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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST September, 1908 



packing house, they feel in duty bound 

 to put up a percentage of No. i, wheth- 

 er there is any fruit of that grade in 

 sight or not. Thus, it is in this particu- 

 lar to which the greater trouble can be 

 traced. I do not wish to be too severe 

 in my criticism of the packers, but it 

 is surprising, to say the least, to see the 

 indifference and carelessness displayed 

 by the ordinary packer in his work. Un- 

 til such time as some system can be de- 

 vised to induce those, who are 'actually 

 engaged in the work of selecting and 

 packing, to take a greater interest, the 

 trade operations can be called little bet- 

 ter than a game of chance. 



We have two classes of packers : 

 There are those that are simply employ- 

 ed to do the work, and those who are 

 small dealers and superintend their own 

 work. 1 scarcely know how to desig- 

 nate the latter class. Some of them come 

 forward with a pious and God-fearing 

 sort of an expression and declare that 

 they are unable to sleep at night, through 

 a fear that some of their packers might 

 depart from the path of righteousness. 

 One of the latter class told me that he 

 always made it a practice to put better 

 apples in the middle of the barrel than on 

 the face. This, of course, pleased me 

 and I asked him for his photograph to 

 add to my little collection of curiosities. 

 Another seemed to justify his actions by 

 saying that the first man the world ever 

 saw, showed a little weakness along the 

 apple line, and all down through the cen- 

 turies that weakness seemed to stick to 

 the apple-man. 



THE WORKMANSHIP OF PACKING 



In Ontario, we have an army of, per- 

 haps, the best barrel packers in the 

 world, but unfortunately whpn the busy 

 season comes, men who know little or 

 nothing about the business must neces- 

 sarily be employed. It is to this class 

 of packers that most of the trouble can 

 be traced, as to poor workmanship. 



I wish to call attention specially to 

 what is called "over-pressing." When 

 a packer asks my opinion as to whether 

 a certain package is over-pressed, and 

 while I can plainly see that it is, I feel 

 that I dare not tell him so. It is a well- 

 known fact that barrels showing signs 

 of slackness, will sell from two to four 

 shillings less than "tights." 



OVER-PRESSING AND SLACKS 



There is a prejudice against "slacks," 

 but the slackness produced by waste fruit 

 is what is in the mind of the dealer and 

 he has no time to discriminate between 

 such a "slack" and what is known as 

 an "easy pack" ; therefore, when a pack- 

 age shows signs of slackness, it must 

 fall. This is unfortunate, as the "easy 

 pack" is worth shillings more to the fan- 

 cy trade than the over-pressed package, 



where almost every fruit is disfigured by 

 press marks ; but having the dollars and 

 cents to the dealers in my mind, I must 

 say to him, have your packages arrive 

 tight if possible. I am not referring here 

 to the hundreds of packages in which 

 the fruit is needlessly crushed and brok- 

 en, producing the worst kind of 

 "slacks," especially in warm weather 

 packing. These are the kind of "slacks" 

 "that are in the minds of the dealers. 

 When tapping the barrel in the head, 

 it has a hollow sound. 



MARKETING 



In regard to marketing, we have not 

 yet arrived at a perfect plan. The near- 

 est to the ideal is the plan of selling 

 f.o.b. cars at points of shipment. We 



A Well-faced Barrel of Ontario Apples 



have recommended this from every plat- 

 form for the last few years, and the idea 

 has been received with such favor that 

 some half a million barrels were sold 

 in this way last season. But what hap- 

 pened? I have discovered that with the 

 ordinary dealer, as soon as he is fully 

 conscious of the fact that his fruit is 

 sold and the price fixed, the same old 

 human weakness creeps in and he does 

 not display the same care in selecting 

 the fruit or in workmanship as he wouid 

 if the prices depended on the manner 

 that the fruit is put on the market. This, 

 however, does not apply to all the 

 "packs" sold in that way and can be 

 remedied by inspectors paying special 

 attention to "packs" when sales are 

 made in this way. 



CO-OPERATIVE MARKETING 



I will not discuss the co-operative plan 

 of marketing at any length at present, 

 but it is a matter of regret that in many 

 instances, the growers cannot stand 

 the temptation and abandon the co- 

 operative plan, when speculative buyers 

 offer them apparently big prices. 



Under no method has the return been 

 as satisfactory to growers, nor has the 

 reputation of the trade been as well 

 safe-guarded, as under the co-operative 

 plan. Some 200,000 barrels were pack- 



ed under this plan last season and the 

 bulk was sold f.o.b. cars, points of ship- 

 ment. With a few exceptions, the pack 

 turned out satisfactory. Under no other 

 method, can the same uniformity and 

 control of pack be maintained. 



With the knowledge of these facts in 

 possession of the growers, it is surpris- 

 ing that they are so easily turned aside 

 and reach a market through some other 

 channel. There is no denying the fact 

 that an effort is being made by the specu- 

 lative dealers to give this movement a 

 death-blow. The proof of this was 

 shown last season by the very high pri- 

 ces paid here and there in sections where 

 co-operation was in full swing, and this 

 in sections where a few years ago apples 

 remained on the trees for the want of 

 buyers, and where the co-operative move- 

 ment was started as a remedy. 



IRRESPONSIBLE BUYERS 



There is another method of market- 

 ing which has worked much mischief and 

 that is, where irresponsible buyers swarm 

 the country early in the season and se- 

 cure thousands of barrels of apples with- 

 out any means to finance the deals. They 

 then wait for their victim, who very soon 

 turns up. A handsome profit is handed 

 over to buyer No. i for his deals, and in 

 the deal he and his relations get fat wag- 

 es for doing the packing. Buyer No. 2 

 finds at the close of the season that there 

 is a great shortage in the numbers of 

 barrels represented, that the work has 

 been fraudulently done and that the pros- 

 pects that seemed so rosy in the early 

 season were only a dream. Of course, 

 it is every man's privilege to engage in 

 any business he wishes to, so long as 

 he does not violate the laws of the 

 land. We have a right to criticise the 

 methods employed, however, and to sug- 

 gest improvements. 



Growers fared well last season, but 

 they must not forget that if the season's 

 operations did not show a profit to the 

 dealers, that they will have to make 

 it good sooner or later. There is a com- 

 mon saying that, "The place to look for 

 a thing is where you lose it." The fruit 

 trade of Canada has assumed enormous 

 proportions. It is up to the growers to 

 k)ok well to their interests and do every- 

 thing in their power, to place the trade 

 on a sound basis. 



Feeble growing and unhealthy trees 

 are, as a rule, the results of starvation, 

 poor attention or unfavorable climate. 



The Canadian Horticulturist would 

 like to hear oftener from readers who 

 grow raspberries, blackberries, currants, 

 or gooseberries. Send for publication a 

 description of your patch, and tell how 

 you plant, cultivate, prune, pick and 

 market. 



