September 18 1888. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
241 
are the best means for ensuring speedy sales injextended districts at good 
prices. 
6th. Growers should remember and act on the fact that a barely 
perceptible taint or speck that is carelessly dealt with by the packer at 
the farm will in a short time become an odious blemish, and by the 
time the fruit reaches the market, not only becomes spoiled itself, but 
damages other fruit and spoils its value. 
7th, A good crop requires marketing with commercial experience and 
judgment. A combination of growers to amalgamate their crops in 
order that large selections of particular descriptions may be made avail¬ 
able for disposal in special directions, and in districts where required, 
will lead to larger prices being received. 
8th, Specially choice goods, suitably packed for display in retailers’ 
shop windows, will at all times command extreme high prices. 
9th, Inferior specimens of fruits packed with prime specimens, reduce 
the value of the prime. 
10th, Goods packed, branded, and numbered that their contents and 
condition may be known without a personal inspection, will be sent for 
by purchasers in remote parts, whose convenience or ability does not 
allow them to attend a market personally. 
The simplicity, ease, and readiness by which these apparently com¬ 
plicated measures may be speedily carried into active existence will be 
promptly seen by a glance at a package that has been devised for the 
purpose, which lends itself in every way to the proposed condition of 
things, for inexpensive in production it is effective in character, as by its 
means fruits may be classed, packed, and safely transmitted to any part of 
the kingdom in large or small quantities, where they will arrive in better 
condition, and remain so longer than if packed in bulk as at present, also 
may be disposed of to the individual consumer without any handling 
and consequent deterioration. The inexpensive character of the pack¬ 
age is its valuable feature, and that is 6d. per dozen for the boxes and 
5d. for the crate to hold twenty boxes. Their lightness renders the cost 
of transport less than in the heavy baskets, which have to be sent back¬ 
wards and forwards, while fruits selected and packed in this manner 
■vwould be deliverable in the best possible condition and of the highest 
value. Thus the second material feature in the science of distribution 
would be complied with. 
The third feature to which attention may be directed is the transport 
of fruit at the least possible cost. I do not propose to occupy time by 
referring to that great evil, the excessive railway rates, which the 
producers and consumers of the country have so long suffered from. 
The short-sighted policy of the railway authorities is about to be brought 
under consideration, and our purpose will be best served by attention 
being directed to the particular points that fruit growers should en¬ 
deavour to secure for themselves in the forthcoming revision of the 
charges and conditions of our railway system. In this matter, so far 
as fruit is concerned, facilities for its effective collection, safe transport, 
and speedy delivery, are of a much greater consideration than the actual 
cuarge made for the services rendered, but this should certainly be a 
figure within reason ; but the principal ob]ect that the agricultural 
CLasses generally, as a body of producers, should seek to obtain, is a 
ready means for reaching consumers in all districts through the existing 
retail traders. For this purpose they should seek for the establishment 
of a “farm produce train,” a service to be carried through on the lines 
of the “parliamentary train” and the “van train,” which was in 
existence for a number of years, and only recently abandoned. By the 
parliamentary train the passenger rates for one train daily was fixed by 
1 iw. The van train was for parcels, and the rates were made by the 
railway companies themselves, being one-half the ordinary parcels rates. 
With a minimum of 6d. at the present time, a parcel traffic is in exist¬ 
ence on ail railways by passenger trains, and this is governed by radius 
of distance; up to thirty miles being Jd. per lb.; up to fifty miles 
Id. per lb.; up to 100 miles, |d. per lb., with a minimum rate of 6d. 
for a parcel. A moderate extension of this parcel system to wider 
radiuses on the basis of the van train charge—that is, one-half the 
current parcel rates, would prove advantageous to farmers, and bring 
the railway a large and remunerative traffic. This should be sought for, 
and would probably be conceded by the railway company without 
difficulty. 
The outlet for fruits will be found in two directions which have a 
widely different character, and necessitate different treatment—the 
supply to London and the few very large towns in the north, and the 
supply to the small towns and villages throughout the kingdom. With 
the first we have the large concentration of fruiterers, greengrocers, 
and costermongers, who have hitherto furnished the means for reaching 
the public. With the second they have to a great extent done without 
fruit, as it could not be supplied in a fresh condition. Whether the 
fruits are intended for London or the country districts, railway 
companies should be compelled to provide effective refrigerator trucks 
for their conveyance, in order that its fresh condition may be fully 
maintained. Growers know the condition that fruits leave them, but 
they are not aware of the serious deterioration that takes place in 
transit before reaching their destination, and the consequent enormous 
depreciation that takes place in values. A few hours makes a great 
difference in the appearance and flavour of fruits, and there can be no 
possible justification for the unnecessary loss thus made to the detriment 
of the grower, when the fruits could be readily and inexpensively retained 
in a fine and fresh condition. 
In America the fruit farmers of California and Florida, the extreme 
western and southern States, send their fruits two and three thousand 
miles across the vast continent to the markets of New York, Baltimore, 
Boston, Chicago, &c., where they arrive in fine condition after several 
days’ travel, and invariably bring good results to the grower, while in 
this country a fruit grower cannot send his produce a few miles with 
any certainty of its reaching its destination in a presentable condition, 
and if he wishes to send any distance other than where an ordinary 
fruit train runs, there is almost a certainty that it will be useless when 
it arrives at its destination. This deterioration and its consequent loss 
is more than a personal loss of the particular sender, it is a diminution 
of the food supply of the people, and in that light it is a national loss, 
needlessly incurred by reason of the negligence and want of care on 
part of those who have acquired the right to transport the internal food 
supplies of the country, a loss which is readily preventible by the use of 
proper trucks, which the railway companies should be compelled to pro¬ 
vide themselves or allow others to provide for them. The companies 
should also be called upon to accept a truck rate for agricultural pro¬ 
duce irrespective of contents. This would enable fruit and other 
farmers to load trucks in proximity to their farms or on railway sidings- 
with their own labour, and while saving charges send their produce 
direct to the market. The provision of a regular and effective daily 
service for the conveyance of parcels of food produce in refrigerator 
cars, at a reasonable advance on the ordinary goods rates, would 
materially facilitate the communication between producers and con¬ 
sumers, and lead to marked advantages to fruit growers. To simplify 
matters, the rates by this produce train might be fixed within given, 
areas. Thus all within a radius of one hundred miles one rate, and each 
additional hundred miles an additional rate. This would bring most of 
the agricultural districts within reach of populous towns, and thus 
furnish them with an outlet for their produce. That this system would 
be advantageous to fruit gro vers may be readily seen, for grocers, 
dealers, or even consumers in any small town might order any number 
of the packages of fruit from one upwards, which, packed on the 
orchard and transmitted by the refrigerator cars, would reach their 
destination direct, at a small cost and in good condition. The essence 
of the fruit trade is a multiplication of individual transactions small 
in extent but numerous in character. It is in the simplification of the 
distribution of these that growers will be in a position to place their 
produce within reach of consumers at the least possible cost, and thus 
acquire a further insight into the science of fruit distribution. 
To summarise, in conclusion, I submit — 
1st, That ihe simplest and most profitable way to sell fruits is 
in their natural condition properly classed and packed. 
2nd. That an ample demand can be ensured for an unlimited 
quantity from numerous districts in all parts of the kingdom. 
3rd, That these can be best approached and dealt with by local 
combinations of growers either direct or through a central agency. 
4th, That whatever prices are determined upon should be publicly 
known and fixed to give retailers a profit. 
5th, That the railway companies should be moved to furnish a 
daily farmers produce parcel and bulk train service for the carriage of 
food products in refrigerator trucks between the agricultural and indus¬ 
trial districts at reasonable package and truck rates. 
With the supply of these facilities a demand would be created for 
their utilisation, and thus bring about an improved condition of all 
things in which the interests of our agricultural and industrial classes 
are entwined. 
*„* Mr. Manning’s paper arrived too late for insertion. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. J. Cheal of Crawley in returning to the leading subject of the 
Conference, observed that the question had been asked as to whether 
fruit could be profitably grown on at least some of the secondary soils of 
the country. In answering this he might say that it could, as they had 
