November, 1914. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



259 



Needed Improvements in Marketing Methods 



DEFECTS in prevailing methods of 

 marketing fruit were freely dis- 

 cussed at the Dominion Fruit Con- 

 ference, held at Grimsby, Ontario, Sep- 

 tember 2nd to 4th. The discussion was 

 opened by Mr. Robert Thompson, man- 

 ager of the St. Catharines Cold Storage 

 and Forwarding Company who said that 

 what is needed is assistance which will 

 help growers to obtain remunerative 

 prices for their fruit while enabling the 

 consuming public to obtain their sup- 

 plies at reasonable figures. At present 

 consumers in thousands of cases have to 

 pay exorbitant prices. 



"This condition, "said Mr. Thompson, 

 "prevailed this year in connection with 

 the marketing of the cherry crop of the 

 Niagara district. In many places the 

 fruit remained unpicked because of con- 

 gestion and low prices in our local mar- 

 kets, while in places not many miles dis- 

 tant cherries were selling for 75 cts. to 

 $1 a basket. The same conditions arise 

 from season to season in other varieties 

 of fruit, such as plums, peaches, and 

 berries. 



"We have for markets our own prairie 

 provinces, where little or nb fruit is 

 grown, our own cities and towns and 

 sections not producing fruit in every pro- 

 vince of the Dominion. The Dominion 

 ("lovernment should appoint commission- 

 ers, say, one for the prairie provinces, 

 one for British and European markets, 

 and one for, say, such markets as Aus- 

 tralia and South Africa or South Amer- 

 ica. The duties of these men would be 

 to keep in close touch with crop condi- 

 tions in every competing country and to 

 keep the growers and shippers and the 

 consuming public posted as to actual 

 facts. The Department could find ways 

 to have these facts placed before those 

 interested, possibly by telegrams, and by 

 giving the information to the daily press. 



The Government should also set aside 

 a sum of, say, $4,000 or $5,000 for the 

 purpose of making trial shipments of 

 fruit. These shipments could be sent to 

 new points and markets and of lines of 

 fruits not heretofore shipped. One con- 

 dition might be that the grower would 

 only be guaranteed the cost of packages, 

 packing and labor of picking. If some 

 safeguard was placed on these shipments 

 no very great inroads might be made on 

 this fund. Fruit being perishable and 

 growers busy at the time of ripening, 

 they are unable to give the attention to 

 following up the shipments that is neces- 

 sary when looking for new markets." 



A lively discussion took place over Mr. 

 Thompson's suggestions. Some of the 

 delegates contended that the cherry 

 growers in the Niagara district had 

 themselves to blame if they left their 

 cherries unpicked while there were good 



markets to be found for them within 

 one hundred miles. Mr. Thompson re- 

 plied that growers often did not realize 

 in time that there is going to be a need 

 to find such markets. 



For years peach growers, having found 

 that the San Jose Scale would not attack 

 sour cherries, have been planting these 

 cherries. This year there was an un- 

 expected glut in the Niagara district, al- 

 though one hundred miles or so away 

 cherries were selling at high prices. "It 

 is not that we are producing too much 

 fruit," said Mr. Thompson, "but that 

 our methods of distribution are defective 

 and inadequate." 



Senator E. D. Smith, of Winona, said 

 that as a result of thirty-five years' ex- 

 perience exploiting the Canadian mar- 

 kets he felt that while there might be 

 chances to exploit some of the foreign 

 markets he believed that the local mar- 

 kets were fully worked. Every week 

 every local dealer receives circulars set- 

 ting forth the price of fruit. One of his 

 agents in western Canada had reported 

 to him that only the day before he had 

 met the agents of eight different cooper- 

 ative associations trying to sell their out- 

 put to any dealer able to buy. Some local 

 dealers sometimes charge the consumers 

 an unduly high price, but the growers 

 could not prevent that, as it is impos- 

 sible for them to deal direct with the con- 

 sumer. 



Mr. R. Brodie, of Montreal, said that 

 sour cherries this season had sold in 

 Montreal for as high as $1-25 a basket 

 wholesale. 



Mr. Pritchard, of Paris, said that he 



had been a retailer and now was a 

 grower. Sometimes dealers make undue 

 profits on one consignment, only to lose 

 on another. When there is an unduly 

 large crop growers must expect to re- 

 ceive low prices. 



Mr. Thompson replied that he would 

 agree with that statement when the sys- 

 tem of distribution was as good as it 

 should be, but not otherwise. There had 

 not been an overproduction of cherries 

 this year, as while there was a heavy 

 crop in the Niagara district the crop 

 east of Toronto was a failure. The total 

 crop of cherries was not sufficient to 

 make a pint for each adult in the pro- 

 vince, to say nothing of the children. 

 Under such conditions there was no rea- 

 son why thousands of baskets of cherries 

 should remain unpicked in the Niagara 

 district, while people were going without 

 cherries not one hundred miles away 

 because of the high prices there charged. 



"Growers," continued Mr. Thompson, 

 "often do not want to tell the truth 

 about the size of their crops for fear of 

 depressing prices. In his association he 

 had known the growers in the morning to 

 stoutly deny that there was an overpro- 

 duction of tomatoes, and that very after- 

 noon they shipped out carloads of toma- 

 toes. The growers had been hoping that 

 there was not an overproduction, and 

 when they denied that there was an over- 

 production they were simply saying what 

 they hoped was true." 



Senator Smith suggested that if the 

 Government fruit inspectors would take 

 a run through the country every now 

 and then they might be able to give valu- 

 able reports. 



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A Productive Apple Orchard in Peel County, Ont., owned by C. Patchett, Cooksville, Onl. 



This orchard contains some 400 trees, moetly winter varietieB, such a« Spy«, Greeiiinea, Baldwins and 



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