The Canadian Horticulturist. 323 



AUSTRALIA AS AN APPLE MARKET FOR ONTARIO. 



|E are in receipt of a very kind letter from Mr. J. S. Larke, 

 Canadian Commissioner, who has oversight of the Commer- 

 •« cial Agency of Canada at Sydney, X. S. W. Mr. Larke, as 

 our readers will remember, was Executive Commissioner for 

 Canada at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. His letter 

 is in reply to an inquir-y concerning the probable advantage 

 to Canadian fruit growers of shipping their apples to Aus- 

 tralia at that season of the year when the Australian markets 

 are bare of native apples, namely, during the months of Octo- 

 ber, November and December. 



On page 144 of the Canadian Horticulturist for 1894, will be found 

 some information given us by Mr. Olds, the General Traffic Manager of the C. 

 P. R., in which he offered to forward Canadian apples from Toronto to Sydney 

 at $1.50 per 100 lbs. At that time the steamers were leaving Vancouver on the 

 1 6th of each month. The time required for the sail to Sydney was about 

 twenty days, and Vancouver is about sixteen days from Toronto, so that we 

 might count that our fruit would reach Sydney in a little over the month from 

 the time it leaves Ontario. Winter apples wrapped in tissue paper and care- 

 fully packed in boxes should carry in good condition for that length of time. 



Mr. Larke's letter is full of useful information, and we need make no 

 apology for giving a large extract from it, as follows : — 



" In regard to the shipment of fruit here, the result would be very prob- 

 lematical. They do not use apples in this country as we do in Canada, mainly 

 because of the expense, and on account of the cheapness of meat, leading to a 

 much larger use of it than with us. This is the apple season of this country, 

 the fruit being brought from Tasmania. I yesterday bought a case of cooking 

 apples, hard and green. These cases contain, nominally, 40 lbs. of apples, 

 generally less. Yesterday, the case I bought cost six shillings and sixpence, 

 delivered at the house, and these were bought from a wholesale house. This 

 is nearly $2.50 per bushel. The market prices, I observe, are somewhat less, 

 than the above, but I have never succeeded in buying at the market prices, and 

 presume that they are the prices paid by the wholesale dealer. 



" The cost of handling fruit and most other things is very high. A gen- 

 tleman told me that he has hundreds of cases of oranges rotting under the trees. 

 He says he cannot realize»one shilling a case in Sydney, while the consumer has 

 to pay five shillings or more, for the same fruit, if his statement is correct. As 

 a consequence, the fruit growers complain a good deal. The grower of the 

 Tasmanian fruit sometimes realiaes fair prices and counts himself well off when 

 he secures three shillings and sixpence per case at Hobart. He expends out 

 of this the cost of making the case, which is an item, as lumber is costly : team- 

 ing it to his nearest river port and freight to Hobart, and usually threepence a«? 



