396 
Tue Oversea Frurr Traps. 
Western Australia, because of its particularly suitable climate, 
its favourable geographical position, and the extension fruit cul- 
ture has attained, shares with gratifying success an important part 
of the Australian fruit trade with the European and the nearer 
Asiatic markets. 
Under the stimulus given by the settlement of returned sol- 
diers on the land, a fresh spurt has been given to further planting, 
and the importance of the oversea fruit trade is one that offers un- 
mistakable and gratifying signs of expansion. 
Both Albany, Bunbury, and Fremantle, the last ports of call of 
fruit-trading steamers, and of the mail boats, are a week nearer 
the large European markets than is Melbourne, and eight or nine 
days nearer than either New South Wales or Tasmania. 
Apart from the notable advantage of quicker delivery, a better 
position in the hold of the steamer, always militates in favour of 
the last shipped fruit. 
But the fact that our fruits are offered for sale on oversea mar- 
kets in the early European spring and summer ensures for them a 
ready sale due to absence of competitors. 
These new markets, which have only been opened compara- 
tively recently, have been made available by the improvements and 
expansion of cold storage during transit as well as before and after 
shipment. 
Cotp StoracEe For Fruit 
constitutes at the present time one of the safest and cheapest 
methods of dealing with fruit at times of glut of the market. It is 
often, with fruit and other perishable products, either a feast or a 
famine, but with more precise knowledge regarding methods of 
picking and packing, and also of cold storage, which private as well 
as public commercial enterprise has placed within the reach of all, 
it is now practicable to withhold fruit from the market when it is 
most abundant and when prices are low, and offer it for sale with 
profit when it becomes scarce. 
The profits, however, are not so large as they would appear to 
some, and there are risks to face and costs to incur in holding a 
crop over. The fruit, for instance, must possess keeping qualities; 
some are of such a kind that nothing will prevent speedy deteriora- 
tion. Most summer apples, it is well known, will soon, however 
carefully handled, go mealy and rot; most grapes are bad keepers; 
strawberries will, under no circumstances, keep more than a couple 
of days or so, Moreover the fruit may, on account of bad culti- 
