The Canadian Horticulturist 



rol XXIX 



AUGUST, 1906 



No. 8 



Our Fruit Trade WitK Great Britain 



THERE are possibilities for an im- 

 mense development of our fruit 

 trade with Great Britain. 



The conditions under which our fruit 

 is handled by the steamship companies 

 while in transit are, on the whole, very 

 satisfactory. 



The great bulk of Canadian fru.t 

 shipped to Great Britain is sold by auc- 

 tion in the large cities under circum- 

 stances that do not permit of our fruit 

 growers being defrauded to any marked 

 extent. 



There is one great defect in the auction 

 sale system of selling fruit. The fruit is 

 sold as fast as it arrives. If several 

 steamers with fruit discharge about the 

 same time the market is glutted and 

 much of the fruit is sacrificed, to the 

 great loss of the Canadian growers. A 

 few days later the market may be al- 

 most bare and prices for fruit high. 

 Some arrangement should be made by 

 which the quantity of fruit placed on 

 the market each day can be regulated. 



While there are a few firms in London 

 that receive fruit by direct consignment 

 for auction sale that are honest, there 

 are many that are very dishonest. 

 These latter firms defraud Canadian 

 growers right and left. Their reputa- 

 tion for crooked work is so well known 

 around Covent Garden that The Cana- 

 dian Horticulturist has refused to 

 publish advertisements from them, solic- 

 iting consignments of Canadian fruit, 

 although they offered to pay for their 

 advertisements in advance. 



Canadian growers shauld have a 

 representative in London at least, just 

 before and during the fruit season, to 

 act as their agent and look after the dis- 

 posal of their fruit. This agent could 

 arrange to keep the fruit in cold storage, 

 so that it may be sold when the market 

 was most favorable. 



Owing to the fact that a few years ago 

 large quantities of fraudulently packed 

 Canadian fruit were sent to Great Britain 

 (a considerable amount of bad packing 

 is still being done), many large wholesale 

 firms in Great Britain, that would like 

 to buy fruit direct from our growers, 

 are afraid to make the venture. They 

 prefer to buy by auction where they 

 can have a chance to examine the goods 

 before purchase. Were these firms sure 

 they could depend on the quality and 



packing of the fruit they ordered, they 

 would be willing to buy direct from 

 Canadian growers, thus saving the mid- 

 dlemen's pro fits that now go into the 

 hands of the commission -dealers and 

 auctioneers on the other side. It should 

 be possible to greatly develop this trade 

 so that, ultimately, the bulk of our fruit 

 could be placed directly in the hands of 

 the wholesale and retail buyers. 



Canadian fruit, as far as quality is 

 concerned, when compared with the 

 fruit from other countries, stands high 

 in Great Britain. Properly handled, 

 London alone could consume all the 

 fruit Canada is now exporting. 



There is great need for improvement 

 in the packing of our fruit and in certain 

 conditions connected with its sale in 

 Great Britain. The first and most 

 necessary step towards improvement 



BENEFITS THE INDUSTRY 



I appreciate highly the merits of 

 The Canadian Horticulturist 

 in fostering the fruit industry all 

 over Canada. I try to profit by 

 the lessons given so liberally. — 

 Auguste Dupuis, Director Quebec 

 Fruit Experiment Stations, Village 

 des Anlnaies, Que. 



is the placing of a man in London to 

 represent Canadian growers. This man 

 should be appointed either by the Do- 

 minion Government or by the co-oper- 

 ative fruit growers' associations and the 

 larger apple shippers now doing business 

 in Canada. 



OUR investigations 



These facts have become evident to 

 The Horticulturist as a result of the 

 trip to Great Britain made this summer 

 by a staff representative of the paper, 

 with the object of gaining all the inform- 

 ation possible, concerning the transport- 

 ation of our fruit and of the conditions 

 governing its sale in the Old Country. 



Our representative was in Great Brit- 

 ain slightly over one month. During 

 this period he spent considerable time 

 in London, Bristol, Liverpool, Man- 

 chester and Newcastle, in England ; and 

 in Glasgow, Leith, and Edinburgh, in 



Scotland. The auction salesroorns were 

 visited and sales of fruits from other 

 countries watched. The large dealers, 

 the auctioneers, the buyers, and even 

 the grocers handling Canadian fruit 

 were interviewed. Each and all were 

 asked for criticisms and suggestions. 



Enough information of interest to our 

 Canadian growers was gathered to fill 

 several issues of The Canadian Horti- 

 culturist. Owing to the importance 

 of this information we have decided to 

 impart it to our readers in a series of 

 articles that will extend over several 

 months. The subjects of the main 

 articles will be : The Auction Sales Sys- 

 tem of Selling Fruit in Great Britain;, 

 Direct Consignments of Fruit to Private 

 Firms ; and Suggestions for the Improve- 

 ment of our Fruit Trade with Greats 

 Britain. 



WHY OUR man went 



The reason The Canadian Horti^ 

 CULTURIST sent its representative to, 

 Great Britain to gain this information 

 was because it realizes the vast import: 

 ance of our fruit trade with the mother 

 country, and the need for protecting 

 the interests of Canadian shippers. 

 There has long been a great demand for- 

 reliable and complete information con-, 

 cerning our export trade in fruits. 

 While the splendid work that has been 

 done by the Dominion Department of 

 Agriculture, through the initiative of 

 Prof. Jas. W. Robertson, in improving 

 the shipping facilities for fruit in the 

 adoption of uniform boxes and in pass-, 

 ing the Fruit Marks Act is recognized, 

 there is a strong feeling that an im^ 

 provement is needed on the other side, 

 in regard to the manner in which the 

 fruit is disposed of after its arrival. 

 Complaints of fraud have been made 

 again and again in regard to the sale of 

 fruit. It has been claimed that our 

 fruit is not sufficiently advertised, and 

 that there are far too many middlemen 

 handHng the goods for the benefit of our 

 growers. To answer these and other 

 statements of a similar nature there has 

 been a sad lack of reliable, definite 

 information. The commercial agents 

 at intervals have made reports, but often 

 it has happened that these reports have 

 conflicted one with the other. Again 

 it has been felt that these agents, with 

 one or two exceptions, have not been 



