COVE NT GAEDEN MAEKET 



BY THE EDITOR. 



TO the writer, a Canadian fruit grow- 

 er, no place could exceed in inter- 

 est Covent Garden Market. Here 

 could be s«en fruit and vegetables from all 

 parts of the world, in all kinds of packages. 

 There were strawberries from the south of 

 France, in " boats," holding between two 

 and three quarts, at $i.oo €ach, two boats 

 being tied together for shipment; tomatoes- 

 probably greenhouse grown, about the size 

 of our Snow apples, at from 8 to 20 cents a 

 pound, put up in quarter selves or round 

 baskets, containing about a peck each ; green 

 gooseberries, in half selves of about 18 

 quarts, at from $1.75 to $2; cherries, from 

 the south of France, in little flat boxes, per- 

 haps 10 X 8 X 2^ inches, in which the cher- 

 ries were evenly laid against the top and 

 showed up very prettily, at 50 cents a box, 

 five boxes being tied together for shipment ; 

 asparagus, in " flats " or crates, holding 

 eight " bundles," each bundle made up of 

 six " hands." and each hand of twenty 

 stalks, and selling at from 40 to 60 cents a 

 bundle ; peaches, no doubt greenhouse 

 grown, packed in cotton batten, in boxeb 

 one layer deep at $3.75 a dozen; green 

 beans, from the south of France, at $2.00 

 for a ten-pound basket; cantelopes, from 

 Toulon, of course quite out of season in 

 England on the 28th May, the date of our 

 visit, at $4.00 each; endive in crates; apri- 

 cots packed in cotton batten, in shallow 

 crates; lemons from Naples; apples from 

 Tasmania, etc. 



The packages used at Covent Garden in- 

 terested me very much, especially because 

 nearly all of them are returnable. The 

 great heavy round osier willow basket, 

 made in various sizes from quarter seive 

 (peck) to seive and even larger, was the 

 most common, and looked as if it would 

 stand use for ages. The buyer is charged 



a shilling extra for the basket, which is al- 

 lowed him back again if he returns it. 



Surely in this the English fruit grower is 

 wiser than we are, for he makes the buyer 

 pay for the basket if he wants it; while in 

 every case with us and our gift packages, 

 we pay for the basket and give it to the 

 buyer whether he has any use for it or not. 

 Usually he only throws it away and counts 

 it valueless. Here is a constant waste in 

 our Canadian fruit industry, amounting m 

 many cases to hundreds of dollars a year 

 simply thrown away in fruit baskets. Is it 

 any wonder that our fruit growers do not 

 make much money when prices are low? Is 

 it not time to call a halt and see if we can- 

 not get an allowance for our packages, or 

 else use returnable crates and baskets for all 

 near markets ! 



" We would like to see your American 

 gift packages in use here," said one of the 

 Covent Garden salesmen, " it would save us 

 a heap of trouble returning empties." No 

 doubt our system facilitates trade, but it 

 goes pretty tough with the grower, who 

 pays rather dearly for the convenience. 



On a second visit we entered the auction 

 salesroom for foreign apples, to us a most 

 interesting department of Covent Garden. 

 All down each side were the elevated booths 

 of the different houses whose names are fa- 

 miliar to us apple growers in Canada, as, for 

 instance, " J. B. Thomas," " E. & O. Kelly," 

 " Garcia. Jacobs & Co.," etc. Each booth 

 had rising tiers of benches in front, for the 

 convenience of buyers, and, below the auc- 

 tioneer and in front of all the buyers, the 

 porters kept bringing in samples of the 

 various lots of fruit, opening them on a 

 table in front of all, while the auctioneer 

 knocked them down so rapidly that to us it 

 seemed as if no chance for fair bidding was 

 allowed. 



