STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 55 



COOPERATIVE STORAGE AND THE OPERATION OF 



THE FRUIT MARKS ACT IN CANADA. 



William Cr-\ig of Auburn (formerly of Canada.) 



Cooperative storage and marketing can be operated success- 

 fully by a number of fruit-growers residing within a radius of 

 eight or ten miles incorporating themselves and securing a 

 storage and packing house combined, near a railroad station. 

 It usually consists of a good sized insulated building with base- 

 ment in which the winter varieties are held until satisfactory 

 prices are secured. Artificial cooling is not necessary. Tem- 

 perature being regulated by ventilation or opening when cool. 

 Dead-air spaces in the walls are absolutely necessary to resist 

 fluctuating temperature. So much for the building. 



A competent packer is engaged whose duty it is to supervise 

 the packing, make sales and attend to the shipping. The fruit 

 is sorted into I's and 2's as soon as delivered by the growers. 

 Culls are returned and each man is credited with his share of 

 salable fruit. The cost of packing at a central station of this 

 kind is from 10 to 15 cents per barrel. It is true in most 

 instances that the individual grower loses his identity but does 

 so for the benefit of the common cause. But there are instances 

 where cooperation is carried on successfully, the individual put- 

 ting his name and address on his fruit. These few points which 

 I have touched upon briefly cover to a great extent, the coopera- 

 tive system as practiced in many places. 



The advantages, you can easily see, are man)' — as purchasing 

 barrels and boxes in car lots, better prices are obtained, the fruit 

 being of a uniform grade — lower shipping rates are secured, and 

 the small orchardist by cooperating finds sale for his fruit; 

 otherwise they are often overlooked by the buyers. In Canada 

 they not only cooperate in packing and selling, but in purchas- 

 ing spraying apparatus, carbonate of copper, Paris green, etc., 

 at reduced rates. Local conditions regulate the rules in cooper- 

 ation and each association forms rules to suit itself. 



Next in order I will say a word about the Fruit Marks act 

 passed in 1901. This going hand in hand with the cooperative 

 system has worked marvels in connection with raising the 

 standard in packing fruit. As you know it was passed by the 

 Dominion legislature for the purpose of remedying some evils 



