226 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



Floral Edition. 



Precooled Express Shipments of Strawberries 



J. M. Creelman, B.S.A., Grimsby, Ont. 



FOLLOWING up the experiment carried 

 on In 1915 in conjunction with the 

 Crrlmsby Cold Storage, the Vineland Co- 

 operative Growers shipped another carload 

 of strawberries to Winnipeg by refrigerated 

 express on July 1st of this year. The ship- 

 ment was made in the full pint Halloclc 

 crate of the weist, and an effort was made to 

 see that the berries were of the proper de- 

 gree of ripeness. 



The car was precooled at Grimsby and 

 shipment made by refrigerated express, and 

 re-iced only once in transit, at Fort William, 

 where l,.50O lbs. was needed. The car ar- 

 rived at noon of the second and was opened 

 immediately and some of the fruit disposed 

 of. Inspection was made of a number of 

 cases. These were found to be in fairly 

 good shape, though softening badly. There 

 was not much mould showing yet, except in 

 certain packs which were noticeably worse 

 than others. 



On the following day they were not in 

 very good shape and considerable mould 

 was in evidence. 



A number of observations were' made and 

 conclusions arrived at from the behavior of 

 this car. 



The package was entirely satisfactory, and 

 even witlh the rebate granted, the berries 

 sold at a good fair price. They realized 

 enough to encourage future shipments. 



The great difference in the condition of 

 different packs showed that much depends 

 on the care taken in packing and picking, 

 so as to exclude overripe and bruised ber- 

 ries. There were packs which were in good 

 shape and which were entirely satisfactopjy. 

 These came from patches where care Had 

 been taken. The berries from other patches 

 where the pickers had not been so scrupul- 

 ous, and where trouble was expected, were 

 in a poor and unsatisfactory condition. 



The variety of the berries shipped was the 

 Williams. This variety has been reputed 

 to be a good shipper and otherwise has been 

 highly recommended. It has a characteris- 



tic light green tip which la very slow to 

 color and which it Is found doeis not color 

 under storage or transit conditions, but 

 rather turns to an unattractive dirty brown. 

 In our .storage te.sts it was found to turn 

 dark in color and become unattractive in ap- 

 pearance. Instead of being a good storer it 

 was found to be one of the poorest tested. 



Included in the car were 37 cases of ber- 

 ries which were packed and faced by spe- 

 cial packers from the Cold Storage. This 

 was done to approximate as nearly as pos- 

 sible the commeroial paclts of the west. 

 Care was taken to see that no over-ripe ber- 

 ries went in. This pack arrived in excellent 

 shape and held up well. It justified the 

 extra care taken with it, except that the 

 facing did not seem to make any appreci- 

 able difference as far as the selling was' con- 

 cerned. 



The general conclusions reached in re- 

 gard to the shipment of berries to Winnipeg 

 were that first of all great care must be 

 taken to see that the condition of the fruit 

 is right and that no overripe berries are in- 

 cluded. It Is apparently not worth while 

 facing our packs. 



It is doubtful if very successful shipments 

 can be made with the Williams variety. It 

 is possible that before these shipments be- 

 come any extensive feature of the berry- 

 growing industry of the Niagara Peninsula, 

 that some other variety will have to replace 

 the Williams as the chief commercial berry. 

 This should not be an impossibility, as there, 

 are already berries which are better than 

 the Williams as a shipper and which are 

 as good in other respect's. 



Taken altogether the experiment was 

 thoroughly encouraging. With care in hand- 

 ling Ontario berries should be able to largely 

 shut out Hood River and other United 

 States berries from the Winnipeg market 

 and still yield remunerative prices to the 

 Ontario shipper. We look forward to the 

 time when Ontario strawberries will be sup- 

 plying Winnipeg and nearby markets. 



Standardization of Fruit Packages 



(Continued from page 215.) 



possibly have found- it a hardship, which is 

 a strong argument for standardization, as 

 all shippers would then be on an equal 

 basis regarding packages. Objections, I be- 

 lieve, have been raised to the use of the 

 shallow pint for raspberries. It is claimed 

 that the berries will not carry well in that 

 package. My own observations are to the 

 contrary. I have seen British Columbia 

 raspberries in Regina packed in the local 

 two-fifth crate, the hallocks of which were 

 1 inches in depth. These berries were in 

 good condition when I examined them. The 

 point, however, is that standardization will 

 obviously be to our advantage. 



Our fournbasket crate pack often has 

 been criticized. The chief complaint has 

 been that the pack was not so heavy as the 

 imported one. Tn a number of cases this 

 criticism was justified. Unfortunately some 

 very slack packs plum packs particularly, 

 have reached the markets. Slack packing 

 can, of course, and should, be remedied, but 

 possibly we have overlooked the fact that 

 most of our competitors tin-tops are larger 

 than our own, measuring 7% in. at the top, 

 QM in. at the bottom and having a vertical 

 depth of 3% in. compared with 7% in. x 



7% in. at top, 6V2 in. x 6% in. at bottom, 

 with a vertical depth of 3% in. in the tin- 

 top used in British Columbia. We also 

 find a tin-top from Washington measuring 

 8 in. X 8 in. at top, 6% in. x 6'/4 in. at bot- 

 tom, with a vertical depth of 3% in. This 

 acts to our disadvantage, and very few peo- 

 ple in the trade even know that our four- 

 basket crate is smaller than the Washing- 

 ton one. The Washington crate often sells 

 in preference, heing usually a heavier pack. 

 The situation warrants our consideration 

 in having only one sized four-basket crate. 

 The Apple Crate. 

 With the introduction of a crate package 

 for apples, we find that different shippers 

 have various ideas as to what constitutes 

 the best package for that purpose. The 

 result last season was that five different 

 packages were in evidence on our prairie 

 markets, including imported ones. Dif- 

 ficulties and confusion resulted to the trade 

 from this condition. All of the packages 

 used were suitable for the purpose and it 

 does not appear to me that it would he a 

 difficult matter to get together and select 

 an apple crate with a view to having it 

 standardized. 



It prohably will not be disputed that 

 sales f.o.b. shipping point are usually to the 

 advantage of growers and should be en- 

 couraged. In dealing with standardization 

 it is perhaps not necessary to enlarge on 

 the disastrous results ihat a consigned mar- 

 ket has on the producer. Many of the 

 circumstances that have forced our ship- 

 pers to consign are outside of their con- 

 trol. Standardization will not overcome 

 this difficulty, but it will be a factor In en- 

 couraging f.o.b. sales. For this reason 

 alone, it is worthy of our attention. 



There have be«n cases wliere wholle- 

 salers have refrained from making any offer 

 for a car, preferring to accept It, on con- 

 signment in order to examine it and ascer- 

 tain the style of packages. I am confident 

 that the trade would have more confidence 

 in buying f.o.h. shipping point if our pack- 

 ages were standarized. Wher e there is 

 more than one sized package in use for the 

 same purpose, it enables the shipper using 

 the smaller package to undersell the ship- 

 per using the larger package. Price cut- 

 ting at shipping point has a very disastrous 

 . effect and is more far-reaching than one at 

 first realizes. Generally speaking, the 

 wholesale trade does hot object to the 

 price they pay for their fruit, provided thev 

 are reasonably assured that their com- 

 petitors have to pay the same. The point 

 that usually induces a wholesaler to object 

 to a price is that he can obtain the same 

 article at a lower figure from a different 

 source. He is afraid that his competitor 

 may buy cheaper and therefore may refrain 

 from closing a deal. This, if repeated often, 

 might result in forcing shippers to consign. 



Price Cutting. 



Price cutting at the shipping point usuallv 

 immediately results in price cutting at dis- 

 tributing centres. There probably is noth- 

 ing that is so disastrous to the growers as 

 this condition. It is apt to develop a con- 

 signed market, as the wholesaler would be 

 dubious about huying while the market was 

 so unsettled. Standardization would assist 

 in alleviating this situation and thus be 

 advantageous to the producer. 



When considering the standardization of 

 packages there are several points to take 

 into account before deciding which are the 

 best packages to adopt. We must consider 

 the manufacture and cost, shipper, packer 

 and consumer. 



The manufacturer's viewpoint is an im- 

 portant one as It affects the cost. The 

 manufacturers assure us that standardiza- 

 tion will be a great assistance in enabling 

 them to produce cheaper and to fill orders 

 promptly. In deciding on our packages we 

 should endeavor to have as many as pos- 

 sible the same length and width. It is 

 obvious that a number of advantages would 

 arise from this. The mills could work more 

 economically, mixed cars could be loaded 

 with greater ease and shook could be ware- 

 housed with less trouble, the same covers 

 and cleats doing for possibly several pack- 

 ages. The sizes of our boxes and crates 

 are, of course, largely governed by their 

 adaptability to carry the fruit in safety, but 

 as there are different packages in which 

 our fruit carries well, some diversity of 

 opinion is almost bound to exist as to which 

 is the best. -It is at this point that we 

 should consider the issues with a broad 

 mind and not permit our various idea? 

 to prevent our accomplishing something 

 definite. 



The consumer's viewpoint comes last, but 

 it is by no means least. With standardiza- 

 tion, he is protected, for no matter where 

 he buys a package of fruit, he is assured of 

 a standard size. For this reason I do not 

 think that he enters largely into our con- 



