4i6 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



said he, "sending- nearly $20,ocx5,ooo worth 

 of cheese to Great Britain, and not two 

 boxes to loo are sent on consig-nment. The 

 rest is practically the property of the party to 

 whom it is sent in England before it leaves 

 this side of the Atlantic. And that is the 

 proper system ; that is the system which 

 should be adopted in the apple trade. The 

 party to whom the gfoods are sent will then 

 take much better care of the products than 

 he otherwise would. A case in point : A 

 lot of butter was sent on consignment to 

 Glasgow during the time I was there. This, 

 after having been carried to Glasgow under 

 a system of cold storage provided for by the 

 Dominion Government at a considerable ex- 

 pense, was left exposed for 48 hours during 

 the hottest weather on the dock at Glasgow. 

 Other like goods, sent at the same time, but 

 but not on consignment — goods which had 

 been sold before leaving this country — were 

 hurried at once into cold storage." 



"Yes," said Prof. Robertson, in answer 

 to a question, "the party to whom the goods 

 were consigned knew the butter had arrived, 

 because he had taken samples from it for the 

 purpose of making sajes. Why did he leave 

 it exposed ? Because he was not obliged to 

 take up his draft in payment for the butter 

 before delivery was accepted. If he could 

 sell it by sample, before actually accepting 

 delivery, he would, possibly, save the use 

 of two or three thousand pounds in the bank 

 for two or three days. It is because of 

 things like this I am going to start a cam- 

 paign in this country against sending goods 

 to England on consignment." 



Speaking particularly in regard to the 

 matter of apples Prof. Robertson said : 

 * 'Something more than sorting as to size is 

 necessary. There must be sorting, also, in 

 regard to the condition of ripeness. This is 

 particularly necessary in the matter of early 

 fruit, as otherwise the over-ripe fruit will be 

 apt to spoil that not so far advanced." 



IMPROVRD TRANSPORT FOR APPLES. 



Dealing with the matter of accommodation 

 for shipping apples, the speaker said : 

 " Apples should not be sent by a vessel 

 which is without facilities for ventilating the 

 chambers in which the fruit is stored. VVe 

 have just succeeded in making arrangements 

 with all the lines leaving Montreal by which 

 provision will be made for this ventilation. 

 Three lines have agreed, in addition, to 

 provide mechanical refrigeration, by which 

 air will be reduced to 50 degrees before be- 

 ing driven through the hold in which the 

 apples are held. The advantage of this is 

 apparent when it is remembered that in 

 passing through the St. Lawrence the tem- 

 perature may be up to 70 or 80 degrees. 

 Ten steamships have provided this mechani- 

 cal refrigeration, and twenty-five will have 

 a fan equipment for ventilation." 



" We have also asked for ventilated cars, 

 but the trouble is that the freight traffic of 

 this country is developing in such a remark- 

 able way that it is utterly impossible for the 

 railways to keep up with the demands even 

 for ordinary traffic. The best we can do is 

 to whitewash the cars with a spray pump 

 and leave the doors open for about three 

 inches, thus providing for a partial system 

 of ventilation." 



AMERICANS INVITED TO SHARE A GOOD THING. 



Speaking to the representatives of the 

 United States apple industry present. Prof. 

 Robertson, on behalf of the Dominion Gov- 

 ernment, offered to them the benefit of the 

 facilities provided for the Canadian shipper. 

 " We will be glad," said he, "to see your 

 apples going by way of Montreal, because 

 we believe the more apples that ^o that way 

 the greater will be the disposition on the 

 part of the steamship people to furnish an 

 efficient system of ventilation, etc. 



"We have," Prof. Robertson went on 

 again, " gone further than this. We have 



