OEITICISM ON THE ONTARIO SPY 



OUR BEST FANCY WINTER APPLE- 

 HOW TO HANDLE FOR EXPORT 



MR. P. J. Carey, fruit inspector, writ- 

 ing in the Sun, says : — In our talk 

 at orchard Institute meetings I 

 was sorry to have to discourage 

 the planting of Spys and Kings, the Spy, 

 because it is so long in coming into bearing 

 and the King, because it is a shy bearer. 

 The chief objection to the Spy can, however 

 be overcome in a measure by top grafting ; 

 but even when it is produced, it is not the 

 most profitable for our export trade. Ship- 

 pers have in fact, received more black eyes 

 from the Spy than from any other variety, 

 this being due to the fact that the apple is 

 not suited to the rough usage it receives 

 during transport on shipboard. "Yes." 

 agreed Mr. Carey, in reply to a question, 

 "the Spy is perhaps the most popular apple 

 in the American market, but then the duty 

 which stands in the way renders it practi- 

 cally impossible to ship any apples to the 

 big cities of the United States ". 



But, while the Spy is not suited for ship- 

 ment to England and is shut out of the 

 American market, there is still, the Sun be- 

 lieves, a possibility that it will ere long 

 prove the most profitable variety in Ontario, 

 because, as Mr. Carey said, we shall ulti- 

 mately find in our own country a market for 

 first-class apples, quite as large as that now 

 found in Great Britain. The development 

 of the North West promises to go on at a 

 rate of which at present we have no concept- 

 ion. If anything like 200,000 people go in 

 there this year that will mark the beginning 

 of an inrush for which we shall have to go 

 back for a parallel, to the tide which spread 

 over the American prairies half a century 

 ago, and with this increased population in 

 our North West will came an increasing 

 demand for Ontario apples, and among these 

 apples none better than the Spy. There is 

 too, as Mr. Carey added, a large home mar- 

 ket here in Ontario for the produce of On- 

 tario apple orchards, but the cold storage 

 facilities must be more fully developed in 

 order to admit of the holding of fruit in good 



condition for the late winter market, before 

 this opening can be utilized to the greatest 

 advantage. In this respect the Georgian 

 Bay fruit growers are setting an example to 

 the rest of the Province, in preparing to 

 develop cold storage facilities on the co- 

 operative plan. 



As ordinarily handled the Northern Spy, 

 no doubt, has justly earned the criticisms of 

 our friend Mr. Carey ; it is we grant a great 

 many years in coming into bearing as we 

 have proved in an orchard now twenty 

 years planted, which has only yielded two or 

 three good crops ; but, now that that period 

 is passed, we are convinced that it was 

 worth waiting for, since it is yielding an- 

 nual crops of magnificent fruit ; it is, we 

 also grant, a difficult apple to export in per- 

 fect condition because of its tender skin, 

 and while this may be an objection on the 

 part of the careless fruit grower, who hand- 

 les his fruit roughly and packs carelessly, it 

 is one of the very incentives to its planting 

 on the part of the enterprising fruit grower. 



That the Spy is the finest general purpose 

 winter apple in Ontario, both in beauty of 

 appearance, and quality of flesh, is acknow- 

 ledged by all who know it ; and it is most 

 unfair to condemn its planting in these days 

 when we are aiming at building up a repu- 

 tation in the foreign markets for our best 

 apples. The Baldwin and the Ben Davis 

 may do for the careless shipper, but he who 

 would build an enduring reputation for 

 quality and beauty can succeed with the 

 Spy better than any other apple grown in 

 our province. 



How to Handle Fancy Spys. — The writer 

 speaks from personal experience, and not 

 from "hearsay". In a sixty acre app'e 



