Importation of Plants. 



245 



apple orchard. There are a few farms with as many as 60 

 or more acres of orchard land, but a large proportion of this 

 has been planted within the past ten years, and is not yet in 

 full bearing. The apples intended for export are packed in 

 barrels, costing iod., and holding from 120 to 140 lbs. of fruit ; 

 and the freight charges to Liverpool or London from the 

 Annapolis Valley, via Halifax, amount to 4s. 2d. per 

 barrel, made up of railway carriage is. 8d. and steamer 

 charges 2s. 6d. The salesman's commission in London is 

 usually 5 per cent. It is estimated that the average net 

 price received by the grower in Nova Scotia was for the 

 crop of 1896, 4s. 2d. per barrel; for that of 1897, 8s. 4d. ; and 

 for that of 1898, 6s. 3d. In 1896, the production of apples in 

 the Colony was estimated at 750,000 barrels, of which 

 450,000 were exported to England. 



The importation of plants, shrubs, trees, and flower roots 

 into the United Kingdom has been 

 Importation of steadily increasing during the past 20 



Plant J* t ' e Shrubs ' y ears 5 in 1 8 79 the value of these im P orts 

 was returned at £137,000, in 1884 it 

 reached £212,000, in 1890 ,£308,000, whilst in 1898 it was 

 £436,600. Of this last named sum the imports from Holland 

 accounted in 1898 for more than half, viz., £22 1,800 ; Belgium, 

 France, and Germany each sent goods valued at between 

 £40,000 and £50,000 ; the importations from Japan, the United 

 States, Colombia, and the Channel Islands were each returned 

 as worth over £10,000; while Brazil and India sent ship- 

 ments valued at £6,300 and £4,900 respectively. The figures 

 given above do not include cut flowers, which were imported in 

 1898 to the value of £219,000, so that the combined value of 

 plants and flowers imported into this country in the past 

 year amounted to over £650,000. 



The countries to which plants and shrubs of British pro- 

 duction exported are sent are not separately distinguished, 

 but the total value of these exports in 1898 amounted to 



