THE FAILURE OF THE FRUIT CROP IN ENGLAND. 



415 



ground and carried away, to be used for 

 feeding stock, or for any other purpose for 

 which they may be fit, but not for export. 

 Similarly, apples which drop during the 

 picking process should be kept by them- 

 selves. We must give the fruit a fair 

 chance from the start; wormy, rotten or 

 otherwise diseased apples spread contagion, 

 and bruised or defective fruit will not pay 

 for labor, heavy freight charges and com- 

 mission. 



Ladders and Baskets. — Step-ladder.? 

 may be used for getting at the lower limbs, 

 and long point-top ladders for the upper 

 branches; the baskets should be small 

 enough to turn easily inside a barrel, and so 

 shaped as to allow the apples to be turned 

 out with a gentle, sliding motion. In pick- 

 ing, care should be taken to avoid breaking 

 off the fruit spurs, which the promise of 

 next year's crop. 



Grading. — Grading always pays, whether 

 the crop be light or heavy. When le 

 wormy, bruised, mis-shapen and spotted ap- 

 ples have been removed, the following 

 qualities should be apparent in the higher 

 grades, (i) Uniformity in size. (2) Uni- 

 formity in color. (3) Freedom from defects. 



Two grades will usually be found suffi- 

 cient for export, and both of these should 

 be perfectly free from insect or other i- 

 other injuries, the second being inferior to 

 the first only in point of size and color. All 

 the apples in one grade cannot be uniform 

 in size, but the apples in a single package 

 should be so, for the fruit will be viewed 

 and sold by the package. 



It may well happen that a third grade, 

 exclusive of culls, will be found to consist 

 of fair marketable fruit, which the grower 

 feels disposed to export; but this grade, 

 lacking any special features of excellence 

 and showing a greater percentage of waste, 

 often eats into the profit earned by the finer 

 fruit, besides reducing the general reputa- 

 tion of the shipper's brand. Much better 

 average results are likely to be obtained in 

 local markets or from evaporators. 



The merits of mechanical graders on the 

 market from time to time should be care- 

 fully investigated by all whose shipments 

 are large. A really good and rapid grader 

 will effect a great saving in time and money, 

 and produce a wonderful difference in the 

 appearance of the fruit when each size is 

 placed in packages by itself. 



The expert women who grade French 

 fruit for market perform the operation 

 without mechanical aid. A few days' prac- 

 tice with measuring rings is sufficient to 

 train the eye so that the fruit is accurately 

 graded within a quarter of an inch. Many 

 who are attempting to grade by hand will 

 find that the use of a piece of shingle or 

 other light wood, in which holes are cut 

 measuring two and a quarter, two and 

 three-quarters, three and three and a half 

 inches respectively, will be of great assist- 

 ance in this work. By testing an apple 

 now and again the packer will soon become 

 expert in determining the size without the 

 use of the testing board. — Department of 

 Agriculture, Ottawa. 



THE FAILURE OF THE FRUIT CROP IN ENGLAND. 



THE Gardening World publishes 

 following report of the Eng- 

 lish fruit crop, which is of especial 

 interest to us in consideration of the abund- 

 ant crops in Oatario: 



Whatever room for uncertainty there 

 may be in the case of field crops generally, 

 there is no doubt now as to the fate of the 

 fruit harvest. To take one or two Midland 

 reports, market gardeners in the Cookhill 



