NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



401 



drag. The pickers empty upon the pack- 

 ing table, and one packer with one or two 

 assistants can pack as fast as six men can 

 pick. The fancy fruit is all packed in the 

 box suggested for trial by the committee of 

 our association at Walkerton last Decem- 

 ber, viz., 9 X 12 X 18; the rest goes into 

 barrels, and is graded No. i and No. 2. 

 These barrels and boxes are at once nailed 

 up and marked, and, as soon as the car 15; 

 ready are at once packed on board. This 

 plan reduces the handling to a minimum, 

 and is almost the only way to handle a large 

 orchard in seasons like the present, when 

 labor is so expensive and difficult to get ar 

 any price. 



GKOWERS SHOULD SHIP IX COMPANY. 



TV/I R. W. A. McKINNON, chief of the 

 1 J fruit division, Ottawa, at a recent 

 meeting of growers at Grimsby, emphasized 

 the great importance of working up an ex- 

 port trade in tender fruits. When all the On- 

 tario orchards come into bearing the home 

 markets cannot possibly take it at paying 

 prices to the grower, and it is therefore of 

 the utmost importance that we capture the 

 northwest markets for this province. 



Ontario growers should unite in small 

 companies at shipping points in the fruit 

 districts and make up car lots so as to se- 



cure low rats of transportation. Packing 

 and shipping houses, run on the co-opera- 

 tive plan, would also work well. Indeed, 

 this principle would also help to solve sev- 

 eral problems, as, say, the cold storage and 

 the orchard spraying. He instanced, as a 

 case in point, a spraying machine, run by a 

 gasoline engine, at Woodstock, which keeps 

 twenty orchards thoroughly sprayed, cover- 

 ing a district about ten miles in length. 



CAES SHOULD BE WELL ICED. 



There is doubtless much carelessness in 

 the icing of cars, and shippers should see to 

 it that a sufficient supply is put in the boxes 

 at the starting point. Mr. Scriver, fruit 

 inspector from Montreal, who was present 

 at the same meeting, said that was of 

 the greatest importance, for a poorly iced 

 car was harder on the fruit than no ice at 

 all. He had examined a great many re- 

 frigerator cars at Montreal, and in many 

 cases found no ice remaining in the boxes 

 on arrival. He believed that 90 per cent, of 

 the failures in the export of tender fruits 

 was due to the badly iced cars. Mr. 

 Scriver also drew attention to the common 

 fault of over pressing apples in barrels. 

 The fruit thus bruised was sure to rot, and 

 one or two rotten apples in a barrel would 

 make it slack. 



THE HERBERT RASPBERRY. 



MR. R. B. WHYTE, the originator, 

 says of the Herbert: 

 " The Herbert is the best of 30 seedling 

 raspberries fruited during the last twelve 

 years, and after careful comparison with 

 all the leading varieties, I can confidently 

 say that it is very much superior to any of 

 them. In hardiness, it easily takes first 

 place, standing a lower temperature than 

 any other kind. The cane is very strong 

 and vigorous, slightly prickly, leaves large 



and healthy, and has never been affected by 

 anthracnose, or disease of any kind. Fruit 

 bright red, somewhat oblong, the largest of 

 all red raspberries, larger than Cuthbert or 

 London. Flavor, very sweet and juicy, 

 the very best for table use. Enormously 

 productive, will bear twice the crop of either 

 Cuthbert or London, under the same condi- 

 tions. Season five or six days before 

 Cuthbert. Holds its size well to end of sea- 

 son." 



