214 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



Flora.1 HJdltlon 



Well packed fruit, as handled by the Gordon Head Frudt Growers' Association, Victoria, B.C. 



markets that varied from those in gen- 

 eral use here. In view of the fact that 

 the importfid goods are usually on th* 

 market in advance of our own, and 

 often in packages superior to ours, 

 they create a precedent in favor of the 

 imported article. It has often been to 

 our interest to adopt these packages, 

 and, in some instances, for our pro- 

 tection, we have been compelled to do 

 so. It is noit my intention to criticize 

 the packages of our com>petitors. In 

 most cases they merit our attention 

 with a view to adopting them our- 

 selves. 



The intix)duction of packages dif- 

 ferent from those in general use in 

 British Columbia affects us materially. 

 British Columbia shippers have, until 

 I'ecently, when shipping prunes in 

 peach boxes used the four-inch box. 

 This package was fairly satisfaotory 

 and was identical with the peach pack- 

 age being used for prunes by our com- 

 petitors. During the season of 1914, 

 however, our competitors placed 

 prunes on our marke.ts in 3I/2 inch 

 peach boxes. The price of our prunes 

 is largely controlled by the quotations 

 from competitive points, which result- 

 ed in our 4 in. peach box having to 

 compete with the 31/0 in. box as far as 

 price was concerned. It was a surpris- 

 ing fact that, generally speaking, the 

 Avholesale trade could not get any more 

 for our 4 in. box than they were get- 

 ting for imported 3i/4 in. boxes, not- 

 with.standing that there would be 

 about 8 lbs. more fruit in the 4 in. 

 package. The retail merchants claim- 

 ed that it was impossible to impress the 

 housewife purchasing prunes that she 



was getting better value in the 4 in. 

 box at an advance in price over the 

 31/2 in. package. To her it was a box 

 of prunes, and she purchased the 31/0 

 in. if the price of the 4 in. was higher, 

 thereby obtaining imported fruit. It 

 is, therefore, obvious that if the 

 merchant was obliged to sell a 4 in. 

 box at the same price as a 31/2 in. one, 

 he could not afford to pay any more 

 for it. In many cases I believe this re- 

 sulted in his buying our competitors' 

 prunes. The \Vholesaler, in his turn, 

 was unable to pay more than he would 

 for the smaller package, with the re- 

 sult that the f.o.b. price of our prunes 

 was affected. The only manner in 

 which this condition could be met was 

 by our shippers adopting the Sto in. 

 package, which was practically im- 

 possible at that time, as box material 

 was already purchased. The unfortun- 

 ate situation during 1915 was that some 

 of our shippers adopted the Sy^ in. 

 package and were able to quote lower 

 than those using the 4 in., which had a 

 tendency to reduce the price of the 4 

 in. to that of the 31/2 in. This condition 

 is liable to arise at any time unless our 

 packages are standardized. Assuming 

 that all British Columbia shippers 

 adopt the Sy^ in. peach box for prunes, 

 we have no assurance but that our 

 competitors may appear with a 3 in. 

 box, unless we .s.tandardize our pack- 

 ages. 



Strawberry Orates. 

 The same condition existed on the 

 prairie markets regarding our four- 

 fifth crate for strawberries, and other 

 fruit packed in this package. The 

 season of 1914 witnessed the introduc- 



tion on our markets of the 24 pint berrj 

 crate from Washington. At this tiin( 

 our shippers were using the 24 four 

 fifth crate, or the 24 two-fifth crate foi 

 berries. The 24 four-fifth crate w 

 used for strawberries and came ii 

 direct competition with the 24 d( 

 |)int from Washington. The cubic c 

 tents of our 24 four-fifth crate is l: 

 cubic inches, while the 24 pint cratt 

 only 806.4 cubic inches. In oti 

 words, the package we were obliged u 

 compete with was approximately onlj 

 three-fifths the size of the crate w( 

 were using. For this reason then w( 

 could reasonably expect for similai 

 quality fruit, as well packed, that ou: 

 package should sell for two-fifths mon 

 than the deep pint. Generally speak 

 ing, on our prairie markets, the four 

 fifth package sold for the same pric< 

 as the deep pint. There were a fev 

 exceptions to this; in some cases 25c 

 a package more was realized for ou: 

 four-fifth, as compared with the im 

 ported deep pint. 



At first thought it may appear dif 

 ficult to realize how this could happen 

 The imported pint crate predominate( 

 in our markets. It is a neat, attractiv 

 package ; the berries shipped well 

 were well packed and faced, and th 

 ))ackage immediately became populai 

 This resulted in the retail merchan 

 preferring the pint package, an< 

 eventually it was difficult for him ti 

 obtain more for the four-fifth than fo 

 the deep pint halloek, as the pin 

 hallock set the retail price for a box 

 strawberries. In conversation with r( 

 tailei's they have advised me tha 

 customers haA'e objected, if a highe 

 price was asked for the four-fiftl 

 .stating that their competitors wer 

 selling strawberries cheaper. Th 

 merchant's explanation that th 

 hallocks were larger packages availe 

 nothing. The result was he purchase 

 the 24 pint crate and saved himself th 

 trouble of having to make lengthy e^ 

 planations to his customers, as he ofte 

 had to do when he sold the four-fiftl 

 The direct result of this was that w 

 were compelled to use the 24 pir 

 crate. Unfortunately it was not po; 

 sible to do this in 1914, as box nu 

 terial was already oixlered, but in 191 

 some of our shippers used this pad 

 age, with good results. It would m 

 pear then that we have everything 1 

 gain, as far as British Colunvbia is col 

 cerned, in adopting the 24 deep pir 

 package in place of the four-fifth. Tl 

 package can be used with advant^ 

 for all the purposes that the four-fir 

 has been used for previously. In regar 

 to this package our competitors ha\| 

 still another advantage over us. Thef 

 strawberries and cherries are faeea 

 Approximately there are 16 squaij 

 inches to be faced in the deep pir 



