THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



ing from doing this he creates a greater 

 feeling of confidence between himself 

 and the consumer. 



In the disposing of the fruit, the in- 

 variable practice at Gypsum is to sell 

 direct to the dealer. The manager 

 quotes his price to the dealers, by letter 

 or telegraph, and receives from them or- 

 ders for certain quantities and certain 

 grades of the fruit. So complete is the 

 reliance of his customers on the honesty 

 of his packing that they regularly resell 

 fruit by description before they receive 

 it. 



There are no conditions that would 

 make co-operation successful, that I 

 could observe existing in northern Ohio, 

 that do not exist in Ontario. So far as 

 I can see the spirit of co-operation is the 



first essential; whereby members are 

 willing occasionally to sacrifice some 

 possibly temporary advantage that they 

 may gain by independent action, to the 

 permanent interests of the association. 

 In order for this feeling to exist there must 

 be complete confidence among the mem- 

 bers of the association with one another 

 and with the officers. The success of 

 the association depends, above all, on 

 the enthusiasm and the business ability 

 of one or two men in the district. As a 

 usual thing these men have organized 

 the association and in some way or 

 other manage it. They foster this spirit 

 of co-operation and, by their untiring 

 efforts and business ability, they make 

 the thing a success. Wherever co-opera- 

 tion has been undertaken a man of this 



sort has always had the guiding hand. 

 Success in co-operation, therefore, does 

 not depend on outside conditions so 

 much as on the men who engineer it. 



I must express my indebtedness to 

 those from whom I have obtained the 

 suggestions that are here embodied, par- 

 ticularly Mr. Owen, of Gypsum, Ohio; 

 to Mr. Johnson and Mr. Lawrie, of For- 

 est, Ont.; to Mr. Mitchell, of Clarks- 

 burg; and to Mr. Sherrington, of Walk- 

 kerton, Ont. Mr. Sherrington, especi- 

 ally, is deserving of great credit, not 

 merely for having organized successfully 

 an association in his own district, but 

 for his enthusiasm and untiring efforts 

 in organizing associations elsewhere in 

 Ontario wherever he has been invited 

 to assist in the work. 



WHy Fruit Growers SHould Co-operate 



THE method of handling the apple 

 crop by which the buyers and men 

 go around and do the picking and pack- 

 ing, is utterly unsatisfactory. It causes 

 loss to the grower and to the buyer. 

 Much of the fruit is packed so poorly 

 as to seriously injure the reputation of 

 Canadian apples. This system is the 

 cause of a large proportion of the com- 

 plaints concerning our fruit made bv 

 the British importers. During the past 

 season The Canadian Horticulturist 

 has given the matter a great deal of 



ing so they would receive twice as much 

 for their fruit as they usually obtain. 

 Even the co-operative associations al- 

 ready established have not made as 

 much from their fruit as they might 

 had they sold direct to the retailers in- 

 stead of to the wholesalers. These, 

 and other points germane thereto, are 

 touched on in this article and in those 

 immediatel)' following. Methods that 

 have been adopted by a number of the 

 leading co-operative associations in On- 

 tario and the States are described in 



Co-operative Grading and Packing as Done at Chatham 



attention. It has found that not the 

 growers only, but leading buyers as 

 well, are thoroughly dissatisfied with 

 this system; while the Dominion fruit 

 inspectors condemn it vigorously. 



Great loss to the growers, also, occurs 

 by the fruit passing through the hands 

 of too many middlemen. The remedy 

 lies in greater co-operation on the part 

 of the growers, who should sell direct to 

 the retailers in Great Britain. Bv do- 



the article by Prof. J. B. Reynolds 

 Some of the sources of loss to the grow- 

 ers that arise from the fruit passing 

 through the hands of numerous mid- 

 dlemen will be found described in the 

 article dealing with the marketing of 

 fruit. 



The defects of the method of gather- 

 ing the crops, by which the buyers send 

 gangs of men around to do the picking, 

 grading and packing, are so apparent 



that even the buyers are outspnaken in 

 its condemnation. "One of the worst 

 features of gathering the crop in this 

 way," said Fruit Inspector P. J. Carey, 

 of Toronto, to The Horticulturist, 

 is that very few of the apples are picked 

 at the proper stage of maturity. Some 

 of the best winter varieties are har- 

 vested before they have obtained their 

 color or other characteristics, while 

 the earlier sorts are past marketable 

 stage in other orchards before the gang 

 can reach them. In many instances a 

 great percentage is blown down or 

 sometimes damaged by frost before the 

 pickers arrive. 



"Thousands of bushels of apples last 

 fall were not put on the market in the 

 proper season. One large firm had 71 

 gangs packing in different parts of Can- 

 ada from Hemmingford, Quebec, on the 

 east, to Samia on the west and Pene- 

 tanguishene on the north. These gangs 

 were made up of men of dififerent occu- 

 pations, and it could not be expected 

 that satisfactory work would be done 

 by them all. 



"Every farmer and fruit grower 

 should pick his own crop and then aU 

 would be harvested at the right stage. 

 It is too bad to have the farmer wait- 

 ing for the pickers to come while heavy 

 winds blow down the best fruit. Our 

 co-operative associations are doing 

 splendid work. Were more of them 

 formed many of these defects would 

 disappear. 



A buyer's views 



"Were the growers to pick their own 

 apples and to store them under cover, 

 as they do their other farm crops," said 

 Mr. Eben James, of Toronto, the well- 

 known buyer, "one of the chief sources 

 of loss would disappear. In addition 

 to this the dealers should erect temp- 

 orary houses, or secure packing sta- 



