THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



tions at the different railway points 

 from which they purpose shipping. 



"In the past few years the apple 

 trade has undergone various changes. 

 Some have been for the better, while 

 others have been for the worse. Hon- 

 est picking has greatly advanced since 

 the Government took measures to pre- 

 vent fraud. The old practice of allow- 

 ing the farmer to pile his fruit under the 

 trees until the buyer got time to pack 

 them is also less common. Experience 

 proves that fruit left lying under the 

 trees for even 24 hours is seriously in- 

 jured in quality. 



A few years ago barrels cost about 

 18 cents, and labor could be obtained 

 for $1 a day, making the cost of pack- 

 ing about 15 cents a barrel, or a total 

 cost of 33 to 35 cents in preparing a 

 barrel for export. In time competi- 

 tion became so keen that the buyer was 

 not satisfied to purchase by the barrel, 

 but began buying orchards in lump and 

 taking chances on wind and weather. 

 In some cases he bought below the mar- 

 ket value, and in others paid double 

 what the fruit was worth. 



"Under this system, when heavy 

 winds or early frosts come, the fruit is 

 damaged and the buyer, in his attempts 

 to make something out of his deal, 

 often exports fruit that should go to 

 the cider mill or to the evaporator. 

 This results in serious injury to the 

 Canadian apple trade, and gives profits 

 only to the barrel manufacturers, the 

 laborers and the steamship companies. 



"Every few years," continued Mr. 

 James, "the dealers get a severe 'scald- 

 ing,' and they are more cautious until 

 a good season comes, when they again 

 lose their heads. Cooperage stock has 

 doubled in price, and two years ago the 

 unreasonable price of 50 to 60 cents for 

 barrels was reached, and at that price 

 they were difficult to obtain. During 

 the past season we were able to get the' 

 eight- hooped barrel at 35 to 38 cents. 



"The advance in the cost of labor 

 has added to the troubles of the large 

 buyers. Packers get $15 to $18 a week 

 with board, rain or shine, while the 

 pickers work for $1.25 to $1.50 a day. 

 Even at these wages, sufficient men are 

 not available to properly harvest the 

 crop. 



"Another serious drawback in hand- 

 ling gangs is the fact that farmers re- 

 fuse to board the men. The dealer, 

 rather than lose the orchard, makes the 

 contract under those conditions and 

 the men are forced to stay at hotels. 

 Time is lost by the men getting to and 

 returning from work, and frequently 

 some of them stay up late drinking in- 

 stead of resting, and the next day they 

 are not in shape for a full day's work. 



"These drawbacks would disappear 

 were the growers to harvest their crops 

 and deliver them at a central packing 

 house in barrels or crates on spring 

 wagons. In this way sales would be 



made on the out-turn when put up as 

 XXX or XX. Another satisfactory 

 method would be to have the packing 

 company do the work at so much a 

 barrel, making sales f.o.b., or shipping 

 through some reliable commission house 

 on consignment. In this way the ex- 

 pense to the dealer would be reduced 

 at least 50 per cent., and the grower 

 would receive more for the fruit. The 

 responsibility would then rest on the 

 producer to see that none of the crop 

 was lost. Besides, much of the trash 

 that is now exported would be sent to 

 the cider mill or the evaporator, where 

 it properly belongs, and only the mar- 

 ketable crop would be forwarded. 



"It is utterly impossible," concluded 

 Mr. James, "for the average dealer to 

 secure help to handle the fruit as it 

 should be handled in the limited time 

 available, and do enough business to 

 make a working profit. The apples 

 can be thrown into barrels for storage. 



deliver them. By that time nearly 

 every barrel was slack. The contract 

 calls for immediate delivery, but vari- 

 ous excuses are given by the growers 

 for failure to live up to it. As a rule 

 the farmer cannot pack properly, and 

 the best plan would be to have central 

 packing houses to which the producers 

 could deliver the fruit. 



"Each gang," continued Mr. Graham, 

 "consists of a foreman, who has had 

 several years' experience, an assistant 

 and four or five pickers. If a picker 

 does good work for one season, he is 

 made first assistant the following year. 

 The wages run $12 to $18 a week and 

 board for the foreman, $9 to $12 for 

 the assistant, and $1.25 a day for the 

 pickers. 



"Great quantities of apples are lost 

 annually because of lack of accommo- 

 dation at the shipping point. At many 

 stations the barrels are piled on the 

 ground in the sun and rain for days. 



Fruit of the Chatham Fruit Growers off for the Old Country 



but that means great shrinkage and 

 double expense in packing." 



ANOTHER buyer's VIEWS 



"If I could get all my requirements 

 from co-operative associations," re- 

 marked Mr. R. J. Graham, of Belleville, 

 "I would not put any gangs out. Every 

 farmer should pick his own apples. 

 Some growers claim they cannot get 

 men to do the picking, but it should be 

 as easy for the grower to get five men 

 as it is for a buyer to get 500. It 

 would be as reasonable to ask a miller 

 to harvest his wheat as it is to demand 

 that the apple dealer must harvest the 

 apples he buys. 



"During the past season I had over 

 70 gangs at work in the apple sections 

 of Ontario and western Quebec. It 

 was impossible, under such circum- 

 stances, to prevent some apples being 

 packed that should have been thrown 

 out. In some cases the apples I had 

 had packed stood in the orchard for a 

 , month before the grower took time to 



and as a consequence many slack bar- 

 rels are found. . With central pack- 

 ing houses this evil would be removed 

 and the apples would be kept under 

 cover in proper condition." 



This system of handling the crops is 

 responsible for the inferior condition of 

 much of the fruit that arrives at Mon- 

 treal. Out of 104 cars that reached 

 that port to make up a cargo early in 

 October, the fruit in 38 cars was re- 

 ported by the Government inspector as 

 being in poor condition. Improper 

 marking is also common. In one car 

 of about 160 barrels, 10 were found with 

 deceptive marking. 



In a recent interview with the man- 

 ager of one of the leading steamship 

 lines. The Canadian Horticulturist 

 was informed that a great quantity of 

 good fruit reached Montreal in poor 

 condition. He had seen barrels opened 

 in which the fruit was six or eight 

 inches below the head. It seemed to 

 have been dumped into the barrels 

 when hot and not packed or pressed. 



