Canadian Fruit Exports. 



91 



The Board have received, through the Colonial Office, 



functions of an agricultural department, there are specified 

 among its powers and duties the employment of persons to 

 inspect and report upon exported agricultural produce, upon 

 the request of the exporters and upon payment of a fee ; and 

 the advertisement from time to time of the products and 

 advantages of the Colony in other countries. 



The last report of the Minister of Agriculture for the 



varieties — such as peaches, pears, tomatoes, and grapes — 

 which were sent to the United , Kingdom in 1897. The 

 general results of the trial shipments indicate that the first 

 consignments, consisting chiefly of peaches and pears, were 

 packed in cases which were too large and without sufficient 

 provision for ventilation. When the cases were placed in the 

 cold-storage building, specially built at Grimsby, Ontario, 

 the heat generated by the fruit in a large measure counter- 

 balanced the cooling power of the ice. The tender fruit was 

 moreover practically insulated by the packing material 

 employed ; it remained comparatively warm in the middle of 

 the packages, and consequently ripened too much before it 

 was landed. Later shipments, consisting of peaches, pears, 

 tomatoes, and grapes, however, arrived in good condition, 

 but the British consumers are stated to have not yet learned 

 to like the flavour of Canadian grapes, or to pay such a price 

 for them as would permit of a remunerative export trade. The 

 prices at which grapes in good condition and of fine quality 

 were sold were, indeed, insufficient to meet the cost of 

 carriage, thus leaving the value of the fruit itself, the cost of 

 the cases, and the expenses of packing to be borne by the 

 department. The information obtained was apparently suffi- 

 cient to indicate how tender fruits may be exported from 



Tasmanian 

 Agricultural 

 Department. 



a copy of a Tasmanian Act, dated 24th 

 December, 1897, providing for the consti- 

 tution of a Department of Agriculture in 

 that Colony. In addition to the ordinary 



Canadian Fruit 

 Exports. 



Dominion of Canada contains a reference 

 to certain trial shipments of fruit, con- 

 sisting principally of the more tender 



