256 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



and to arrange for meetings with representa- 

 tive farmers of the district. The visitors 

 found more Duchess apples than any other 

 one variety. For these there is a fairly good 

 local market in the Muskoka district before 

 the summer visitors leave the highland and 

 lake country of Ontario. There is also a 

 certain demand for the same variety of ap- 

 ples in the mining and lumbering country 

 along the north shore. At most, however, 

 this market is limited in extent, and there 

 are quite as many Duchess produced now as 

 there is demand for. Very few winter ap- 

 ples are grown about Orillia. The Peewau- 

 kee is grown more extensively than all the 

 other winter varieties combined. These 

 have given fairly good satisfaction except 

 that the fruit, being large, is apt to fall from 

 the limbs while the trees are young. As 

 the trees grow older this fault is in a meas- 

 ure remedied. 



The Wealthy, which is grown to some ex- 

 tent, has given splendid satisfaction, being a 

 good yielder and thriving well. Messrs. 

 Creelman and McNeil will recommend that 

 no more early apples be planted, and that a 

 number of the Duchess already planted be 

 top grafted with winter varieties. The 

 Duchess is not so satisfactory as the Tall- 

 man Sweet for this purpose ; still it serves 

 very well for grafting on. In winter varie- 

 ties they recommend the Greening, Ontario, 

 Ben Davis, Wealthy, and Baldwin as a list 

 to choose from, with the preference of con- 

 fining as much as possible to one or two of 

 these varieties. The Spy does not seem to 

 do well about Orillia, although it does re- 

 markably well in the Georgian Bay district. 



ONE CONSIGNEE. 



WHILE we advise contract sales as 

 the best in all cases where practi- 

 cable, it is evident that there will often be a 

 surplus unsold, which must go forward to 

 the commission merchant. We must not. 



therefore, despise this middle man, who is 

 often of the greatest service to the fruit 

 grower. 



Many, however, make the mistake of di- 

 viding their shipments, even in the same 

 market, between several consignees. This 

 is a great mistake, because it brings a man's 

 fruit into competition with itself. 



The wisest plan is to select one good re- 

 liable consignee in each city, and be as con- 

 stant and regular in shipping goods to him 

 as possible. He will soon learn the brand 

 of his consigner, and make it known among 

 the buyers, and will then often make sales in 

 advance even of the arrival of the goods. 



AMENDMENTS TO THE FRUIT MAKKS ACT. 



MR. E. D. SMITH'S bill to amend the 

 Fruit Marks Act came up for dis- 

 cussion in the House of Commons last 

 month, and was lost on a division. The 

 aim of this bill was to provide for the in- 

 spection of fruit by Government inspectors 

 before it was shipped, so ^ that the responsi- 

 bility for proper gradingf would rest on the 

 Government inspectors. As the act now 

 stands each packer must do his own grading 

 and marking and become responsible there- 

 for. The Hon. Mr. Fisher, in opposing the 

 bill, said that no one should be as capable 

 of properly doing the work of grading and 

 marking as the packer himself, and that to 

 inspect only ten per cent, of the packages, as 

 Mr. Smith had proposed, would not suffi- 

 ciently guarantee the quality. It would 

 also be impossible to obtain a sufficient num- 

 ber of qualified inspectors at the season when 

 they would be most required. The guaran- 

 tee of the shipper, Mr. Fisher thought, 

 would be worth infinitely more than any 

 government guarantee, and the fruit grower, 

 by a personal oversight of the grading and 

 marking, had an excellent chance to build 

 up his reputation. 



Another bill by Mr. Henderson, of Hal- 



