192 



FOEEIGN OFFICE REPORTS. 



[Sept. 1895» 



the fruit was there transferred to fast steamers. The time 

 occupied on the journey was 12 J days, and the fruit is said to 

 have arrived in good condition. This shipment was followed by 

 others, but the expenses were very heavy, and it is felt that 

 unless the fruit can be laid down at a smaller cost for trans- 

 portation, and with a smaller percentage of loss, the English 

 market will not prove a profitable field to work. 



The unsatisfactory prices which growers have received from 

 the commission men and jobbers have encouraged the growth of 

 co-operation in the marketing of orchard products. The success^ 

 of the Southern California fruit exchanges in the handling of 

 citrus fruit and the Campbell Fruit Union of Santa Clara 

 County, for the manipulation of preserved fruits, are said to have 

 largely brought about this result. Various local exchanges 

 sprang up throughout the State, and they have now effected a 

 central organisation, known as the California Fruit Exchange, 

 situated in San Francisco. 



These exchanges handle all the produce of their members, 

 which is sent to them direct from the orchards. It is then 

 graded by machinery, and the grower obtains a receipt specifying 

 the variety and weight of each grade. From this time its 

 identity is lost, all being put together or dried together, as tlie 

 case may be, sold by the association, and the proceeds distributed 

 after deducting the necessary charges. The results attained are 

 stated to be far more satisfactory than when each grower 

 marketed his own fruit. The association is able to make better 

 terms with the purchasers, handle the product with less expense, 

 and prevent too much fruit being thrown on the market at one 

 time, thus realising better prices than were obtainable under the 

 old method. 



Experiments in shipping fruit to the Eastern States by the 

 Perkin system have been tried and have proved very successful. 

 The principle is very simple. Attached to the locomotive is an 

 air-compressor, in which the pressure of air reaches over 80 lbs. 

 to the square inch. Air compressed to this extent becomes 

 heated to such a degree that the g-rminal life it contains is 

 destroyed. The sterilized air is passed into a receiver, where it 

 is cooled and then forced into an air-tight car into which the 

 fruit is placed. The germ-laden air is in turn forced out of the 

 car, and the fruit is carried to its destination in perfectly pure 

 air. With but little loss of power to the engine, this process is 

 kept up during the entire journey. Where only pure air reaches 

 the fruit, the process of decomposition is arrested for a long time. 

 There is also a great saving effected by dispensing with the ice 

 in the car, thus saving its cost and allowing more room for fruit. 



The importation of beneficial insects from Australia to destroy 

 pests that affected the fruit trees of California is said to have 

 proved very successful ; some of the pests, such as the cottony 

 cushion scale and the black scale, having disappeared in many 

 orchards. 



