THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



several points, in this district, cold stor- ing most successfully in Simcoe. Both is not likely to lessen for many years, 



age facihties are provided whereby the of these organizations have this year but the market for apples cannot be 



apples may be packed when they are sold all the apples their patrons had measured by this standard, large as it 



matured (the last of September or the at prices much higher than the average will be. The great cost of distributing 



first of October), and placed in cold prices paid for winter apples in the the apples Hmits the consumption very 



storage chambers, where they will be counties north of Lake Ontario. What largely to the cities and towns capable 



has been done at Chatham and Simcoe of taking at least carload lots. During 



can be done in Essex and Elgin and the last few years there have been es- 



other counties constituting this district. tabhshed along the railway lines of the 



western provinces, hundreds of 



quickly reduced to a temperature near 

 the freezing point, they may, with con- 

 fidence, then be repacked for the winter 

 trade. Dismissing, however, 

 the question of cold storage, 

 the orchardists here should 

 recognize the defects of their 

 a.pples and market them early 

 in the season, indeed, though 

 they have not cleary recog- 

 nized the defects of their 

 apples as keepers ; all the 

 apples that have been used 

 have been sold for immediate 

 consumption. 



THE IRRESPONSIBLE BUYER 



As has already been pointed 

 out, the market is not always 

 a reliable or steady one, and 

 consequently the more reput- 

 able dealers have avoided this 

 district in their operations. It 

 has been the prey too fre- 

 quently of the irresponsible 

 buyer who has com 2 in with 

 his gUb tongue and a light 

 purse, and promised prices 

 that induced the apph grower 

 to part with his fruit. The 

 apples were packed and 

 shipped, and if the price 

 reaUzed was a good one, 

 or if the apple operator 

 was so fixed that he could 

 not get out of the district 

 readily, he paid the farm- 

 er a part, or the whole, of 

 what was promised. If, 

 on the other hand, the 

 markets were poor, if he 

 made a clean breast of 

 thematterand explained 

 that the markets had 

 gone wrong and he could 

 not pay the promised 

 price, the farmer very 

 quickly realized that he 

 had no recourse. 



This, however, is not 

 a necessary condition of 

 affairs. It simply indi- 

 cates bad business meth- 

 ods, and the remedy 

 here is quite aside from 

 any question of climate, soil, varieties 

 r markets. The question is simply 

 une of organization among the apple 

 growers themselves. This has been 

 demonstrated by the success of one 

 or two cooperative organizations which 

 have been working in this district. 

 I need only to refer you to the suc- 

 cess with which the Chatham Fruit 

 Growers' Association is working. An- 

 other cooperative organization is work- 



Ontario-Grown Apples Shown at Rjcent Ontario Horticultural h 



THE WESTERN MARKET 



Just here may be a convenient place 

 to discuss the question of markets for 

 early apples. The two most important 

 markets for early apples are the western 

 provinces and Great Britain. The mar- 

 kets of the western provinces are open- 

 ing so rapidly that few who have not 

 paid special attention to this matter 

 will realize and appreciate the extraor- 

 dinary growth of late years. The influx 



stations, none of which, until 

 recently, were able to take the 

 fruit in carload lots. Last 

 year and this some dozens of 

 these places have come into 

 the market accepting carload 

 lots. A few years ago Winni- 

 peg was the only distributing 

 point. Now large distributing 

 warehouses have been estab- 

 hshed at Regina, Prince Al- 

 bert, Moose Jaw, Calgary, 

 Lethbridge and Edmonton. In 

 consequence of this an extra- 

 ordinary demand for fruit has 

 sprung up, quite out of propor- 

 tion to ,the nurnber of pepple ' 

 entering the country last year 

 and this. The comparative 

 cheapness with which the fruit 

 can now be distributed has 

 increased the consumption 

 among the people. The ex- 

 traordinary prosperity of the 

 west has made it possible for 

 almost everyone to enjoy 

 fruit, which necessarily is 

 high priced even yet com- 

 pared with the price which 

 is received by the grower. 

 We can look forward, then, 

 confidently to a market 

 there that will readily ab- 

 sorb a very large propor- 

 tion of all the fruit that 

 Ontario can grow. It is 

 very true that the Ontario 

 grower in the near future 

 will have to meet the 

 cornpetition from the 

 province of British Col- 

 umbia. This, however, 

 he need not fear. The 

 growers of each prov- 

 ince, when all the ele- 

 ments of success are 

 taken into considera- 

 tion, are upon a com- 

 paratively equal footing, 

 and even if this were 

 not the case, the market 

 will likely increase much faster than the 

 production of fruit in both provinces. 



{To be concluded in next issue) 



xniDiiion 



With the advent of the San Jose Scale 

 into this district, driving the care ess 

 unthrifty grower to the wall, and the 

 opening of the great Northwtist so 

 rapidly, to say nothing of New Ontario, 

 the prospects were never brighter for 

 success in fruit culture. 



