298 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



December, 191 4. 



DUPUY & FERGUSON'S CATALOGUE 

 OF HIGH GRADE SEEDS FOR 1915 



will bo ready for diKtrilintioii about the first 

 of Jajiuary; the handsomest, most practical 

 and oomplet« seed catalo^ie publiahed in this 

 country. It tells the plain trtith about 



D. & F.'s High Grade 

 Seeds that Grow 



The descriptions are accurate, absolutely 

 correct and free from exaggeration and ex- 

 travag'ant claims. 



Write a post card for a FREE COPY to-day. 



56 FIRST PRIZES were awarded at the 



Montreal Horticultural Exhibition. 6ep,t., 1914, 

 to Mr. F. S. Watson, on products grown from 

 D. & F.'e seeds. 



DUPUY & FERGUSON 



38 Jacques Cartier Sq. 



MONTREAL 



YOU Have 

 Many Uses for 

 This Machine ! 



WE are frank in telling- vou that a 

 SPRAMOTOR, rijfhtly used, wfll 

 earn its cost the first season, and 

 pay you a handsome profit besides. 



Our SPRAMOTOR is a very adaptable 

 machine — one that will benefit you in many 

 ways. It saves orchard trees and row 

 crops with equal certainty, destroys weeds, 

 kills rot, blight, canker, lice, beetles and 

 all parasites. 



It throws paint or whitewash on to 

 buildings twenty times as quickly as by 

 hand and does a better job. Used with 

 disinfectant it protects horses aind cattle 

 from biting, tormenting flies and lice. A 



Spramotor 



"It isn't a SPRAMOTOR unless _w_e make it" 



of loss 



reduces the percentage of loss in 

 fruit over 80?o as shown by Govern= 

 ment tests in 19 different orcliards. 

 Used on potatoes, a SPRAMOTOR 

 has increased a yield of almoet 

 nothing to 40O bushels an acre. 



The SPRAMOTOR stands unequal- 

 led in the whole world as an effec-t- 

 ive spraying machine. It has won 

 over 100 Gold Medals and First 

 Awards against all comers. Twenty 

 distinct patented improvements on 

 the SPRAMOTOR that no other ma- 

 chine can have. Prices run from $6 

 up to $350 — dozens of styles and 

 siisee. Iiet ua send you FREE, oxir 

 valuable illustrated treatise on Crop 

 Diseases. Postcard brings is quick- 

 ly. 



Spramotor Works 



207 King St.. LONDON, Can. 



pay you a net profit, you lose. Your aim 

 is quite clear. 



My opinion is that fruit can be bought 

 to the best advantage by the retail dealer 

 from the commission merchant. It seems 

 to me to be the only fair way for you to 

 market your goods. • My reason is this : 

 When the merchant buys from one party 

 at a distance he has no choice in appear- 

 ance and quality. The goods may be satis- 

 factory to-day and to-morrow they may 

 bring all kinds of complaints from con- 

 sumers, and you must remember that we 

 make good to our customers anything that 

 is not right. Melons may arrive too ripe 

 or too green ; peaches may be ofl color, 

 etc., and as we are the final distributors 

 we get the blame. If we purchase goods 

 w'e cannot conscientiously recommend, we 

 must lose in the price. 



METHODS COMPARED 



But on the other hand, when goods are 

 bought from the wholesale market when 

 competition is keen, we have our choice 

 from scores of growers. If a retailer has 

 .1 market for only one kind of fruit, he can 

 personally select what he wants from all 

 the offerings on the open market. A mer- 

 chant, too, soon gets to know the shippers 

 who send in the most reliable fruit and 

 vegetables, and at the commission house he 

 has an opportunity of obtaining his daily 

 supplies from one or another. 



The dealer must also protect himself 

 from the standpoint of price. Should he 

 purchase direct from one shipper, he pays 

 the one price. But on the commission 

 market the prices are up to-day and down 

 to-morrow, so that if the price a merchant 

 has paid to his own shipper happens to be 

 higher tham the ruling commission mar- 

 ket quotation — as it would frequently be — 

 he must cut his retail price and lose his 

 net profit. It is, therefore, much the safer 

 method — despite the recommendations of 

 many of the daily papers, and others, ig- 

 norant of the situation — and surely the 

 most satisfactory method to buy our fruit 

 and vegetables. Some of you probably will 

 be able to point to instances to the con- 

 trary, but for the best interests of the 

 larger section of the growers aind retail 

 dealers, the marketing system I have out- 

 lined must prove the generally accepted 

 one. 



FAULTS OF THE FRUIT GROWER 



The majority of us like to be commend- 

 ed for the good things w^e do, but we are 

 usually loathe to hear of those things that 

 ought not to have been done. Nevertheless, 

 let me recall a few errors of commission 

 and errors of omission that the fruit we 

 frequently receive in our stores point to. 

 Sometimes, for instance, we receive boxes 

 of berries a little better than half filled. 

 Out of a crate of twenty-seven boxes it 

 may require three or four boxes to fill the 

 remainder in order that we can oflFer them 

 to our customers without fear of com- 

 plaint. Suppose a crate of twenty-seven 

 boxes cost thirteen cents a box. That 

 would mean a total of $3.51. Suppose we 

 were to sell the remaining twenty-three 

 boxes that have been filled up at fifteen 

 cents a box, or an advance of two cents — 

 which is the usual margin — we would only 

 receive $3.45 altogether. That would mean 

 a loss on the first cost without taking into 

 consideration the cost of doing business, 

 which is from twelve to eighteen per cent. 

 There you have an example of an error of 

 omission. 



When we purchase berries that come from 

 the United States, the boxes are jammed 

 full. Of course you realize that what I 

 have said about Canadian boxes does not 

 apply to all cases, but it has occurred fre- 

 quently, and that is why I have mentioned 



