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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



October, 191, 



Hon. Martin Burrill, Dominion Minister of Agricollnre 



Being a practical fruit grower, Hon Mr. Burrill 

 is much interested In the fruit industry. During 

 the three years he has been Minister of Agricul 

 ture, he has held two Dominion conferences of 

 fruit growers. He attended and spoke briefly 

 at the conference held at Grimsby, Ont. 



a serious situation due to 'he fact that the 

 steamship companies carrying: the bulk of 

 the Nova Scotia opple pack from Halifax 

 to the Old Country had given .notice of a 

 proposed advance in carrying- charges of 

 32c. a barrel. As a reason for this they 

 had mentioned additional war risks. At 

 the time the advance was announced it was 

 known that the additional charges due to 

 the war risks would not amount to more 

 than .15c a barrel. The steamship com- 

 panies were evidently endeavoring to take 

 advantage of the situation to impose an 

 additional burden on the fruit growers. 

 There was reason to believe also that the 

 advance had been contemplated before war 

 was declared. In view of the fact that the 

 Government subsidized these steamship 

 companies heavily Nova Scotia fruit grow- 

 ers_ felt that the Government should take 

 action to prevent such a large increase in 

 rates. Mr. McMahon appealed to the con- 

 ference .to assist the Nova Scotia fruit 

 growers in obtaining a satisfactory ad- 

 justment. 



At first, as the Nova Scotia growers ex- 

 plamed the situation, the growers from the 

 other provinces listened with interest, but 

 without showing any tendency to give' spe- 

 cial support to the Nova Scotia growers in 

 dealing with the situation. They were 

 ready to do what they could to help, but 

 seemed to look on it as a Nova Scotia 

 matter which the Nova Scotia growers 

 should deal with themselves. A sudden and 

 remarkable change in this attitude was 

 brought about when one of the Nova Scotia 

 delegates pointed out that the situaition 

 was ooie which affected the other provinces 

 fully as much as it did Nova Scotia, be- 

 cause unless a considerable reduction was 

 obtained in the proposed advance in the 

 steamship rates it would practically pre- 

 vent the shipment of certain varieties of 

 Nova Scotia apples now shipped to Euro- 

 pean markets. Being unable to market 

 these apples in Britain, Nova Scotia 

 growers would be forced to unlo?d them 

 on the markets of Ontario and the west 

 at low prices, where they would compete 



with the products of the other provinces. 



This point scored a bull's ey(?. Within 

 a few minutes it was decided to have a 

 delegation wait on Hhe Government at 

 Ottawa. Ontario and British Columbia 

 riuickly agreed to stand the expense of be- 

 ing represented on that delegation in or- 

 der to prove to the Government that it was 

 a matter of national importance. The dele- 

 gation was duly appointed and waited on 

 the Government on the following Saturday. 

 The Canadian Horticulturist has since 

 been looking into the matter. Partly as a 

 with am encouraging reception. At the re- 

 quest of the United Fruit Companies of 

 Nova Scotia the Government had already 

 been looking into the matter. Partly as a 

 result of the work of Sir Geo. E. Foster, 

 and partly on account of the fact that the 

 United Fruit Companies had commenced 

 to charter boats independent of the com- 

 bine, the growers have obtained a reduc- 

 tion in the proposed advance of not less 

 than .19c a barrel, and are satisfied with 

 the new arrangement. 



The incident brought home to all present 

 the solidarity of interests between the fruit 

 growers in all parts of Canada, and seemed 

 to indicate the possibility thiit within a 

 few years the fruit growers in the different 

 provinces will be cooperating in the mar- 

 keting of their crops. During the discus- 

 sion Mr. A. W. Peart pointed out that cold 

 storage charges on shipments of fruit had 

 been grea'ly increased this year as com- 

 pared with last year. Mr. Ruddick stated 

 that one of the chief difficulties this year 

 is going to be to get any space at all on 

 vessels, as many of the steamships will be 

 required to be used as transports, and 

 may not be available to handle apples when 

 most needed. About twenty vessels would 

 be required to transport the troops at Val- 

 cartier alone. The Nova Scotia delegates 

 did .not seem to think that there would be 

 much difficulty in their obtaining all the 

 accommodation necessary. Their chief 

 concern was to prevent the proposed ad- 

 vance in rate. 



thubsd.^y's sessicns 



According to the programme, Thursday 

 morning was to be devoted to an automo- 

 bile ride through the Niagara district. The 

 Jrive lasted, however, until six o'clock. 

 Most of the automobiles were loaned by 

 local fruit growers. The delegates were 

 taken from Grimsby to the Fruit Experi- 

 ment Station at Jordan Harbor, and from 

 there to St. Catharines and Niagara Falls, 

 where dinner was served. The drive took 

 the delegates through some of the best 

 fruit sections of the Niagara district. 



SUCCESSFUL COOPERATION 



At the Thursday evening conference, 

 Mr. A. E. Adams, the secretary of the 

 United Fruit Companies Ltd. of Nova 

 Scotia gave a most instructive address en- 

 titled, "Systematic Cooperation in Nova 

 Scotia." Mr. Adams traced the initial 

 efforts of the fruit growers of Nova Scotia 

 to cooperate, their failures and successes. 

 He told of the Acts that it was necessary 

 for them to get passed through their local 

 Legislature in order that they might co- 

 operate effectively, and concluded by de- 

 scribing the wonderful success that has 

 been attained. Last year the United Com- 

 panies handled 6,044 tons of fertilizers or 

 over 300 car loads, saving at least $18,000 

 to their members on fertilizers alone. In 

 addition they handled 575,000 pulp heads, 

 35,000 pounds of nails, 67,800 pounds of 

 grass and clover seed, 104,000 pounds of 

 arsenate of lead, 8,900 rods of wire fenc- 

 ing and 1,800 barrels of lime-sulphur, as 

 well as handling many other articles of a 

 similar Jiature. Last year the companies 



did a fire insurance business, exceedinj 

 ■$450,000. Extracts from this paper will bi 

 published in The Canadian Horticulturis 

 as space permits In reply »o questions 

 Mr. Adams stated that the Companies d( 

 not sell to middlemen, nor to private in 

 dividuals. Their sales are made to thei 

 local affiliated companies. Where ^ ' 

 are made to outsiders the companies ■ 

 a profit on each transaction and the out 

 siders do not participate in the rebatei 

 given to members. 



Friday's sessions 



Three busy sessions were held on Fri 

 day. These were devoted mainly to dis 

 cussions of the Inspection and Sales Ac 

 and to the standardization of packages 

 Mr. Robt. Thompson of St. Catharines wa; 

 the chairman of 'he committee appointee 

 to deal with standard packages. This com 

 mittec reported tl'at they had decided aftei 

 thorough discussion not to recommend anj 

 changes in the present standard barrels 01 

 boxtes. The six-quart and eleven-quarl 

 baskets were also looked on as standard, 

 It was felt that it was not desirable thai 

 there should be any change here, also ex- 

 cept that the style of basket used might 

 be standardized as at present some of th« 

 manufacturers were making baskets that; 

 while they contained the same amount oi 

 fruit, were made in different shapes. 



Senator E. D. Smith said that previous 

 to 1900 there was no standard size of bas- 

 ket. The twelve-quart basket was common- 

 ly used. Gradually growers began to 

 shave off half an inch in the length 01 

 width or depth of the basket, while still 

 calling it a twelve-quart basket. This con- 

 tinued until the so-called twelve-quart bas- 

 ket contained only nine quarts. Berry 

 boxes were not touched for a long time, 

 but finally the growers began to tamper 

 with them. When standards were set and 

 the fruit division was given power to deal 

 with the matter an improvement in condi- 

 tions became noticeable. 



Fruit Commissioner Johnson wanted to 

 know if the committee did not deem it ad- 

 visable to require that the baskets should 

 be made of a certain thickness of veneer 

 to ensure their being made of good ma- 

 terial. 



Mr. Thompson replied that this did not 

 seem practical, as thick veneer made of 

 poor material often was not as strong as 

 veneer, that while thinner was made of 

 better material. 



Senator Smith agreed with this conten- 

 tion. 



Commissioner Johnson suggested that 

 the law might require that the material 

 used should be of good quality. 



THE 8T.\NDARD BOX 



A discussion was held as to whether or 

 not it is advisable to discard the Canadian 

 standard apole box in favor of the stand- 

 ard box recently adopted by the United 

 States. The discussion soon showed tliat 

 the British Columbia growers, who have 

 had the most experience in box packing 

 were seriously divided on this point. Aside 

 from some of the western growers, how- 

 ever, the opinion of the western dealers 

 present and others who spoke seemed to 

 be favorable to adopting the American 

 s*andard box as the Canadian standard. 

 The Canadian standard is 10x11x20. The 

 .American standard is 10^x11 '4x18. It 

 was said that while the .'\merican box is 

 twenty odd inches smaller than the Can- 

 adian box, it is a little squarer and gives 

 the public the impression that it is larger 

 ^nd holds more. It therefore sells better. 

 It also holds better in the car and lends 

 itself better to certain packs. 



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