Sept. 1895.] 



FOREIGN OFFICE EEPORTS. 



191 



EXTRA.CTS I'ROM FOREIGN OFFICE REPORTS. 

 Fruit Growing in California. 



In a report to the Foreign Office on the trade of the consular 

 district of San Francisco for the year 1894, Mr. Wellesley Moore, 

 Her Majesty's Acting Consul, states that owing to a number of 

 -causes, such as glutting of the market, hard times, unsatisfactory 

 service, and the railroad strike, the prices realised for Calif ornian 

 green fruits in the Eastern States ruled very low in 1894. On 

 account of the almost total failure of the crop there the season 

 should have been a prosperous one for the Californian fruit 

 grower, who, so to speak, had the great market of the east 

 largely to himself. This market was, however, kept constantly 

 glutted, and the prices to the grower thereby made ruinously 

 low. 



Such having been the case in 1894 with the eastern crop 

 almost a total failure, it is stated that when the eastern crop is 

 a normal one, or an unusually large one, the result will be one 

 of disaster to the army of fruit growers in California and a 

 serious crippling of the entire green fruit industry of that State. 



In the earlier years of the auction plan of selling fruits (a 

 system first introduced in connexion with the sale of Californian 

 fruits in 1887), it was comparatively easy to regulate the 

 distribution in the east from the fact that over 90 per cent, of 

 the shipments were made through two mediums, which rendered 

 it possible to regulate its distribution. Within the past year 

 or two new conditions have arisen. In place of the great bulk 

 of the fruit passing chiefly through two hands, a large number 

 of co-operative companies, brokers, commission men and others 

 have entered the field and have been making indiscriminate 

 shipments to the various eastern markets, resulting in disaster 

 all round. Each shipper has naturally endeavoured to hide his 

 movements from the others, and the result has been that all 

 have worked in the dark, and the forwarding of fruit has been 

 almost entirely a matter of guesswork. With a view of dis- 

 tributing the fruits more intelligently, and thus preventing a 

 glutting of the eastern markets, a Bureau of Information has 

 been established, which will be supported by all persons engaged 

 in the fruit business. This bureau will issue daily bulletins to 

 all subscribers, keeping them, fully posted as to the conditions 

 of the eastern markets, so that they can intelligently determine 

 where their fruit is required and can be disposed of to the best 

 advantage. It has been decided to have only one auction room 

 in each city. 



The shipment of fresh fruit direct to London, which was 

 tried as an experiment two years since and suspended in 1893, 

 was again resumed in 1894. On August 5, a train consist- 

 ing of 11 refrigerator cars was despatched to New York, and 



