354 The Canadian Horticulturisi. 



REFORM IN FRUIT PACKING. 



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HE following letter to the Glasgow Citizen will be of interest 

 to every fruit-grower in the Niagara peninsula : 



Sir, — In near prospect of the annual advent of the great 

 fruit trade, timely suggestions of improvement in catering 

 arrangements beneficial to the great consuming public, apart 

 from the workers and dealers in the merchandise, are appro- 

 priate and necessary. 



The trade is a great one and increases by leaps and 

 bounds every year. The article itself is wanted and annual 

 expectations are founded upon it. The fruit is being recognized as a necessary 

 article of family food. No other apples — for one reason or another — can be 

 made substitutes for those of American growth. The harvest prospects of the 

 crop in America this year are well reported of. But the barrel form (containing 

 1 20 to 140 pounds) of package shipment is a failure, and is demoralizing the 

 trade in public estimation here. 



In Canada the trade is primarily commenced by orchard contractors, and 

 then from them in bulk of barrels to the shippers and their consignees. The 

 former are knavish, and the latter are unconcerned beyond their computations ; 

 and both of them are ignorant and unlearned in the wants of the people here, 

 upon whose patronage the prosperity of the trade is depending. 



In packing these barrels the contractor places a few inches of select 

 fruit on top and bottom, while the centre is filled with any sort you choose 

 to call them. Sampling either end is no criterion of the stock. Emptying the 

 barrel is interminable work, damaging the fruit, and the packer's knavery has 

 not even extenuating cleverness to show for it. The result is that brokers can 

 give no guarantee under their hammer. Even three random barrels in a ship- 

 ment lot opened is no criterion — the character of a lot being so miscellaneous in 

 itself. Dealers hesitate to purchase uncertain stock. The broker's ledger is 

 creeping with disputed accounts in consequence of misrepresented stock, and 

 what is worst of all and becoming fatal to the trade is that the family man will 

 not buy a barrel at all on account of its quantity (120 to 140 pounds), and the 

 uncertainty of the quality throughout the barrel. 



Again, there are barrels known as slacks, but as a rule these proclaim them- 

 selves to an observer, and are the result of ignorance on the part of the packing 

 orchard contractor, who puts over-ripe fruit in the centre of the barrel. The 

 broker generally is obliged to sacrifice such lots, but all the same the good fruit 

 is lost to the use of man, and the inconvenient barrel package is one-half at least 

 of the primary cause of the loss. 



Now, these barrels — containing 120 to 140 pounds and costing half a dollar 



