3i8 - The Canadian Horticulturist. 



the unsuitable means of transportation. The latter subject was so well 

 ventilated at the Dominion Convention in the city of Ottawa, last February, 

 that it is probable new methods, such as cold air chambers, will be em- 

 ployed to render the shipments more secure from destruction in transit, 

 and the delivery of fruit in better condition when landed, more of a certainty. 

 The appliances for handling packages en route, the size and shape of them 

 are factors m the export trade. The apple business is now assuming such 

 proportions that it is becoming worth wh'le for individual ship owners to 

 see that proper storage is given to freight of this nature, because there are 

 now so many competing hues of steamers, that consignors have an op- 

 portunity of selecting the one which will give the best storage advantages. 



It was my intention to show : First, the exports and imports of the 

 various provinces of the Dominion ; second, the countries shipped to, and 

 third, the value of fruits shipped, but found : First, the methods adopted by 

 the Customs Department for keeping the export returns did not provide 

 the necessary information, the exports being entered in the customs returns 

 at the port where the goods are shipped, the port of Montreal being the 

 largest shipping port for the British market. The Province of Quebec 

 shows a larger export trade than the Province of Ontario, though the fruit 

 exported is almost entirely grown in the latter province. Second, large 

 quantities of apples are shipped to Europe from Ontario, via New York. 

 These are entered by the customs as exported to the United States, and 

 third, the values as given by the customs are those placed on the fruit by 

 the shippers, and do not in any way give the selling price in Europe, which 

 is the true value gained by the Dominion. So that all we can really glean, 

 from the present mode of keeping our statistics, is the bare fact that so 

 many barrels are imported, and so many exported, within each fiscal year. 

 Mr. Geo. Johnston, the eminent statistician of the Dominion, whose office 

 is attached to the Department of Agriculture, and to whom I am much 

 indebted tor the figures given, has called attention to the above facts in the 

 press, but it is presumed the expense that would be entailed on a more 

 definite method of keeping the exports and imports, has deterred the 

 Government from making more exact returns. 



It will be noticed by the diagram that the exports of i88g were within a 

 fraction of double those of 1888, and that ever since the Colonial Ex- 

 hibition, held in London, England, our fruit trade has steadily advanced. 

 The poor apple crop of the present year will, no doubt, do much to diminish 

 our exports, but when circumstances are more favorable to the producers, 

 the export trade will assume larger proportions than ever before. 



It would be well if planters would look more to the foreign than to the 

 home market when setting out orchards. Our local trade may be easily 

 over supplied, but if all the land in Canada, suitable for apple culture, was 

 devoted to one large orchard, producing suitable varieties for the foreign 



