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HOW TO MAKE FRUIT GROWING PAY. 



OW to make fruit growing pay 

 seems to be the question of 

 the hour. There has been so 

 much failure during the three 

 past years that there is universal dis- 

 couragement, but the dawn of better 

 days is near. The fact is that we must 

 make a complete change in methods. 

 We have been planting and growing 

 fruit for our home markets ; we have 

 now completely stocked these markets 

 and we imagine because Ontario is over- 

 stocked, the whole world is in the same 

 condition. So far is this from being the 

 case, that the very opposite is the truth. 

 England, Germany and Belgium are all 

 looking to Canada for their supply of 

 fancy dessert apples. Only this season, 

 some of our growers have received net 

 returns from Hamburg of S3. 50 per 

 barrel, for Ontario apples, and the writer 

 has received a net return of 50c. per 3rd 

 bushel case for selected Baldwins and 

 Spys. England is beginning to look to 

 Canada for her fancy table pears. Our 

 Bartletts, Boussocks, Clairgeaus, An- 

 jous, Duchess, and even Kieffers have 

 been making net returns of from one to 

 two cents each according to size, and 

 the demand is unlimited for the larger 

 sizes and fine grades of pears, of high 

 quality. The Kieffer is as yet new to 

 the English market and for that reason 

 has sold well both in '98 and '99 on ac- 

 count of its fine appearance. But we 

 have reason to doubt whether it will 

 continue salable. One firm in Edin- 

 burgh, for example, writes : " We find 

 that persons buying Kieffers, do not 

 want them a second time." 



To make fruit grotving pay in the 



changed conditions of the present day, 

 we must revolutionize our methods 

 completely. Once it would pay to grow 

 small, soft apples, and even scabby and 

 wormy apples, because our home mar- 

 kets were so hungry they would buy 

 anything in the shape of fruit, and it 

 cost so little to put it on the near mar- 

 kets that even natural fruits brought us 

 a fair margin of profit. But now that 

 our home markets are filled and we have 

 to reach out to distant markets and com- 

 pete with the finest fruits of California, 

 and of Europe, and even of South Af- 

 rica and Australia, the old slipshod me- 

 thods will no longer do. 



To begin with, we must entirely cease 

 growing inferior kinds ; they must all 

 be either rooted out or top grafted. We 

 must waste no more time or money 

 over them, but at once grow varieties 

 suited to our changed conditions. Just 

 which special kinds these are must be 

 to a large extent left to each man's 

 judgment, because localities differ ; but 

 in general we must (1) plant good ship- 

 pers — i.e., kinds that will carry long dis- 

 tances under favorable conditions. Now 

 it has been proved that the Crawford 

 peach, for example, the best variety we 

 grow for our home markets, will not 

 carry to foreign markets, even in cold 

 storage. The Dwarf Champion and the 

 Dwarf Aristocrat tomato will not .carry ; 

 nearly every package of these varieties 

 which we sent over in 1899, arrived in 

 a rotten condition, and left the shippers 

 in debt, while the Ignotum carried per- 

 fectly. 



The next important thing is (2) to 

 select varieties that are worth shipping, 

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