52 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



from the several transhipments as mig"ht 

 have been expected, when it is remembered 

 that much of it came from British Columbia, 

 the North-West and Prince Edward Island, 

 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. With all 

 the handling- that these changes entailed, 

 with the double handling- at Montreal, re- 

 handling at Portland, from train to ship, 

 and again from the ship to train at Antwerp, 

 and finally at Paris, it is little short of 

 miraculous that it reached it destination at 

 Paris as well as it did. It is, I think, safe 

 to say that the greater part of the injury 

 sustained by the fruits in solution was after 

 it reached Paris. There the laborers en- 

 gaged seemed incapable of handling any- 

 thing except in the roughest manner. They 

 apparently took a fierce pleasure in throwing 

 thing's about. 



PARIS. 



On our reaching Paris in the end of 

 March, we found everything in the buildings 

 in confusion. No part o\ the building was 

 ready, nothing was completed, and, to add 

 to the confusion, large quantities were con- 

 tinually arriving and being laid down in the 

 building, or outside of it, so that for some 

 time it was necessary to climb over piles of 

 cases to get into the building — such was the 

 state of matters in the Canadian pavilion. 

 In the Horticultural palace, where our fruit 

 exhibit was to be made, things were in a 

 still worse condition. Our side of the build- 

 ing was neither roofed nor paved, and all 

 our eff'orts for several weeks accomplished 

 nothing in hastening the work. Repeated 

 visits to the office of the British Royal 

 Commission, in whose hands our portion o 

 the building was, yielded nothing but 

 promises. After some weeks delay the roo 

 was put on, and as there was no prospect 

 of the paving being attended the Com- 

 missioners finally determined to put a floof 

 down and proceed with preparation for ou'' 

 installation, as the placing of our fruit was 

 called. 



PREPARATION lOR INS') ALl.ATIO.N'. 



After many delays through waiting lor 

 lumber and material of various kinds, and 

 the dilatory character of the French 

 mechanic, about the first of June we were 

 ready for the installation of the fruit, but we 

 had yet to learn many things of French 

 methods oi not doing it. Our fresh fruit 

 that was in cold storage at Liverpool took 

 nine days to reach Paris, b}- Grand Vitesse 

 as their trains are called. 



In building the stands, etc., for the 

 display of our fruit, we were necessarily re- 

 stricted by the size and shape of the space 

 at our disposal. This space was divided, in 

 its length, into two nearly equal parts, at 

 different levels, the higher being raised 

 about two feet above the lower — the whole 

 being about forty feet square. On the 

 upper space, twenty by forty feet, we built 

 four oblong stands or tables, taking up 

 nearly the entire length of the space, less the 

 passages, one semi-circular shelving stand, 

 and two quarter circle shelving stands, one 

 in each of the two corners at the ends, in all 

 seven stands on the upper level. On the 

 lower part, out of which the British Royal 

 Commissariat had reserved two spaces oi 

 about six by twelve feet each, we built two 

 oblong shelving stands, two regular 

 octagonal pyramids and one oblong pyramid 

 all with shelves, five stands in all on the 

 lower level, making altogether twelve stands 

 of different sizes and shapes that suited our 

 installation perfectly. 



On the small shelving stands of the upper 

 level we made displays of bottled fruit and 

 vegetable only ; on the four long tables, at 

 first only fresh fruit, and on the long stands 

 the lower level, as well as the pyramids, 

 composite displays of both fresh and bottled 

 fruit. We changed them, however, as 

 much as possible for every succeeding 

 coucours. 



These stands suited the character of our 

 exhibit bv Provinces. We were able to 



