NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



91 



These apple houses are paying invest- 

 ments for capital, and should pay a high 

 percentage on the investment in apple grow- 

 ing districts. At Brighton and Colborne the 

 charge for storage is six cents a barrel for 

 the season, with the use of a packing room, 

 and this for a house holding 10,000 barrels 

 would yield an annual rental of $600. The 

 storage houses are made use of by buyers 

 operating at distant parts, who ship to these 

 houses and bring their gangs of packers to 

 put them up in winter, the Grand Trunk 

 charging eleven cents a barrel on the through 

 bill of lading for the stop-over at Brighton. 



THE PACKING ROOMS. 



OF COURSE men must be comfortable 

 for their work, and excellent packing 

 rooms are afforded by closing off about ten 

 feet of space along the whole length of one 

 side of the building on each floor, with 

 numerous windows, and with packing tables 

 along the wall. These long rooms are made 

 comfortable with stoves, and the barrels 

 brought in for packing and taken out for 

 storage through slide doors in the partition 

 here and there, and afford ample space for 

 all the gangs of packers. 



BARRELS VS. BOXES. 



NO boxes are used for apples at Brigh- 

 ton, the only package being the 

 standard apple barrel. 



" In 1895," said Mr. Dudley, of the firm 

 of J. G. Dudley & Co., " I gave the box 

 package a thorough trial to my great loss, 

 I put up 12,000 bushel boxes, at consider- 

 able cost for wrapping paper and work of 

 packing. I shipped them to Liverpool, and 

 when I came to compare my account sales 

 with those of my neighbors, who shipped in 

 barrels, I found I had lost about $1800 ; so 

 I have no confidence in the box package." 



Probably his conclusion is correct with 

 respect to the auction market, for the broker 

 and his auctioneer have no patience with the 



box ; but the retailer and consumer appre- 

 ciate them, and would pay well for them if 

 we could but reach them. 



PRIVATE SALES BEST. 



WE must not ship our fancy boxed ap- 

 ples on consignment ; they must be 

 sold by private sale on their merits. Now 

 that the hurry of disposal is done away by 

 cold storage why should high grade apple 

 stock in boxes be shipped on consignment 

 any more than any other food product ? 



" You are correct in that," said A. McD. 

 Allan, of Goderich, whom we met at Tren- 

 ton, *' and there is an unlimited opening for 

 private sale of high grade stock. For ex- 

 ample, last summer I sold one thousand 

 forty pound boxes of Canadian apples at 

 eight shillings to go to Leith. All that is 

 needed to lead to an unlimited sale of Can- 

 adian apples f. o. b. in the orchard, at splen- 

 did prices, is to establish confidence in the 

 grade. There is still much to be desired in 

 this particular. I have been disgusted dur- 

 ing my stay in Great Britain with the incor- 

 rect naming of Ontario apples, which much 

 depreciates the selling value ; besides, I 

 think, there is yet much to be done by our 

 Government Inspectors. Too much faulty 

 stock goes forward as No. i, that should be 

 classed No. 2 ; and the inspectors should be 

 more strict in their inspection, and not allow 

 such grading to pass." 



" The trade at home (England)," said Mr. 

 Eben James, of Toronto, "want a large 

 package in a large season, and we have to 

 use the barrel to get the crop cheaply 

 marketed. In the private sale business the 

 box may be all right, but I assure you very 

 often a private sale man will turn down a lot 

 on the least provocation, and you have to 

 get a broker to sell them on their merits ; 

 this has been my experience in the past ten 

 years, including four years before I became 

 Woodall's agent. Then again, if you take 

 the cream of the fruit and put it in boxes. 



