238 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
f September 13,1888. 
not shake them.” He was packing them in large, rough-looking, oval 
baskets, the class of basket generally used in that part to hold 80 or 
100 lbs. He was using neither straw nor paper at the bottom to prevent 
the twigs of the baskets bruising the Apples. I told him that they 
would make more than double the price if they had been picked and 
were packed in smaller baskets, and advised him to go to Penzance and 
buy a lot of small baskets, such as are used in picking the fruit from the 
ground to carry to the barns. He said he would not go to the expense. 
I therefore told him if he would name a price for the Quarrendens I 
would buy them. He named a price that had been returned to him 
that morning for some similarly packed and sent to another market. I 
consequently bought the fruit, obtained some smaller baskets, had lids 
made for them, and packed the twelve baskets I bought from him into 
thirty-six of the small baskets, making thirty baskets of selected fruit 
and six baskets of seconds. Now the result was astonishing. I had 
twelve baskets sent from a neighbour of his the same day, and the 
thirty baskets that I had packed out of the twelve baskets made just 
double the price of the twelve baskets his neighbour consigned to me 
packed in the Cornish fashion. I thus made double the price for my 
troub’e, with six baskets seconds to the good. 
The way Strawberries are packed from that district is abominable. 
Though they grow good and early fruit, they are spoiled before they get 
to market, being packed in pound punnets, wedged into an old Orange 
box with a little fern between each layer. I cannot understand what 
this fern is for, unless it is to cook them before they come to market ; 
for after a twelve-hours journey in one of those covered iron trucks 
that has become nearly red hot, after standing in the hot Cornish sun 
all day waiting for its freight, then to be filled with fruit that has been 
picked during the day, and closed up for a long ride to London or Bir¬ 
mingham. This fern is admirably adapted for sweating the fruit. I 
have used it myself for sweating and ripening fruit, but that fruit has 
been of the nature of hard Pears or Plums that I wanted to get up to 
colour. I should think Strawberries are quite ripe enough without 
sweating ; besides, it so alters the colour and taste, and makes it so 
awkward for the shopkeepers to put them into paper bags, or make a 
parcel of one of these punnets for a customer to carry home, the juice 
being so liable to run on the clothing of the purchaser. My opinion is 
that Strawberries ought to be sent to market on wooden trays, about 
3 inches deep, 2 feet long, about 15 inches wide, made to fit_into each 
other in nests of six, with nothing over them except a lid on the top box ; 
these trays to hold 12 lbs. They can be carried about the beds, there 
being a hole at each end for the handle, and to admit air, the whole six 
being bound by a cord ; thus six dozen could be sold together. The 
shopkeeper could pay the salesman a deposit of 6d. each on the trays, 
and the shopkeeper could place the trays in his window or on his stall 
without necessitating his turning them out and bruising them. None 
but the finest fruit (unless in a scarce season) should be put in these 
trays. Each picker should have two vessels to pick in, one for fruit 
for shopkeepers, and one for jam makers or hawkers ; and when 
Strawberries are picked free from stalk they should be put in tubs, 
as I have seen them sent to market ready picked in 121b. baskets, 
and a sorry plight are they in when they arrive in a provincial 
town, besides the loss in weight, some baskets losing as much as 
3 and 4 lbs. each. 
With respect to marketing, 1 think with extended fruit cultivation 
we shall want extended marketing, distribution, or manipulation, or 
whatever you like to call it, but it simply means the fruit grown 
must be disposed of in the most economical way to bring a profit to the 
grower. Salesmen will have to be provided with very large capital, and 
the convenience for preserving the fruit and vegetables in super¬ 
abundant seasons, by converting the fruit into jam or pulp, or preserving 
the vegetables in brine, to provide against scarcity in crops for another 
season ; besides, the surplus of each day’s sales must be manufactured 
into jam, pulp, or pickles, thus keeping the market clear, and preventing 
goods being sold at those ruinously low prices that are obtained at the end 
of the market, which disheartens the grower and damages the shopkeeper, 
who has given a fair price at early market. Now, in many cases the 
salesman has not the capital or the convenience to carry out this 
system and thus prevent a glut ; if he had that would be no benefit to 
the grower, as the profits would go into his pocket, and he would get a 
commission of 5 or 7^ per cent, on the raw fruit for selling to his own 
jam factory, and 25 to 50 per cent, more on the manufactured jam or 
pulp. My opinion is that it is to the manipulation of this surplus that 
the growers in an extended fruit cultivation must look for the profit 
they will reap for their trouble, and I should advise fruit associations or 
companies, supported by capitalists or growers who can act as their own 
salesmen, and to whom large jam makers can apply for their supplies of 
fruit. This would be a great boon and a great saving to large jam 
boilers. 
I think there is but one way of dealing with the produce with the 
most advantage to the seller, and to the immediate benefit of the people 
generally, and that is by a combination of the landowners, farmers, 
market gardeners, fruit and vegetable growers, agricultural labourers, 
and all classes interested, to form companies or societies properly and 
carefully organised and carried on in large centres, to provide for the 
reception and sale of produce, so that all classes may be interested in 
the success of such undertakings ; so that sellers may depend upon, 
having, without delay, the fair market value of the goods sent for sale p 
so that they may depend upon a sale of their goods at such prices with 
certainty, at the same time having an interest in a well paying company, 
out of the profits of which they would be reimbursed most of the- 
expenses of selling their produce for the year. 
To make such a company successful in any large centre is easy. It 
maybe formed amongst capitalists, as companies generally are formed,, 
or it may be the parties specifically- interested who may combine to- 
start and support it. The latter, I think, would be the more profitable 
combination, as it certainly would be the more preferable, and in suchi 
a case I think it should be a company co-operative in principle, • 
registered under the Companies Acts, limiting the liability of the share- - 
holders to the amount of their shares, and the capital should be of such,- 
an extent as to create confidence in the whole community of senders, ■ 
whether shareholders or not; and it should admit of taking premises, > 
or building if necessary, and acquiring plant of such an extent and 
nature as to stamp the company “ respectable ” and stable, and so as to- 
attract the consumer. The shares issued should be so varied in amount 
as to enable and induce all classes to become shareholders. Under 
the present system senders of produce have only the salesmen s returns 
to depend upon, and they have no means of verifying them. In order 
to insure a sale of sender’s goods at market prices the company might take 
a number of shops in different parts of the town, to which might be~ 
sent fruit, vegetables, poultry, game, or produce of any description, 
including meat if necessary, and provide a means for disposing of 
goods which could not be sold at the central depot at fair market 
prices. The company would also be able to buy fruit and vegetables 
when the markets were full from other salesmen, thus providing for 
seasons when particular crops failed, or of which the prices ran high, 
and so be independent of the markets as a means of supply, without 
being crippled for want of any particular sort of fruit or vegetable for 
the season. As an instance of the inconvenience and loss occasioned 
by being placed in such a position I may mention a circumstance that 
came to my knowledge in February. 1885, when Broccoli was plentiful- 
—so prolific the yield that it did not pay to send to market. In October 
of the same year one firm of pickle makers were compelled to pay 
2s. 6d. and 3s. per dozen for Cauliflower which they might have bought 
for fid. to 9d. per dozen in the early part of the year, and to keep their 
trade together they bought hundreds of dozens. Another advantage- 
might be given to senders of goods for sale. If a quantity of goods 
were actually consigned and viewed by the company’s agent in any 
town, on production of the consignment note, an immediate advance 
might be made to the sender. 
It has been pointed out to me that to do all this would require an 
immense amount of capital, and that it would be next to impossible to- 
work a company so extensive in its operations. To those who have not 
carefully considered the subject it may so present itself, but the diffi¬ 
culties are few, and none that cannot be met by systematic management.. 
Its machinery would not be nearly so complicated as that of the Civil 
Service Supply Association, for instance, nor would the capital employed' 
be required in it, or the amount of stock to be held at any one time ever 
approach in magnitude for any one district to that of the Assoeiation re¬ 
ferred to. As to the commission business, beyond the initial outlay this 
department would not absorb capital, as the moment business was com¬ 
menced the earnings in it would begin to accrue, and, receiving goods on 
commission only, there would be no outlay excepting for current 
expenses, whilst there would always be capital at the company s 
bankers. When goods were received and sold the proceeds would go 
into the bank, and assuming that all accounts were made up on the day 
of sale and crossed cheques sent to senders the same night they would 
not, as a rule, be presented until two days afterwards, and frequently 
three or four days, by which time more goods would have been received 
and sold, and the money paid into the bank as before. The company 
would thus have the benefit of senders’ capital, at the same time settling 
their accounts with the greatest celerity. The greatest importance 
attaches to prompt settlements in this business. As generally conducted 
by private salesmen the returns are made and the cash remitted weekly> 
