116 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



have the consumer hold our fruit in 

 the high esteem in which it should be 

 held. One bad packer spoils the rep- 

 utation of 10 good ones. We should 

 learn a lesson from our neighbors in 

 California, British Columbia, Ontario 

 and other places who have adopted 

 this system, and are working it suc- 

 cessfully, often disposing of their en- 

 tires tock. before it leaves the ware- 

 house. 



As for cooperation in selling or mar- 

 keting, almost any change from the 

 present conditions would be desirable. 

 No matter what state the market is 

 in when our fruit arrives, in most cases 

 a sale has to be effected. It is ruinous 

 to the grower to have his fruit, when 

 landed, sometimes in bad condition, 

 forced on a market that is already 

 overcrowded. The net returns occa- 

 sionally are barely sufficient to pay 

 for the barrel. One remedv for this 



would be to have an agent on the other 

 side who could interview some of the 

 larger buyers and sell direct to them, 

 thus saving much of the expense con- 

 nected with an auction sale. It would 

 be an advantage to the grower to carry 

 the sale of his fruit as near to the con- 

 sumer as possible, as the oftener it 

 changes hands the worse it is for both. 

 It means one of two things: the grower 

 receives less, or the consumer pays 

 more. The nearer the consumer and 

 producer can be brought together the 

 better for both, and with our central 

 packing houses and reputation estab- 

 lished for honest packing, we would, 

 in a short time, be able to sell our 

 whole stock before it left the ware- 

 house. 



It is an open question whether or 

 not it would be better to take our fruit 

 to the buyer or bring the buyer to our 

 fruit. Our first efforts should be ex- 



pended in getting in touch with some 

 of the larger buyers who handle 1,000 

 to 5,000 barrels weekly, and who are 

 as anxious to get in touch with us as 

 we are with them. It would be greatly 

 to their advantage to deal with anyone 

 who could supply them with large quan- 

 tities of well packed fruit throughout 

 the season. It would be much better 

 for the growers than sending steamer 

 load after steamer load without any 

 system or regularity, and having to 

 run the risk of good or bad returns. 



We must remember that our fruit 

 area is rapidly widening. In a few 

 years, even in the Annapolis Valley, 

 we will be producing double what we 

 do now. It behooves us as grower^- 

 to look well to our method of selling 

 By a better and more systematic ar- 

 rangement we can save enough per 

 barrel to turn the scale between profit 

 and loss in production. 



Successful Cooperation at Forest 



THE Forest Fruit Growers' Associa- 

 tion in Ontario handled 4,700 

 barrels of apples and 50 boxes of 

 fruit last fall, all of which were sold to 

 a buyer from England, who represented 

 a number of small firms. This buyer 

 paid cash for the fruit before it was 

 loaded on the cars. "We could have 

 sold our fruit to former customers in 

 the Northwest," said Mr. D. Johnson, 

 the president of the association, to The 

 Horticulturist, ' ' but this buyer agreed 

 to purchase our entire output and, 

 therefore, we decided to sell to him. 

 He remained at the packing house, 

 where he examined the fruit as it was 

 packed, and thus he knew what he was 

 getting. Several other firms were anx- 

 ious to purchase our output, one buyer 

 alone offering to handle 50,000 barrels. 

 We could have sold 100,000 barrels of 

 apples had we had them. 



"Our membership was not as large as 

 the previous year, owing to the fact that 

 early in the season we adopted a by-law 

 compelling all our members to spray 

 their fruit four times. While we lost a 

 number of members, the result of this 

 by-law was that every member had a 

 fine crop of fruit. The fruit was sprayed 

 four times, twice before and twice after - 

 the blossoms fell. Each of our members 

 purchased their own sprayers, most of 

 them obtaining hand sprayers at a cost 

 of about $15 each We lost about 20 

 members through their refusing to 

 spray their crops, and the result was that 

 these men had almost no fruit, as scab 

 and fungous diseases reduced their crops. 



"People have no idea of the fungous 

 diseases we have to combat in our sec- 

 tion, and the care that is required to 

 fight them successfully." 



On being asked what capital the Forest 

 Association has, Mr. Johnson replied: 

 "Our only capital is $15, subscribed 

 at the rate of 25 cents each by our 

 members. The bank advances us all the 

 money we require on the note of the 

 directors of the association. The direc- 

 tors do not ask for any security for the 

 risk they run. As soon as the first car 

 is packed and sold, we deduct from the 

 proceeds such money as we may need. 

 This year the bank did not ask for a note. 

 Every week we strike a rate and the 

 members of the association are charged 

 their share of the expenses in propor- 

 tion to the amount of fruit handled for 

 them by the association. Members are 

 paid weekly according to grade of fruit 

 packed. Our fruit has given the buyers 

 every satisfaction as it has been well 

 packed, the work having been done by 

 Mr. F. Steele, who has had considerable' 

 experience as a packer. Before we 

 secured his services he used to work 

 for the buyers." 



"Have the buyers made any attempt 

 to break up your association?" was 

 asked by The Horticulturist. '/The 

 local buyers objected at first, and tried 

 to coax out some of our members," said 

 Mr. Johnson^ "but the big buyers are in 

 favor of what we are doing, and are 

 anxious to purchase our full outfit. 

 Our fruit is packed in a building used 

 during the winter as a skating rink, for 

 which we pay $15 rent. This building, 

 which we use during about only three 

 months in the year, is some 40 rods from 

 the railway. Our apples are moved 

 from the building to the railroad on 

 drays at an expense of two cents a 

 barrel. Last year we handled about 

 6,000 barrels. 



"Crops outside those of the members 

 of the association were almost a com- 

 plete failure last year. Buyers would 

 not look at other people's crops that 

 were not sprayed. The orchards of the 

 members of our association were almost 

 an oasis in the general ruin. Our good 

 crops last fall will help us when we come 

 to sell our fruit this year. We expect 

 a number of the growers who left us last 

 season will join the association again 

 during 1906. We do not accept mem- 

 bers unless we are satisfied that they 

 will take proper care of their orchards, 

 and that they are likely to send us good 

 fruit. When an application is received 

 for membership, it is considered by 

 the directors before being accepted. 

 Anv of our growers who sell their crop- 

 outside of the association can be fincc. 

 50 cents a barrel for ever\' barrel so sold. 

 Some of our growers were offered 25 

 cents a barrel more for their apples ; 

 than they were likely to get through ' 

 the association, but none of them sold 

 Our agreement with the growers could 

 be enforced, as it is a signed statement. 



"A number of growers came to me 

 during the season," continued Mr. 

 Johnson, "and wanted to join our asso- 

 ciation. I asked them if they had 

 sprayed, and on their replying that they 

 had not, I told them that we could not 

 accept their fruit. Some of them plead- 

 ed that an exception should be made in 

 their case, but all were refused. 



"Those growers outside of our associa- 

 tion who happened to have good fruit 

 were allowed to sell it to the associa- 

 tion. We bought this at the rate oi 

 $1.60 per barrel for firsts, and $1.35 for 

 seconds. We sold it at a profit of 40 

 to 50 cents per barrel on firsts, and 25 



