NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



497 



were 75 per cent, sound after another two 

 weeks in storage. A similar tray was 

 kept in Glasgow in a room which averaged 

 60 to 65 degrees in daytime, for six weeks, 

 when half a dozen apples were still perfectly 

 sound and good. Some had been eaten, and 

 of those which showed decay all had been 

 bruised or defective at the spot where such 

 decay had started. It would seem therefore 

 that selected Astrachans, if properly shipped, 

 have plenty of 'life' in them after arrival here 

 to answer the commercial requirements of 

 an early apple. 



" Glasgow is doing remarkably well with 

 box fruit, the trade preferring as little pack- 

 ing material as possible with the fruit, and 

 asking for carriage in ventilated packages 

 and compartments, except where cold stor- 

 age is absolutely essential. 



DUCHESS PEARS. 



" Some Duchess pears from Burlington 

 are pronounced the finest in flavor and 

 appearance ever seen in Glasgow by one of 

 the best retailers here. I examined and 

 sampled them along with some F'rench 

 Duchess of equal size, and there was simply 

 no comparison between them, the Canadian 

 fruit being infinitely superior. The Grimsby 

 ventilated half-case (a variation of the Cali- 

 fornian), with wrapped fruit and very little 

 excelsior packing, if any, is undoubtedly the 

 favorite package with the trade here." 



SPOTTED GREENINGS NOT WANTED 

 IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



IN a letter to Mr. A. McNeill, Mr. Mc- 

 Kinnon says : " I shall, at the risk of 

 wearying you, state once more that this is 

 no place for poor apples or pears. There 

 are tons of trashy fruit in 'the country, and 

 they find their level in the poorest class in 

 shops, some being really too miserable to 

 sell for costers' barrows. It is simply ab- 

 surd for shippers to forward poor fruit, 



paying as much for all incidental expenses 

 (except, alas, for commission), as they do 

 for good merchantable stock. I wrote you 

 to this effect from Paris early in September, 

 and have no doubt you passed the unheeded 

 warning on to the public. Yet to-day's lot, 

 ex-Numidian, showed up in painful contrast 

 to similar varieties from Boston. Greenings 

 were especially poor, and have suffered 

 greatly from ' sweat spots,' particularly in 

 the heart of the barrel. Buyers summarize 

 thus : ' Canadian fruit very poor this year, 

 but packing marvellously improved.' There 

 are exceptions, but two Irish buyers to-day 

 said they could at least count on the bulk 

 bearing definite relation to the face, although 

 they knew nothing of the Fruit Marks Act." 



And to the Sun he writes : " Lots of poor 

 stuff"," Mr. McKinnon says, "has come for- 

 ward to the slaughter, and some have even 

 taken the trouble to pack this poor stuff in 

 boxes and Wilson cases for shipment." 



And the editor sensibly remarks : " It is 

 surely foolish enough to send poor fruit to 

 such a distant market, in any form of pack- 

 age, but it is scarcely possible to conceive 

 of the folly shown in packing this poor stuff" 

 in expensive packages. It is possible, how- 

 ever, that the shippers did not know just 

 how poor the quality ot stuff was that they 

 have sent over. There were shown at the 

 meeting of the Entomological Society at 

 London last week some Greenings which 

 had, by accident, been delayed at a Cana- 

 dian port on the way to the British market. 

 These were delayed for about the time it 

 would have taken them to reach the place of 

 sale in Britain. The apples had on them 

 small black marks, caused by fungus disease^ 

 and the rot which looked insignificant at the 

 time of shipping had, while the fruit was 

 being delayed in transit, developed until the 

 whole thing was covered with black rot. 

 Fruit which is at all badly spotted should 

 not under any consideration be sent to the 

 Old Country market. 



