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we succeeded in making mucli better arj'angaments. It came about in this way : 

 It happened to be my privilege and duty to go to London with a large consignment 

 of potatoes. At the time when the cargo arrived jiotatoes were a glut on the 

 market and prices were very dull. Things looked very blue for me. For some 

 days previous to the arrival of the ship I was looking about me and found potatoes 

 selling at auction at ruinously low prices. I made up my mind that if 1 had to 

 sell the potatoes at the ruling prices I would be unable to pay the freight. I also 

 looked about the markets and found large quantities of potatoes being sold at private 

 sale — to the jobbing trade. This naturally induced me to place my potatoes in the 

 hands of men who, I felt sure, from what I had seen, could realize the highest price. 

 I found that by selling at private sale the prices realized were much better than by 

 selling at auction on the same day. This led me to inquire why our apples were being 

 sold at auction, and it occniTed to me that if potatoes could be sold at privat^ sale 

 our apples could also be sold in that way, and we should make much better prices. 

 JSTo one could answer me in any other way than that it was the custom to sell apples 

 by auction as well as other kinds of fruit. In talking with pai'ties who were selling 

 to the retail trade at private sale, they said they know these men who wore buying 

 potatoes also dealt largely in apples. They came to buy their supply of potatoes at 

 private sale and then went over to the auction sale to purchase their apples. They 

 told me that they would talk the matter over with them as to whether or not they 

 would purchase apples at private sale — whether they were willing to buy apples in 

 that way. The matter was discussed with their customers in my presence, and when 

 they were asked if they would buy apples by private sale the reply invariably was, 

 " Certainly if you Nova Scotia people or Canadians will send apples here where we 

 know what we can get and can select what we want at private sale we should prefer 

 doing that, and buying our supplies at any time that was convenient to us, rather 

 than that we should go to the auction sales at certain hours and simply judge from 

 samples as to what the bulk would be." The result was, that the next autumn we 

 consigned our apples for private sale. This happened ten years ago. The result is, 

 that to-day at least one-third, and in some seasons considerably more than that, of 

 our Nova Scotia apples is being sold in England at private sale, instead of by auction, 

 and the figures which I have given you will compare, as far as my knowledge goes, 

 favourably with the average sales of those markets. That is one of the favourable 

 points to our Nova Scotia apple trade, one that I think we have reason to be thank- 

 ful for, and it is nothing but what any man can adopt or make arrangements for. I 

 think the question has been alluded to before in reference to other matters in this 

 line. Now, Mr. President, in Nova Scotia we have plenty of room for double and 

 even treble the number ot orchards that we have now, and we believe that in a very 

 few years the quantity of fruit that we shall produce there will be double or treble our 

 present product, which, up to the present time, our exports to London alone have 

 been 113,000 barrels. This quantity in a few years we expect to double, and double 

 over again as the years roll on. Thousands of young orchards are being planted to- 

 day, and have been during the past few years. And here I may remark that I was 

 glad of the reference which our satistician, Mr. Johnson, made to the coming census. 

 We find a great difficulty in getting at anj'thing like a correct statement of our fruit 

 or orchard development. We have no means whatever of getting at the quantity 

 of trees brought into the country. I endeavoured a few years ago, at the request of 

 our association, to obtain some information on this point, but found it utterly imprac- 

 ticable to get at anything reliable. The suggestion to do this in the next census 

 is undoubtedly a good one, and will be of great use to us if carried out effectually. 

 Allusion has been made to the ventilated barrels foi' export. If you allow me a word 

 upon that matter I would say that I have examined this ventilated barrel particularly 

 and I quite endorse the statement made by some gentlemen here last evening, that 

 our experience has not been in favour of an open barrel tor shipping apples. If we 

 had ships thoroughly ventilated and the circulation of pure air through the vessels, 

 possibly the ventilated barrel would be satisfactory. But with our present facilities 

 I imagine the air in the hold of a vessel would be much more injurious to the fruit 



