THE CANADIAN HC^TICULTUKIST. 



155- 



the Weekly Press (Phil.), is the mode 

 of operation : — 



" An Executive Committee was 

 selected and authorized to appoint a 

 chief distributor, who may be an officer 

 of the Pennsylvania Railroad, stationed 

 at Clayton, Del., or other headquarters 

 of the Delaware Division. The duties 

 of this officer, as scheduled, is to over- 

 see the loading of cars all along the 

 Delawai'e Division so that 300 baskets 

 are packed in each car, to notify ship- 

 pers all along the line when the quota 

 of each city is filled, and then immedia- 

 tely stop shipments to that market. 



The chairmen of the different pro- 

 duce exchanges and a selected number 

 of commission houses in each city are 

 to be the guagers, and are to guarantee 

 early in each day the sale of a certain 

 number of carloads of fiuit. Growers 

 are to be admitted to the privilege of 

 this bureau by paying a certain sched- 

 uling fee, according to the number of 

 trees they own. 



" Owners of 3,000 trees are to pay 

 annually $5, 5,000 trees S8, and all 

 over that mimber of trees $10. Grow-- 

 ers and buyei-s alike say that the 

 bureau, properly managed, will prevent 

 the dreaded glut." 



Some such organization would be of 

 great service to us in Canada, even 

 when we make a business of shipping 

 on commission. 



PACKING AND SHIPPING FRUIT. 



Sir, — Regarding the packing and 

 shipping of fruit we will cheerfully 

 furnish any information in our power, 

 that will in any way benefit or instruct 

 the fruit growers, as to the best and 

 most profitable method of mai'keting 

 their fruit. In the first place we will 

 take strawberries, I'aspberries, etc. We 

 would strongly recommend the use of 

 the 



24-QUART BASKET CRATE 



in marketing these fruits. This pack- 



age is well liked by the trade, as it is 

 much more convenient to handle than 

 the large wooden crates, and is also 

 gi-eatly in demand for the requirements 

 of the retailer, who, as a rule, prefers it 

 to any other package. The best made 

 basket crate, we have yet seen, has a 

 wooden partition across the centre, and 

 the ends are also of wood. This makes 

 a much stronger and better crate than 

 the one previously in use, and is better 

 adapted for shipping and reshipping, 

 and we believe it does not cost any 

 more money. As this crate is not 

 returnable it does away with all the 

 trouble of returning empties, which 

 everyone will admit has been a source 

 of great annoyance in past seasons ; to 

 the commission men on account of the 

 difficulty in collecting them in, and 

 getting them returned from outside 

 points ; and to the grower on account 

 of the trouble experienced with the 

 express company in having them re- 

 tui-ned to them promptly and correctly. 

 We believe this crate is made in 

 Thorold, but we do not know by whom. 

 In 



PACKING 



the fruit pick the berries nice and 

 clean, and fill the baskets well — we 

 would request you to pay particular 

 attention to the filling of the baskets, as 

 this is about the most important point 

 to be considered in the shipping of 

 berries. Fruit frequently reaches mar- 

 ket and, when oi)ened up for sale, the 

 baskets show up very slackly tilled. 

 This is owing to their settling down 

 while on the train, and can be avoided 

 by shaking them well down when 

 filling the baskets. We often receive 

 packages of mixed fruit — for instance 

 — .so many boxes red currants, so many 

 boxes black currants, and perhaps two 

 or three other kinds cf fruit. We do 

 noo know the grower's object in putting 

 their fruit up in this way, but we are 

 satisfied that it is of no benefit to them^ 



