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increasing portion of those fruits which will bear long-distance transportion. 

 Such fruits can be produced throughout the various districts in Canada where 

 fruitgrowing is extensively carried on, and it seems doubtful whether even the 

 increased plantings that are now going on will be able to keep pace with the 

 enormous demand from the great Prairie Provinces which are now so rapidly 

 filling up, and which will not for many years, if ever, produce any of the standard 

 large fruits in a commercial way. 



This vast country, of which only the fringe has been occupied, is even now 

 absorbing whole trainloads of fruit during the season. With more favourable 

 transportation facilities, which will be provided by the new trans-continental 

 roads entering this territory, a more reasonable tariff for carriage, better methods 

 of packing and loading, and more rapid transportation, this trade is capable 

 of expansion beyond the most sanguine expectations. 



In the year 1906, the fruitgrowers of the Niagara district, under the direction 

 of the Board of Railway Commissioners, arranged for a series of experimental 

 car-load shipments of mixed tender fruits to the city of Winnipeg, each one 

 accompanied by a practical fruitgrower, in order to ascertain just what conditions 

 were necessary to place this trade on a satisfactory basis. From that beginning 

 the trade has steadily grown until several hundred cars of Ontario tender fruit 

 were forwarded during the past season, some of them as far west as Calgary and 

 Edmonton, while many hundreds of cars of Ontario apples are now finding a 

 market in this immense territory. British Columbia fruitgrowers, owing to their 

 proximity to the western prairie districts are finding this market particularly 

 interesting and valuable, and have for several years been forwarding large quan- 

 tities of fruits of all kinds with considerable success. During the past season 

 also, owing to their extraordinary large crop of apples, the men of the east in the 

 famous Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, cast an eye on this market, and to such 

 a purpose that for the first time in the history of the trade they were able not 

 only to place their apples in the western market, but succeeded in accomplishing 

 a very wide distribution of a considerable quantity, which was well received and 

 which will open the way for a large increase in future years. 



As has already been stated, with proper handling, reasonable railroad tariffs, 

 and efficient distribution, the market is in a position to care for a very great 

 increase in the output of fruit from British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Nova 

 Scotia for many years to come. 



4. Fobeign Markets. 



So far, reference has only been made to the capacity of Canadian markets 

 to take care of the supply of Canadian fruits. We are, however, not confined 

 to these alone. Canadian enterprise has not only to some extent invaded the 

 markets of our neighbours to the south with certain classes of our fruits notwith- 

 standing the tariff barrier, but for years the markets of Great Britain and the 

 Continent have depended largely on Canadian apples for a considerable portion 

 of their supply, and the fact that these apples usually command a range of one 

 or two shillings in advance of similar apples from other countries gives evidence 

 of the esteem in which they are held in the British and Continental markets. 



Nor is this all. Shipments have been made to South Africa, Australia, and 

 New Zealand, and have even found their way to China and Japan. 



The overseas trade in fruits is not confined to apples alone. Pears and 

 peaches have contributed to the importance of this trade, more particularly the 

 former, which have found a ready sale on the London, Liverpool and Glasgow 

 markets for a number of years. With regard to peaches, the experimental ship- 

 ments made during the last two or three .years under the supervision of the 

 Department of Agriculture of the Dominion and of the Province of Ontario on a 

 comparatively large scale, supplemented by the efforts of several enterprising 

 growers, have clearly demonstrated that several varieties of our best peaches 



