4<^o 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



very poor for No. i stuff. The yield of 

 apples here will not be more than three 

 quarters of the yield of two years ago. 

 There had been a good deal of dropping 

 since the previous report, and it is still 

 on. Ninety per cent, of the apples are more 

 or less spotted, and not more than ten per 

 cent, will grade No. i. In fact, our inten- 

 tion is to grade all No. 2. No dealers have 

 been here so far as I know, but we have 

 been offered $1.50, the fruit to be barrelled 

 by the producers, and graded as No. i." 



NO. 1 APPLES SCARCE IN ONTARIO. 



THE wet summer has caused the growth 

 of so much fungus on the fruit in the 

 northern portions of the Province, and in- 

 deed in many orchards of the southern parts, 

 that a large part of the apples will pack un- 

 der grade No. 2, or, perhaps No. 3. This 

 will cause a glut in all markets of low grade 

 stuff, and a great scarcity of No. i. No 

 doubt the evaporating factories will have a 

 rich harvest of this grade, and if they pay 

 40 cents a hundred pounds, we counsel our 

 fruit growers to sell the lowest grades to 

 them, and not to crowd it upon the market. 

 R. J. Graham, writing our excellent con- 

 temporary the Sun on this point, says : 



" If strictly No. i apples were to be picked 

 only, there would be a fair market for our 

 good fruit, but unfortunately we hear of buy- 

 ers undertaking to pack seconds, and we, 

 therefore, look to see this quality of fruit 

 ruin the market for better goods. We think 

 it will be a disastrous year for speculators 

 who pay any fancy prices for fruit, and we 

 advise everyone to go cautiously, and if pos- 

 sible pack only good goods. We do not 

 think more than 10 per cent, of the crop in 

 Canada would pass No. i, according to 

 Government standard. The apples in Essex 

 and Kent are much better than in any por- 

 tion of Ontario, and have mostly been bought 

 at prices ranging from 50c. to $1 per barrel 

 on the trees. We hear of some sales as high 



as $1.50 for No. i fruit east of Toronto and 

 some orchards, bought by the lump. One 

 dollar per barrel for No. i fruit is being 

 freely offered in this section (Belleville), and 

 40c. per 100 pounds for canning purposes. 



" This is certainly an off year in the 

 Georgian Bay apple district. The trees are 

 not loaded, and the proportion of small, 

 scabby fruit is abnormally large, ' Not over 

 half a crop,' said Director Mitchell, of 

 Clarksburg Experiment Station, in answer 

 to my question as to crop prospects. ' The 

 western part of the district,' he continued, 

 * in which most of our apples have been 

 grown, makes the poorest showing this year. 

 The fruit is thin on the trees, and what there 

 is appears to be very scabby.' And Mr- 

 Mitchell did not overstate the case. Some 

 good orchards will not give $1 where $10 

 has been given." 



HOW TO GET BIG PRICES FOR APPLES. 



THE way to get big prices is ta show a 

 good article. Astracans are selling 

 at 15 to 20 cents a twelve quart basket in 

 August, and Mr. DelosWoolverton gathered 

 the finest windfalls, polished them with a 

 cloth, consigned them to the same buyers 

 in six quart baskets and got 33 cents each 

 for these half baskets ! 



Prof. Whitten read a paper before the 

 Rochester Convention of Apple Shippers on 

 " European methods of securing enormous 

 prices for first-class fruit." Among other 

 things he said : 



" The possibilities of a European market for a 

 larger quantity of American apples should justly 

 claim more attention. Such a marktt cannot te 

 developed by any one class of men alone. The re- 

 sponsibility rests with the American apple grower 

 as well as with the American apple buytr and 

 shipper. A better undtrstanding of European con- 

 ditions and i-trenuons effort and co-operation on 

 the part of all concerned ought to secure in Europe 

 a lucrative sale of increased quantities of apples. 

 In order to arrive at a better understanding of 

 European conditions it is perhaps worth while to 

 mention the fact that the Europeans are well aware 

 that they can never hope to compete with America 

 in the wholesale production of cheap fruit. This 

 fact does not worry them, however, half so much as 



