benefit of the 

 common cause. In a general way I think 

 we are very much improved in this respect. ' 



Mr, Sherrington : " In my case I did not 

 need to join a cooperative association. I 

 was growing enough apples to enable me to 

 ship for myself, but my neighbors were not 

 in such a position. By cooperating we have 

 practically shut the buyers out of the dis- 

 trict. Before we cooperated buyers used 

 to visit our section and purchase a few crops 

 at low prices. By threatening not to buy 

 the crops of other growers they were able 

 to secure them at ridiculously low figures,- 

 and in this way the average price was kept 

 down to the disadvantage of all the growers. 

 Since the association has been formed the 

 buyers have not been able to do this, and we 

 have all shared the benefit. Growers must 

 work together if they are to succeed. 



(Continued on page 537 ) 



HANDLING THE FRUIT CROP FOR COLD STORAGE * 



G. HAROLD powe;i;Iv, u. s. department op agriculture. 



•^f^ HE Department of Agriculture of the 



X United States has been conducting 

 investigations in regard to the cold storage 

 of fruit. These liave concerned the influ- 

 ence of geographic and climatic conditions, 

 cultural practices in the orchard, commer- 

 cial methods of picking, handling and ship- 

 ing,. conditions in cold storage warehouses, 

 and the keeping quality and ultimate value 

 of the fruit. 



We used to think (and this feeling is ap- 

 parently still s'hared by a considerable num- 

 ber of apple men) that the temperature of 



* Extract from an address delivered at tlie annual convention 

 i6-i8, in connection with The Provinc ial Kruit, Flower and Honey 



the warehouse was the one factor tliat df- 

 termined the behavior of the fruit in its com- 

 partments. If the temperature of the rooms 

 was only cold enough it was expected that 

 the fruit ought to keep under all conditions. 

 When the barrels came out of the warehouse 

 in the spring, slack packed, or the apples 

 were decayed and mussy, or more scab had 

 developed on the fruit than it showed at the 

 picking time, these difficulties and many 

 others were invariably attributed to the 

 faulty management of the warehouse. The 

 records are replete with claims of the apple 



of the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association held in Toronto, Noveinher 

 Show. 



