354 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



denote high color or unusual excellence. 

 The most difficult thing for the ordinary 

 shipper to do will be to assort to anything 

 like a uniform size, unless he is fortunate 

 enough to own a grader. He cannot trust 

 his eye, and unless he is confident of the 

 size, it is unsafe to mark it on the package, 

 lest he lay himself open to a charge of fraud. 

 In our own packing, we have included 

 size under these grades, as being most con- 

 venient in practice ; and apples 2^ inches 

 in diameter are placed in grade X ; 2)^ 

 inches in grade XX, and 2^ inches in 

 grade XXX, while apples above that will 

 be stamped " extra." 



THE DUCHESS APPLE 



^^HIS beautiful variety contests the first 

 A place as an early summer apple, with 

 the Red Astracan. It does not ripen quite 

 so rapidly, and this gives it the advantage 

 for export. One of the largest Duchess 

 orchards in the world, says our contem- 

 porary the Sun, is probably the one of Dr- 

 Young's, at Young's Point near Picton. He 

 has 5000 trees of this one variety from which 

 he began shipping fruit to Montreal the last 

 week in July, and at the same time the 

 writer began shipping Astrachans to Ottawa. 



EXPORT OF PEARS 



THE export of our pears to the British 

 market will always be more or less 

 regulated by the prices in the Canadian 

 market. When No. i pears, averaging 2^ 

 inches in diameter, net us less at home than 

 40 cents a twelve quart basket, there is 

 little doubt that more money will be made 

 in exporting them. Shipments have been 

 forwarded by us every year now for five 

 years past, and with very few exceptions, 

 and these only when arriving over ripe, 

 pears have netted us satisfactory prices. 

 In the year of 1900 there were 2746 half 

 bushel cases of pears forwarded, and the 

 following extract from Professor Robert- 



son's statements in our report will be worth 

 quoting just now, when a good many pear 

 growers are considering the wisdom of mak_ 

 ing trial shipments to the British market. 



"The returns from the pears vary very 

 much, partly owing to the size of the pears 

 and partly owing to the condition of the 

 pears as to ripeness Some pears landed a 

 little too ripe, "dozy," and then later ship- 

 ments were landed too green. Pears should 

 be picked when the pips are about to turn 

 brown. In the case of the very tender 

 pears they should be picked just before the 

 pips turn brown. If the late pears are pack- 

 ed in that condition they do not ripen in that 

 way and then the English buyer cuts the 

 pear down and looks at that part, if the pips 

 are too brown he says they are going to- 

 ward decay, and they go into the hands of 

 the jobbers. A very early and tender pear 

 should be picked at an earlier stage of ripe- 

 ness than the latter pears which do not ripen 

 so quickly. We all know that principle, 

 but we have forgotten to put it in practice 

 in the actual management of the shipping 

 business. Here are the figures of one of the 

 early lots; 55 packages from Mr. Woolver- 

 ton were sold for 86.4 cents and netted 50 

 cents at Grimsby. The packages held about 

 16 or 18 lbs., the large ones a little more 

 than that. The report to me from Man- 

 chester was that that was the actual weight 

 ' of the pears. 95 packages from Mr. Van 

 Duzer were sold at 93.7 cents netting 52.6 

 cents, and 145 packages of Bartletts, 

 especially good, were sold in Manchester 

 for $1.97 and netted in Grimsby $1.54 per 

 case after all expenses were off. 



The fruit shipped by D. J. McKinnon & 

 Sons sold as follows ; First lot, 74 pack- 

 ages, were sold at $1.07 in London, and 

 netted 85 cents in Grimsby ; Second lot, 77 

 packages, were sold at .*fii.2i in Manchester, 

 and netted 82.2 cents, in Grimsby ; Third 

 lot, 65 packages, were sold at $1.19 in 

 Bristol, and netted -71.1 cents in Grimsby ; 



