262 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



D 



ecember, ig6g 



It is not an easy matter to determine 

 experimentally as to the relative keep- 

 ing quality of different varieties of ap- 

 ples in cold storage, because of the diffi- 

 culty of securing the different varieties 

 at exactly the same stage of maturity, 

 and unless this is done, any test is un- 

 reliable and the results are misleading. 

 Generally speaking, those varieties which 

 ripen most slowly will keep the longest. 



Some varieties hold their quality much 

 better than others. That is to say, cer- 



tain varieties retain their crisp juicy tex- 

 ture and characteristic flavor almost to 

 the end, while others become mealy and 

 insipid long before the structure of the 

 apple breaks down. Of course, they act 

 the same way in any kind of storage. 

 This, it seems to me, is a rather im- 

 portant consideration. 



LENGTH OF TIME IN COLD STORAGE 



It is safe to say that any variety of 

 apples may be kept as long as it is com- 

 mercially desirable to do sO. Late win- 



ter apples may be kept a year without 

 difficulty ; fall and early winter varieties, 

 from two to four months. Canadian 

 Fameuse of the previous season's growth 

 were shown in good condition at the 

 Dublin Exhibition in the month of 

 August. Of course, only a percentage 

 of those originally stored were sound at 

 that time, and the circumstance does not 

 prove that it would pay to keep the Fam- 

 euse to that date. 



(To be continued) 



Over-planting of Strawberries and the Western Markets 



AT the convention of the Ontario 

 Fruit Growers' Association in 

 Toronto, last month, an address 

 on the above subject was given by Mr. 

 Robert Thompson, of St. Catharines. 

 The following is a synopsis of it : 



"In taking up this subject we must 

 look at it from a disinterested standpoint. 

 Strawberries are not overplanted, but 

 there is an under-distribution. The great 

 consuming public, except in a few cen- 

 tres, have not begun to get all of the ber- 

 ries they want, and, in many instances, 

 they have had to pay very high prices. 

 Of course the fruit growers, who have 

 been induced by the fairy tales of 

 the real estate agents and of others who 

 have land to sell (and who are not over- 

 exact in representations of profits de- 

 rived from fruit growing) to purchase 

 land at high prices expecting to obtain 

 fancy prices for their fruit, will say that 

 berries are overplanted and prices too 

 low. But we must remember that ber- 

 ries can be grown over a large area of 

 our country and, if there should at any 

 time be too large profits, there will be 

 many to enter into the production. We 

 must expect to be prepared to sell at a 

 reasonable price and at the same time be 

 prepared to use common sense and good 

 judgment in disposing of the fruit. 



"The grower has many troubles to 

 contend with. If he has by good care 

 and cultivation secured a good crop, he 

 need not feel that he is bound to sell to 

 the canner or the jobber at the first price 

 offered, if it is not deemed sufficient. The 

 general market will always pay a fair 

 average. If we have the promise of a 

 full crop, we have growers who always 

 get cold feet, and rush to sell at any 

 price, and if they can get the promise of 

 any rise in the market, they think they 

 are making a good deal, when as a mat- 

 ter of fact, if any number sell this way 

 they make it impossible to have any rise 

 in price. 



"Take the past spring, for example. 

 The canners had sold all of their stock 

 of canned strawberries and were bare but 

 they anticipated a good crop of berries 

 and put the price of berries from three 

 and three-quarters to four and a half 



cents a box. Many growers thought they 

 had to take this price and sold ; others 

 held off. Owing to the cold weather, ber- 

 ries ripened late and came in a rush. 



Two General DUplayi at Toronto Show 



The very attractive display of mixed fruits in 

 the foreground was put up by the St. Catharines 

 Cold Storage and Forwarding Co., and won first 

 prize. At the farther end of same table is the 

 exhibit of the Grantham Fruit Growers' Asso- 

 ciation. See page 271. 



Prices fell for three or four days and the 

 factories bought at from two to three 

 cents a box. Of course, this was a seri- 

 ous loss to the growers who so sold. 

 Owing to the low offers, most of the ber- 

 ries were shipped and the shippers did 

 better than factory prices. 



"I have investigated the sales of many 

 growers, and find that in every instance 

 when they put up their berries properly 

 they made more by shipping. I will give 

 one grower's returns from this — about 

 medium returns — and he shipped all of 

 his crop to Toronto to commission 

 houses, so that he had no fancy outlet. 

 He had 512 crates and they netted him 

 four and one-sixth cents a box after pay- 

 ing for crates, boxes and charges. He 

 says that he had four advantages over 

 the factory : First, disposal of whole 

 crop; second, cash every week (impor- 



tant) ; third, handling everything new 

 (very important) ; fourth, no canning fac- 

 tory abuse (most important). When the 

 berries were pretty well picked, the fac- 

 tories had not nearly filled their orders 

 and the pack of strawberries was again 

 short. 



THE NORTHWEST MARKET 



"In regard to the northwest market 

 as an outlet : I feel confident that within 

 a few years, that market will take a lot 

 of our berries. Our growers sent out 

 three cars of berries this season with, on 

 the whole, fair success financially and 

 gained a lot of valuable experience. Be- 

 fore sending the berries our growers 

 were skeptical as to the berries carrying 

 safely. The consumers in the west were 

 doubtful also. After the berries were 

 shipped, bought and used, we found that 

 the berries would carry safely, that the 

 buyers found that our berries were better 

 in flavor and would stand up long enough 

 to use and can, and they are pre- 

 pared to buy Ontario berries more large- 

 ly in the future. 



"One word as to that market: Our 

 association sent to the west this season 

 nearly 150 carloads of small fruits, and 

 there have tjeen almost 500 cars sent from 

 the Niagara district. Our experience is 

 that if we go after this market in a busi- 

 ness-like manner and arrange to supply 

 the public regularly with Ontario fruit 

 that the people out there are ready to 

 give our fruit the preference ; but to 

 succeed we must use good packages, 

 load the cars properly, see that the fruit 

 is cooled quickly, have the fruit picked 

 carefully, and at proper stage of ripeness 

 for each variety. 



"We must also see that the Railway 

 Commission will have the rates lowered 

 to points west of Brandon. The rate of 

 from $1.00 to $1.60 a hundredweight ^ 

 to all points west of Brandon is largely 

 prohibitive. If we can secure rates to 

 the western points, in proportion to what 

 we have to Winnipeg, Portage la Prairie 

 and Brandon, inside of three years, more 

 fruit will be shipped west from Ontario 

 than will be shipped to Ontario and east- 

 ern markets." 



