The Canadian Horticulturist. 



383 



OUR EXPORT TRADE IN FRUITS. 



ORTUNATELY for the future prospects of Ontario Fruit 

 Growers, the Department of Agriculture for the Dominion 

 is making arrangements for the encouragement of our 

 export trade in fruit. The exceedingly large crop of fine 

 apples harvested the present season, demonstrates not 

 only the great possibilities of Ontario as a fruit pro- 

 ducing country, but it also proves the importance of an 

 extended export trade in all our finer fruits. The other 

 British Colonies are taking full advantage of the excellent 

 market of the mother country, and are reaping a great increase of revenue 

 thereby. The Journal of the Society of Arts published in Covent Garden, 

 London, says : — 



The increased facilities for exporting fruit by the adoption of cool chambers 

 have enabled Australian fruit growers to compete with foreign States in the 

 fruit supply for the English market. The Tasmanian trade with England has 

 passed the experimental stage, and every season large steamers visit Hobart to 

 receive fruit for the home market. With the exception of Tasmania, at least up 

 to 1892, all the colonies imported more fruit and fruit products than they 

 exported. The garden and orchard crops of Queensland, Victoria, and West 

 Australia give the most return per acre — from ^20 to JC24. In the other 

 colonies, in 1892, it averaged from ;!^ii for New South Wales to ;!{^i9 for New 

 Zealand. The smallness of the average for New South Wales was explained by 

 the fact that the producers could not get their produce sold and had no facilities 

 for disposing of it. 



A'^ezv Zealand has left no step untaken to develop an export industry'. The 

 Government appoints pomologists and instructors, gathers information about 

 the demand in the home market, and all advice likely to be useful to would-be 

 exporters. Generally speaking, all English fruits grow luxuriously, and in the 

 Auckland district, oranges, lemons, and limes flourish as well as olives, the 

 manufacture of oil from which promises to be an important industry. Home 

 grapes are largely sold in the Auckland market. The apple orchards near there 

 have existed half a century, and yield returns of ;^4o to ^50 per acre. 

 Orchard planting is progressing, and must soon become an important industry. 

 New Zealand has to some extent mastered the problem of landing fruit in a 

 good condition in the London market, and the trade has passed the initial 

 steps. It is important to notice that fruits of the proper varieties, and properly 

 packed, have invariably realized remunerative prices. It is largely a question 

 of packing and freights as to how great an extent the trade grows. 



It will be necessary to say little about fruit in Tasmania. Apples from 



