24 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



rates was levied on different kinds of fruit. 

 The inadequacy of the service was severely 

 criticised, and it was charged that the rate 

 from the Canadian shipping points was 

 higher than trom places similarly situated 

 in the adjacent States. It is evident from 

 the discussion that a great many abuses 

 have grown up in fruit transfiortation, and 

 that some are sufficient to seriously retard 

 and injure the development of local and 

 export trade. This is the natural result of 

 a system which virtually gives the railways 

 unlimited power in determining what they 

 will charge in hauling fruit. The products 

 of our orchards and vineyards must vary 

 largely from year to year. In the abundant 

 years the fruit growers must make up for 

 the occasional bad years, but it is not un- 

 natural for the railways to estimate accord- 

 ing to the bountiful seasons. In carrying 

 out the policy of adjusting rates according 



to the endurance of each line of traffic the 

 railways are apt to overestimate the profits 

 on fruit growing. But even if no such 

 mistake were made, and no development of 

 fruit production was killed off by excessive 

 charges, there would still remain the evil of 

 fixing charges according to the fruit grow- 

 ers' ability to pay. There is at present no re- 

 gulating powerexceptthe natural acquisitive- 

 ness of the railway companies, tempered by 

 their care not to kill off the industries that 

 create traffic. Under such conditions abuses 

 are inevitable. In fact, when the conditions 

 are fully considered the almost absolute 

 power and authority of one party to the 

 contract in the hauling of produce — it seems 

 strange that conditions are not much worse. 

 An independent tribunal to adjudicate 

 between shippers and carriers is a necessity, 

 and must be established before any material 

 improvement can be effected. — The Globe. 



FOUR GOOD POINTERS 



A FARMER grows 2,000 barrels of fine 

 apples. At harvest time he dumps 

 them into the hands of a middleman 

 for $1,500. The middleman stores the 

 apples until February and sells them for 

 $12,000; the farmer then complains that 

 "there is no money in farming," and that 

 "farmers are robbed," and so on. Moral : 

 the man who commits suicide cannot pro- 

 perly accuse anybody for murdering him. 

 A miserable apple appears on the market. 

 It is spongy, stringy, acid, flatulant, juice- 

 less and generally unsatisfactory for eating, 

 stewing, baking, pieing, drying, apple- 

 buttering, cidering, or vinegaring, but it is 

 of good size, rich in coloring and generally 

 showy in appearance, and buyers make a 

 call for it. Nurserymen are compelled to 

 grow it. Orchardists are forced to supply 

 it. Moral ; Not all people at all times really 



know what they wish or what is really good 

 for them. 



A stranger appears. He carries a book 

 containing portraits of apples and other 

 fruits loud enough in color to make sleep 

 impossible within ten miles of the trees. 

 The victim buys some of the trees. When 

 they come to bearing, he is surprised to find 

 that none of the rainbow coloring in the 

 books has got onto the fruit. Moral : 

 Some people are too hard to please, and 

 some are not worth pleasing. 



The man who grows grapes to make 

 wine, corn to make whisky or apples to 

 make cider, signs his name to a petition to 

 legislation that shall forbid any man to sell 

 wine, whisky or cider. Moral : This is as 

 queer as it is immortal. — G. W. Hizz, in 

 "New York Farmer." 



