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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



BETTER METHODS OF FRUIT SALES 

 NEEDED. 



WITHOUT doubt the methods by 

 which the Ontario fruit grower rids 

 himself of his fruit and his profits also, is 

 most reckless. No more haphazard method 

 could well be adopted than is usual, by 

 which unequal quantities are poured into our 

 various markets, without any regard to the 

 needs of that market, and the sale of them 

 forced at once upon arrival. The buyers in 

 such cases divide the spoils, take the 

 fruit at their own prices and retail it at an 

 enormous advance. The poor fruit grower 

 is quite in the dark, he knows nothing of the 

 sacrifice of his fruit until the robbery is 

 completed, and he receives a sales account 

 that staggers him, accompanied by a cheque 

 that perhaps barely covers his expenses. 



" I am surprised at your method of selling 

 fruit," said Mr. R. M. Palmer of Victoria 

 'B. C, at our meeting at Walkerton. "You 

 are simply giving away your fruit and ruin, 

 ing the markets both for yourselves and 

 other people. In Winnipeg, when our 

 British Columbia fruit, sold by contract, 

 meets yours shipped on consignment, we 

 we simply stop shipping, knowing that the 

 fruit will henceforth be at the mercy of the 

 buyers who will get it at their own prices. 

 All your debates about lower transpor- 

 tation rates are futile under your present 

 methods of sale," said Mr. Palmer, '* for 

 every cent you save in freights will go into 

 the pockets of the consignees, and the poor 

 fruit growers will be no better off." 



THE REMEDY. 



'^T^HE exhibit of British Columbia apples 

 X at our Walkerton meeting was cer- 

 taingly wonderful ; they were so large and 

 well colored. There were sixteen bushel 

 boxes of them, and the principal varieties 

 were Spy, Hubbardston, Vandevere, Ben 

 Davis, Spitzenburg and Alexander. Some 

 one asked Mr. Palmer how his people 



managed the sale of their apples. "One 

 thing is certain," he said, " we do not ship 

 on consignment. We pack our apples in Cal- 

 ifornia apple boxes, each sample wrapped in 

 paper, and sell it only on order from buyers in 

 the Northwest." At what prices? we in- 

 quired, for we had very vivid recollections of 

 intense disappointment over some wretched 

 returns for boxes we had forwarded on con- 

 signment. 



"Well, we get orders all the way from 

 Winnipeg, at $1.25 a box f. o. b. at Victoria; 

 and even at such prices, the buyers are more 

 anxious to buy than growers are to sell." 



This led us to ask ourselves, why hurry 

 our fine high grade Spy apples upon an al- 

 ready glutted market, when in proper stor- 

 age we can hold them six months, and take 

 our time finding buyers. Why in the world 

 can not we, who wish to pack high grade 

 apples, write and invite English and German 

 buyers to purchase on sample ? We resolved 

 to try the experiment by holding in storage at 

 Montreal 1000 bushel boxes of the choicest 

 apples, with which to test the British buyer 

 next May, and perhaps we can induce him 

 to buy from us f. o. b. at Montreal. Any- 

 thing is better than the fearful uncertainty 

 which now attends a sale of a carload of 

 our choicest fruit, when it is forwarded 

 blindly to some consignee, who may already, 

 for all we know, be much overstocked. 



MARKETS AND MARKETING. 

 " ^^ELLING on consignment," said Mr 

 V_y D. J. McKinnon, of Grimsby, " is a 

 good enough way for the careless fruit 

 grower, who will not thin his fruit, fertilize 

 his soil, spray for insects and fungi, nor 

 grade or pack as he ought to do. But some 

 of us want to know how we can make the 

 most of our fruit. There are several me- 

 thods of sale : (i) You can sell your orchard 

 in bulk, an easy way, certainly, probably 

 the easiest : (2) Vou can ship on commission, 

 an easy way too, but often very disappoint- 

 ing ; for, very often you pay a commisNion 



