The Canadian Horticulturist. 203 



disastrous to Canadian exporters last season. Such fine fruit as our best Fameuse, 

 Wealthy, Winter St. Lawrence and Mcintosh Red cannot be exported in barrels 

 profitably, because it is not the proper package for fruit of such delicate texture. 

 No matter how carefully selected and packed in barrels, bruising of each specimen 

 must naturally occur, and bruising means premature decay, hence fruit of 

 this description is sacrificed at " five a penny." But if we cannot ship our best 

 apples in barrels they may be shipped in compartment boxes with complete 

 certainty of arriving in good condition, to be put on the Londoner's dinner tables 

 unbruised. I have tested this mode of packing our best table apples for export, 

 the last ten years, with great success. At first the boxes were made with open 

 spaces on sides and top for ventilation (that was the Cochrane case), but experi- 

 ence has led me to adopt a close box, the only ventilation being the small hole 

 at each end ; but really the object is not ventilation, but for convenience in 

 handling the package. We find that the boxes are never turned upside down 

 when the freight handler can insert his fingers into these holes, and lift the box 

 so easily. Last season I exported several hundred boxes of apples and not one 

 complaint as to packing, but many letters of recommendation. The Fameuse 

 and Wealthy boxes hold 16 dozen and four apples (196 apples) or nearly half a 

 barrel. The package, complete, including 3* 2 inch wire nails with which we 

 nail the cover, bottom and sides, in addition to the nails that the box manufac- 

 turer supplies, costs 45 cents, or thereabout. Of course only the very best and 

 most perfect fruit can be packed in these boxes. That a large trade can be 

 worked up in shipping to Great Britain table apples, packed in this manner, is 

 rather doubtful, as the fruit by the time it reaches the other side becomes pretty 

 costly, — but I must confess that from a small beginning I have found the demand 

 to increase every year, so that last year I shipped nearly double the number of 

 boxes that I did the year previously. But we can scarcely expect that apples in 

 boxes, in a wholesale way, can compete with the trade in barrels, — therefore I 

 cannot recommend a large increase in the area of our orchards for the purpose 

 or shipping fruit in boxes. 



What is to be done ? You will ask if you do not recommend increasing the 

 acreage of orchards by the planting of such varieties as succed well, viz. : Fall 

 and early winter varieties. What is to be done ? My answer is, plant late keep- 

 ing varieties, hard apples for exportation. But the cultivation of winter apples 

 for export has never been undertaken on a large 'scale in this province, as it is in 

 Ontario, because of the uncertainty of knowing what variety of tree is hardy 

 enough, and suitable to cultivate for the trade. Our old time favorities " Pomme 

 Grise," " Bourrassa " and " Calvilles/' etc., are no longer cultivated, having be- 

 come unprofitable. No, doubt, the apple growers of this province have been 

 bravely trying and testing the growing of winter apples for many years. We 

 have only to look at the large number of varieties of winter apples that we have 

 collected for the World's Fair, Chicago, which are now in cold storage there, such 



