FOURTEENTH AXXIAL MEETING. 103 



DESSERT FRUIT. 

 Japanese Plums 



GROWN BY 



Ralph S. Eaton. 



Under this conies some advertising sentences regarding 

 the orchard. Two sheets of paper are used. One crosses 

 the bottom, the other in a reverse direction covers the first 

 layer of phnns. These papers lap over the top to that. 

 When the fruit is covered the printing shows on one paper and 

 when uncovered it shows on the other. This white paper 

 with a border figured like shelf paper, contrasting with the 

 carmine colored fruit, adds much to the attractiveness of the 

 package. I have averaged for my Japanese plums about 

 three-fifty to four dollars per crate. That is, from two 

 seventy-five to three and a quarter, net, for a crate of twelve 

 boxes, such as hold ordinarily about sixty pounds. 



Mr. Hoyt : Where do you sell them ? 



Mr. Eaton : The maritime provinces take the most of 

 them. I have shipped some to Montreal, and the returns 

 have been good enough to warrant quite a few shipments 

 there. Of course, one trouble in trying to place a high 

 grade article of this kind on the market has been the inferior 

 stock with which the market has been flooded. There always 

 has been, and T think always yill be, a demand for such fruit, 

 carefully selected and packed. I have known of some cases 

 where they have been sold in Montreal as high as five 

 dollars a crate. I have not been able to supply the province 

 of Xova Scotia with as many as they wanted to eat, at very 

 paying prices. 



Mr. Hoyt: Have you had very much trouble on your 

 shipments to England? I understood that you had sent some 

 plums to England. 



Mr. Eaton : I shipped two different lots. The commis- 

 sion men over there would be well satisfied if we could get 

 the plums into the English market at the proper season. If 

 I could put those plums on the English market the first of 

 October, after their English varieties have gone out, I could 

 get splendid prices for them, but T have not done much 



