432 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 295. 



If there ever was a time when a bod}^ like the Municipal 

 Art Association should endeavor to make its influence felt 

 it is just now, when the officials entrusted with the admin- 

 istration of our public pleasure-grounds have shown such 

 contempt for the counsel of their own chosen adviser in 

 matters of landscape-art. As usual, there is no conflict in 

 this case between the demands of the highest beauty and 

 of the greatest usefulness. It is not proposed to injure the 

 road for driving purposes. The alignment, the grading and 

 the surface-quality of the speed-way can be made as perfect 

 as possible, and it is only asked that by judicious planting 

 of trees, the masking of raw surfaces with appropriate vege- 

 tation, the protection and development of the natural beau- 

 ties of a picturesque location, the place may be made at- 

 tractive to the entire population of the city as well as to the 

 fortunate owners of fast trotting horses ; and that provision 

 be made for the enjoyment of this beauty by all classes, 

 instead of limiting that privilege to a small fraction of the 

 people. The reasonableness of such a request is evident. 

 When the people of the city fully appreciate the situation, 

 they will not allow themselves to be robbed of their rights. 



The California Fruit-supply in New York. 



CHEAP freights and refrigerator-cars have brought the 

 Pacific coast so close to the Atlantic that a very con- 

 siderable portion of the fruit-supply of our eastern cities 

 is now carried entirely across the continent. The exper- 

 iment of bringing California fruit to New York was first 

 tried in 1868, when a venture was made with three car- 

 loads of winter pears and one of grapes, at a cost of from 

 one thousand to thirteen hundred dollars a car for freight. 

 But, evidently, there was little encouragement to continue 

 this traffic, for nineteen years later, or in 1887, only fifteen 

 car-loads reached this market. These small supplies were 

 handled by fancy-fruit dealers at high prices, and Califor- 

 nia fruit continued to be rare and a luxury until 1889, when 

 four hundred car-loads were distributed in New York, about 

 one dealer in twenty being among the purchasers. In 1890, 

 when there was a general failure of the eastern fruit-crops, 

 a great impetus was given to the California trade, and the 

 business done in New York was nearly doubled. These 

 fruits have steadily gained in public favor as they have 

 improved in quality, and since the first cherries arrived this 

 year, in the middle of May, in spite of poor railroad service 

 and the largest crop of peaches ever produced on the Dela- 

 ware peninsula, eight hundred car-loads of fruit from Cali- 

 fornia have been sold -here already this year. 



The earliness or lateness of the season on either coast is 

 of great importance in the competition between eastern 

 and western fruits, as this year, for example, when a late 

 season in California delayed the first shipment of cherries, 

 which arrived here two weeks later than usual, and two 

 days after the North Carolina fruit — the result of this tardi- 

 ness being a sluggish start for the California fruit. In the order 

 of arrival, apricots came with some of the earliest cherries, 

 and Clyman plums were here on the 23d of June, the 

 Cherry and Royal Hative varieties arriving a few days later. 

 Alexander peaches were only a day behind the plums, the 

 first Bartlett pears and Alexandra apples coming July nth, 

 nectarines and grapes also arriving during this month, and 

 Tokay grapes in August. The season for peaches and 

 plums is drawing to a close, and grapes and winter pears 

 constitute the principal receipts, with a few pomegranates 

 and new figs. Almonds and English walnuts will soon fol- 

 low, and dried fruits, oranges and lemons round out the 

 California fruit year in the eastern markets. Orange culti- 

 vation is successful in a higher latitude in California than 

 in any other part of the world, and the groves of the state 

 comprise about 41,000 acres of bearing trees, with half as 

 many more young trees not yet productive. Six thousand 

 car-loads of oranges were shipped out of the state last 

 spring, of which one-third was Riverside Navel fruit, 

 altogether the best California orange seen here. This fruit 



arrives in small lots soon after the first of January, and in 

 larger quantities during the late spring months, when it 

 succeeds the last of the Florida crop. 



But 401,415 acres out of nearly 156,000 square miles are 

 planted in fruit in California, and this state seems to have 

 the ability to supply an almost unlimited demand. While 

 these western fruits do not generally equal ours in fla- 

 vor, at least as they reach us here, they are larger, more 

 beautiful, and have remarkable keeping qualities. Cali- 

 fornia grapes are an important acquisition, since they are 

 mainly varieties of the European or Vinifera type, and quite 

 distinct in texture and flavor. Besides this, they keep in a 

 fresh condition much longer than the native varieties. The 

 greatest care is used in picking and in theselection of sound 

 fruit, and eastern growers have much to learn from western 

 shippers in the art of packing. Cherries, for instance, in 

 prime condition and of the brightest color, all of an even 

 size, are packed in perfectly regular rows, and make a most 

 attractive appearance in their neat boxes on the fruit-stand. 

 Pears and peaches are packed with no less care, each fruit 

 wrapped in tissue-paper, and often placed in separate com- 

 partments. When the crop of eastern fruit is abundant and 

 of good quality, all the California fruit that can be got here 

 sells in competition with it at considerably higher prices, 

 and, in spite of the long journey, the California grower 

 generally gets a larger net return than the grower in Dela- 

 ware and other fruit-producing districts near by. 



Except a few car-loads in a season, all the fruit from 

 California has been sold here by auction since 1887. 

 The sales are conducted by Messrs. Brown & Seccomb 

 and Mr. E. L. Goodsell, Porter Brothers Company, the Earl 

 Fruit Company and the National Fruit Association being 

 the largest shippers. The local buyers are notified of the sale 

 by the receiver, who has had telegraphic advices from the 

 railroad company a day in advance. Cars reaching Jersey 

 City during the night are at once forwarded to New York 

 docks on floats, and by 8 o'clock in the morning these are 

 unloaded. The crates and boxes of fruit are stacked on the 

 dock, that of each grower by itself, and the boxes opened 

 for examination. The sales are attended by from two to 

 three hundred buyers, made up of wholesale dealers, com- 

 mission merchants, brokers acting for principals indifferent 

 parts of the country, jobbers and small dealers who sell to 

 peddlers. Catalogues are provided, and preferred lots 

 noted by the prospective buyers. At 9 o'clock the sale be- 

 gins in the auction-room, which is on the dock, and the 

 fruit is bid off in lots of from two to one hundred 

 packages. It is packed in trucks for delivery as fast 

 as sold, and early afternoon finds everything clear for 

 the next day's arrivals. An hour after the sale detailed 

 telegraphic advice is in California, and the grower 

 knows on the same day the price brought by his fruit. 

 The cars are furnished with improved systems of refrigera- 

 tion during the summer months, each car having a capacity 

 of from 8,000 to 12,000 pounds of ice ; this is renewed three 

 or four times in transit by the agents of the shippers, who are 

 placed at regular stations. A car holds 1,000 to 1,200 half 

 crates of peaches, plums, apricots or grapes, each weighing 

 from twenty to twenty-five pounds ; 450 to 500 boxes of pears, 

 weighing from forty to fifty pounds, or 2,500 packages of 

 cherries, weighing ten pounds each. The cost of bringing a 

 car to New York is almost $400, with nearly $200 more 

 added for ice. The journey is generally made in nine to 

 eleven days, but owing to the reduction of the force on the 

 railroads this year, and the interference to traffic by travel 

 to the Columbian Exposition, the trains have been delayed 

 from one to three days, to the injury of the fruit and the 

 discouragement of California growers with respect to future 

 shipments. Owing to its position, Chicago takes larger 

 quantities of California fruit than New York. Boston also 

 receives large direct shipments, while one or more cars of 

 every train are diverted to such cities as Omaha, St. Louis, 

 New Orleans, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Pittsburg and Buffalo. 



During all this rapid growth of the consumption of Cali- 

 fornia fruit in eastern cities, the supply from the orchards 



