THE MANITOBA FRUIT MARKET. 



ON Saturday evening, August 29th, 

 a fruit growers' meeting was 

 called at Grimsby to meet Mr. 

 Philp, fruit inspector at Winnipeg. A let- 

 ter was read by Mr. W. A. McKinnon, ad- 

 dressed to the Dominion. Minister of Agri- 

 culture by the Winnipeg Fruit Exchange, 

 in which the fruit dealers denied the accu- 

 sation that any preference was given to 

 California shipments, and asked that Mr. 

 Philp be sent to Ontario to explain to he 

 packers just what they needed in order to 

 make the trade a success. 



METHODS OF PACKING. 



Mr. Philp gave a very interesting and 

 instructive talk, and to begin with, com- 

 pared California and Ontario methods 

 as to packing a car. No baskets are 

 used for these distant shipments in Cali- 

 fornia but all fruit is put in boxes and 

 held firmly in place by strips. The fruit 

 thus put up and packed arrived in Winni- 

 peg in perfect condition, and naturally 

 brought higher prices than Ontario fruit in 

 baskets. These latter are, in Mr. Philp's 

 opinion, entirely unsuited to use for long 

 shipments, because so frail. Sometimes 

 a refrigerator car combes to Winnipeg from 

 Ontario with fruit fourteen tiers high, alto- 

 gether too great a weight for the bottom 

 baskets, which often give way, and the fruit 

 is, of course, ruined. Is it any won- 

 der that Winnipeg fruit merchants pre- 

 fer California or British Columbia fruit, 

 when it arrives in so much better condi- 

 tion? 



Then, too, all California fruit comes 

 wrapped with paper. " I never saw," said 

 Mr. Philp, " a box of pears or peaches from 

 California without the fruit being wrapped 

 in paper. This prevents skin blemishes 

 from chafing, and seems to help the appear- 

 ance." 



EARLY APPLES. 



Early apples, too, would do well in the 

 west in Mr. Philp's opinion. He quite ap- 

 proved of the writer's plan of packing in 

 the orchard as fast as gathered, so that .le 

 fruit could go direct from the tree to stor- 

 age. The common practice in Ontario of 

 leaving apples in heaps in the orchard for 

 days, and perhaps weeks, is a great mistake 

 and should be avoided. If boxes are used 

 it might be well to adopt the British Colum- 

 bia size, which is 10 x 11 x 20 inches, a lit- 

 tle larger than the box in use this year in 

 Ontario. 



ONTARIO SHOULD COMPETE. 



Winnipeg fruit dealers, said Mr. Philp, 

 are anxious for Ontario fruit. They have 

 no preference for California fruit except 

 because of the better condition in which it 

 arrives. You fruit growers in Ontario 

 must take a little more trouble with your 

 packing. Wrap your pears in paper, put 

 them in boxes, and then pack your car in 

 such a way that there will be no moving of 

 the boxes when the car is shunted. The 

 order price for good pears in the North- 

 west is about $1.00 a box, and for pears it 

 averages about the same. These latter 

 come in from California in square crates, 

 containing four square baskets, holding 

 about five pound! of plums or grapes each, 

 or about 20 lbs. to the crate. A square of 

 paper is laid between each layer of plums, 

 and in this way the fruit reaches Winnipeg 

 in good order and brings about $1 a crate. 



Two years ago, said Mr. Philp, I was in 

 Edmonton, a city of the Northwest, second 

 only to Winnipeg in importance. I was 

 surprised to find that there were no Ontario 

 apples offered for sale — not a barrel could be 

 traced to this province during the whole sea- 

 son of 190 1 ; all the apples on sale in Edmon- 

 ton were in boxes from British Columbia. 



