292 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[September 15, 1888. 



tances, and where a regular supply is sent, and where 

 the railway porters are accustomed to them. It is 

 more convenient than the " handle " for displaying 

 in the shop windows, and shows off the fruit better. 

 The basket should be lined with white paper and a 

 little packing in the bottom, the bunches being 

 simply laid in close together. The whole fits nicely 

 into a hamper known as a " flat," and with the 

 ordinary Grape label invariably arrives in good 

 condition. 



Peaches should be packed in shallow boxes of 

 sufficient depth to allow a good bed to lay upon and 

 a slight layer of packing on the top. The box should 

 contain only twenty-four best or thirty-six seconds. 

 Each fruit should be wrapped in soft paper. A very 

 effective way of packing Peaches, so as when the box 

 is opened the class of fruit can be seen at once by 

 the buyer, is to roll a double slip of tissue paper 

 round each fruit, leaving the crown exposed. This 

 requires a sheet of paper to be placed over the fruit 

 before finally filling up with the packing. I know 

 of no packing better than moss, which should be 

 properly dried and cleansed from all grit. It is 

 cooler and more elastic than any other substance. 

 Each fruit should be completely surrounded with it. 

 Next to moss is bran, but care should be taken to 

 shake it down well and refill the box before fasten- 

 ing the lid, as it settles down with the oscillation of 

 travelling, leaving part of the fruit exposed and 

 liable to injury. Wadding is not elastic, and is too 

 heating. 



Strawberries should be packed in boxes in single 

 layers containing from 1 lb. to 1J lb., according to 

 size, each Strawberry being placed in a Strawberry 

 leaf on a thin layer of moss, with only a light layer 

 of leaves on the top. Each package of say five or 

 six boxes should have a label, " Strawberries, with 

 care, this side up," on the top of it. When the 

 season is full on, they lose value if delivered after 

 8 a.m., as the trade then supply themselves from the 

 " morning gathered," delivered by the growers them- 

 selves. 



Tomatos should be packed in "handle" baskets 

 containing from 18 to 20 lb., and should be well 

 coloured, but not too ripe, otherwise they are apt to 

 split. 



Outdoor Fruit. — Suitable baskets for sending out- 

 door fruit to market can always be obtained of the 

 salesmen. These consist of quarter-sieves, half-sieves, 

 and sieves. The former hold 12 lb., and are used for 

 best samples of all kinds of soft fruit. Half sieves 

 are used for Cherries, Currants, Plums, Pears, and 

 Apples. Sieves are used mainly for Apples. A 

 half-sieve of Boft fruit should contain 241b., of Plums 

 28 lb., of Apples from 21 to 24 lb. Soft frnit should 

 be simply stuck down with a sheet of paper. Hard 

 fruit should be stuck down with dry packing, such 

 as hay or straw. All fruit opens better with a sheet 

 of paper covered over. 



Pears, especially early varieties, should be sent 

 directly they can be removed from the trees. On no 

 account should they be allowed to get ripe. The 

 system in vogue in Prance is well worthy of imita- 

 tion by growers in this country. The fruit is care- 

 fully sorted, in many instances into four sizes. Cases 

 are made to contain two tiers, each tier consisting of 

 twenty, twenty-four, thirty, and thirty-six fruits. A 

 layer of paper shavings is placed between each tier, and 

 one top and bottom. When the fruit is extra large and 

 kept late in the season, cases to contain a single 

 layer of twelve and fifteen are used. If packed in 

 half-sieves, the better sorts should be placed in 

 layers with a little packing between. 



Carriage. — With regard to the cost of carriage, 

 little can be said here except that the rates, as we 

 all know, are very unsatisfactory, little or no in- 

 ducement being held out by the great carriers for the 

 development of produce on a small scale. Special 

 rates may sometimes be secured for regular consign- 

 ments over 28 lb., but even then there is often a 

 difficulty in keeping the railway company to their 

 contract. All goods by passenger trains should 

 reach the market by 7 p.m., so as to be ready for the 

 next morning's trade, as if not they are seldom 



delivered till after the market is over, and therefore 

 lose in value. 



Mr. Samuel Rawson, of Birmingham, followed on 

 the same theme, and was introduced by the Chair- 

 man, who said Mr. Bawson had earned the commenda- 

 tion of a great fruit man — Mr. Gladstone. In the 

 course of his paper Mr. Rawson said anyone could 

 grow fruit if they had the trees, the land, and the 

 climate ; but it was not everyone who could make 



Fig. 34.— method or packing choice fruits. 



the best price of it by judicious marketing. They 

 were all aware of the old adage, " Put the best side 

 towards London," and knew pretty well what toppers 

 meant ; but it was very unfair to the salesman and 

 the customer in town to top or face the baskets of 

 produce with a few of the best fruit to cover idle- 

 ness or carelessness in picking. This was often the 



Fig. 35.— moveable backs ebom fig. 34. 



reason why many complaints were made of certain 

 growers receiving bad prices. In Erance they 

 managed much better. Perhaps it might be said 

 that their dwarf pyramid trees and their cordon 

 system of growing facilitated the picking, and the 

 fruit was much freer from bruises ; but did the 

 English fruit grower ever trouble whether the fruit 



was bruised or not? No, he did not. In nine cases 

 out of ten all he cared about was getting it off the 

 trees and sent to market, and in many cases without 

 even studying whether this or that sort ought to go 

 to market first. One grower's packing would make 

 double the price of another's if his mark had become 

 known as an honest packer's. The French often 

 realised more for 1 ton of their fruit than English 

 growers for 2 tons. Why? The French did 

 not begrudge employing labour, while the English 

 grower growled and grumbled if he employed a few 

 extra hands. Labour would and must pay. He 

 related an amusing incident which came under his 

 notice in Cornwall, and maintained that the way 

 Strawberries were packed in that county was 



abominable. Though they grew good and early 

 fruit in Cornwall, it was spoilt before it got to 

 market. Pounds of Strawberries were wedged into 

 an old Orange box with a little Fern between each 

 layer. He could not understand what the Fern was 

 for, unless it was to cook them. The Fern was 

 admirably adapted for "sweating" fruit. His 

 opinion was that Strawberries ought to be sent to 

 market on wooden trays about 3 inches deep, 2 feet 

 long, about 15 inches wide, made to fit into 

 each other in nests of six, with nothing over them 

 except a lid on the top box, the trays to hold 12 lb. 

 They could be carried about the beds. The whole 

 six being bound by a cord, six dozen could be sold 

 together. None but the finest fruit, unless in a 

 scarce season, should be put in these trays. With 

 respect to marketing, he thought that with extended 

 fruit cultivation they would want extended market- 

 ing distribution or manipulation, or whatever they 

 liked to call it, but it simply meant that the fruit 

 must be disposed of in the most economical way. 

 Salesmen would have to be provided with very large 

 capital, and also the convenience for preserving the 

 fruit and vegetables in superabundant seasons, by 

 converting the fruit into jam or pulp, and preserving 

 the vegetables in brine to provide against scarcity in 

 crops for another season ; besides, the surplus left 

 from each day's sales must be manufactured into 

 jam, pulp, or pickles, thus keeping the market clear 

 and preventing goods being sold at those ruinously 

 low prices that were obtained at the end of the 

 market. It was to the manipulating of this surplus 

 that the growers in an extended fruit cultivation 

 must look for the profit they would reap for their 

 trouble ; and he would advise Fruit Associations or 

 companies supported by capitalists and growers who 

 could act as their own salesmen and to whom large jam 

 makers could apply for their supplies of fruit. There 

 was but one way of dealing with the produce with 

 the most advantage to the seller, and to the imme- 

 diate benefit of the people generally, and that was 

 by a combination of the landowners, farmers, mar- 

 ket-gardeners, fruit and vegetable growers, agricul- 

 tural labourers and all classes interested to form 

 companies or societies, properly and carefully or- 

 ganised and carried on in large centres, to provide 

 for the reception and sale of produce, so that all 

 classes might be interested in the success of such 

 undertaking. To make such a company successful 

 in any large centre was easy. It might be formed 

 amongst capitalists as companies generally were 

 formed, or it might be the parties specially interested 

 who might combine to start and support it. The 

 latter, he thought, would be the more profitable com- 

 bination.as it certainly would be the more preferrable, 

 and in such a case he thought it should be a company, 

 co-operative in principle, registered under the Com- 

 panies' Acts and limiting the liability of the share- 

 holders to the amount of their shares. 



Mr. Robert Smith (Talding) read a brief paper on 

 " The Packing of Apples," urging that if they wished 

 to compete successfully with the foreigner English 

 fruit-growers must pay closer attention to the pack- 

 ing. He produced a specimen basket of his own 

 design, which, being lined with felt, prevented the 

 fruit from being bruised. 



LAND TENURE. 



Mr. Albert Bath (Foot's Cray, Kent) read a paper 

 on " Land Tenure in Relation to Fruit Cultivation." 

 As a fruit-grower of twenty years' experience he 

 knew a little where the shoe pinched. He might 

 say in a few words that the reason why more fruit 

 was not grown in this country was, not want of 

 suitable soil or climate, but defective laws relating 

 to agriculture. He had taken an active interest in 

 endeavouring to obtain an Agricultural Holdings 

 Act which would give the tenant full security for 

 capital which he had invested judiciously. That the 

 Farmers' Alliance had that object in Its programme was 

 his (Mr.Bath's) chief reason why he continued to act as 

 its secretary. He alluded to a meeting held at Syden- 

 ham a few years ago, at which most of those present 

 were frult-growers,and where a resolution was carried 



