IMPORTATION OF FRUIT AND NURSERY STOCK. 83 



too close, and pack nothing- but the very best. I can sell my 

 seconds around home or get them made into cider," and as 

 for us we make more money from what that man sells us than 

 if we bought cheaper fruit. We pay him more for his fruit 

 than we do his neig-hbor, and the man who handles them 

 can make money out of them, and the man who sells them in 

 the first place grows rich on them. You gentlemen that are 

 going into the nursery business get the very best, whatever 

 you get, even if it is only currant bushes, get the best. 



DISCUSSION. 



MR. TOMAUN. Did you ever try strawberries that are grown 

 here. They are the very best in the world. The ones you bring- in 

 are very little good. 



MR. SCOTT. We import from ten to forty cases daily during- the 

 strawberry season, but before the Manitoba berries are in the prices 

 are down. The reason we cannot buy them is that we do not get a 

 chance. There is no margin between the wholesale and retail prices. 

 There is no profit for us, but if this gentleman will grow us from ten 

 to twenty cases daily I will give him a good price for them. We have 

 never been able to obtain them here in Winnipeg. 



MR. TOMAI.IN. People here always try to run them down. Two 

 boxes of mine would make three of the imported ones, and yet they 

 will give five cents more a box for the imported ones. 



MR. A. P. STEVENSON. My experience is that the Manitoba ber- 

 ries are the best that we have ever got. I have never tasted berries 

 with a better flavor. You will get a good profit for all you can grow. 



MR. GOLDEN. Berries grown here have a better flavor than the 

 same variety grown in Ontario. 



MR. BEDFORD. In the matter of rhubarb, I find that Tottle's 

 Improved is a first class variety and is very productive. It has been 

 very useful to us in the west, in fact better than anything we could 

 g-et from the east. I think that must be the same variety that we get 

 from Mr. Tottle of Stonewall, but we did not know the name of it. 

 Professor Saunders gave it its name. It is known now throughout 

 the length and breadth of the land. I just mention this to show you 

 how useful the wholesale man may be to the producer by pointing out 

 the very best varieties of fruits to use. 



