June 23, 1894. 
677 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
AMERICAN APPLE 
EXPORTS. 
The Apple export trade from this country to England 
is by no means a new business, for as long as fifty 
years ago lots of a hundred barrels and upward were 
sent forward in sailing vessels that took from four to 
eight weeks to make the voyage. Ten years later 
slow steamships landed the fruit in from eighteen to 
twenty-five days, though not always in sound con¬ 
dition. Until 1870, 500 barrels of Apples were con¬ 
sidered a large shipment, but since 1875, with swifter 
steamers, the business has greatly increased, and is 
now a regular department of the fruit trade in which 
some fifteen firms in this city are engaged, besides 
half a dozen shipping brokers who see to arranging 
for space on the steamers and attend to other details 
of transportation. In 1880-81, a season of good 
crops, the enormous quantity of 1,159,380 barrels 
went to Europe from United Slates ports alone. 
The carefully compiled reports of Mr. Mahlon 
Terhune, of this city, for the years since 1880 show 
great variation in the quantity of yearly 
shipments, the result of abundant or 
short crops. For example, in 1892-93 
more than 650,000 barrels were shipped 
from New York, Boston, and Portland ; 
of these Apples almost 250,000 barrels, 
or nearly thirty-eight per cent., were 
grown in Canada. The shipments 
made direct from the Canadian ports, 
Montreal and Halifax, amounted to 
nearly 546,000 barrels. 
The Apple export season dates from 
August to May, and from advance- 
sheets of Mr. Terhune’s statistics of 
shipments for 1893-94 appears that the 
minimum quantity of less than 70,000 
barrels went out from the United States 
this season, and but 86,000 barrels 
from Canadian ports. These figures 
indicate, with the single exception of 
1883-84, the dullest Apple trade in 
twenty-five years. Reasons for this 
unusual export market are found in a 
short crop, made still smaller by the 
heavy storms of last autumn, large 
importations to England from other 
countries, and the prevailing hard times. 
These exports, although comparatively 
small, were large enough to diminish 
appreciably the stock already insufficient 
for home use, so that prices have ruled 
unusually high in this market. 
The first Apples are shipped abroad 
about August i, Keswick Codlins, from 
New Jersey, being the earliest export of 
last year. The Orange Pippin, a better 
fruit, follows closely, but the export of 
these tender summer Apples is always 
attended with risks, and as they are 
needed at home, shipments are likely to 
continue small. During the year almost 
every variety of American Apple is ex¬ 
ported, and Fameuse and other delicate 
Apples stand the journey well. Red 
Astrachan being one of the few kinds 
rarely arrives on the other side in good condition. 
Red-skinned Apples are preferred in England by the 
masses, and the attractive King Apple is in especial 
request early in the autumn. But there are not 
enough of these, and in recent years Greenings, which 
come into market about the same time, have gained 
a place in spite of their inferior colour. But the great 
export Apple is the Newtown Pippin, the first 
American Apple shipped to England, Coming 
originally from orchards in Newtown, Long Island, 
the best of these Apples are now grown in the moun¬ 
tain districts of Virginia. Here the fruit matures 
early and is ready for shipment by November loth. 
These Pippins, grown on Long Island and in the 
Hudson River district east of that river, mature later 
and are not fully ripened and well coloured before 
January. On this side of the continent Newtown 
Pippins are grown only in the sections indicated. 
But the northern orchards are dying out, and efforts 
at propagation are not successful, and the fate of the 
Spitzenburg twenty years ago threatens this fruit. 
Westchester County, formerly a great centre for 
these Apples, now produces small scaly fruit, and it 
seems to be only a matter of a few years when there 
will be none of these Apples grown in the north. It 
has been thought by some that if the trees were not 
started from root-grafts, but were grafted high up on 
some vigorous seedlings, they might once more suc¬ 
ceed where they are now failing. In the Virginia 
district the fruit grows large and of excellent quality. 
In New York State three heavy storms last autumn 
cut prospective orchard harvests of 1,500 to 2,000 
barrels down to a few hundred barrels, but in Virginia 
the damage was slight and the crop was large and of 
the good quality which attends a full-bearing season. 
Quite as many Newtown Pippins went abroad, all 
Virginia fruit, as in other recent years, and at paying 
rates, prices in England ranging from 25s. to 40s. a 
barrel for No. i fruit. Their firm flesh and tough 
skin especially adapt them for packing and shipment; 
whereas many kinds, such as the Northern Spy, are 
easily bruised and discoloured. The Newtown Pip¬ 
pin is much better known in England than it is here, 
since nearly the entire crop is exported. Christmas 
presents of these Apples have long been fashionable, 
and banking firms in this city send abroad some¬ 
times as many as fifty barrels to their business 
which 
The late Mr. Fred. Horsman. 
friends. More Newtown Pippins were offered in our 
markets this season than ever before, owing to the 
scarcity of other Apples, but these were mostly 
second-rate fruit from this State and culls from Vir¬ 
ginia, which in ordinary seasons would find no sale 
here. The stock of Newtown Pippins is always ex* 
hausted by March, and this year exports practically 
ended with the holiday trade. 
Among the latest Apples usually shipped are 
Northern Spies, which remain juicy and highly 
flavoured to the end of the season and are sought 
after by the best trade. More Baldwins are usually 
shipped than of any other sort, and these are even 
later keepers. It has been said of Russets thafr they 
are an instance of the survival of the unfittest, but 
their merits are appreciated by a large number of 
buyers, and this Apple ranks fourth or fifth in 
quantity exported. It is the longest keeper of all 
American Apples, and is often shipped in April, while 
it has been sent to Glasgow and to English ports as 
late as June. 
The firm prices which continued in England until 
February were then broken by large receipts from 
the Continent, and the demand for such American 
Apples as were still held there was also affected by 
large receipts from Australia and Tasmania. The 
bulk of supply in England is, however, drawn from 
Canada, some of the best Apples coming from Nova 
Scotia. These are of a superior quality to those 
grown in the United States and have remarkable 
keeping qualities. Transportation to England costs 
hardly more than freight into the United States, so 
that English markets stand the first chance with 
Canada shippers, especially as there is also a duty of 
3s. 6d. a barrel on Apples brought from Canada into 
this country. So large a supply of Canada Apples 
found the way to England last winter, that prices 
were often 4s. a barrel less than the same fruit 
brought, here. The average wholesale price for 
Apples in New York for the season of 1892-93 was 
los. a barrel, and for the season just pasted, i8s. a 
barrel. 
PAEONIES AT LONG DITTON. 
A VISIT to the Nurseries of Messrs. Barr & Sons 
would at this season gladden the hearts of all lovers 
of hardy border flowers—more especially lovers of 
the beautiful Chinese Paeonies. These plants are 
now in full beauty; their colours rang¬ 
ing from pure white, rose to pink, and 
bright and deep crimsons. These plants 
are extremely decorative, and when 
interspersed with trees and shrubs the 
colourings of their large cup-shaped and 
saucer-shaped flowers are seen to great 
advantage with the foliage of their 
taller associates as a back ground. Men¬ 
tion may be made of half-a-dozen of the 
most distinct and free flowering kinds 
—Queen of May, a lovely rose; 
Beatrice, a delicate rose pink ; Princess 
of Wales, a blush pink; Victoria, a 
beautiful bright crimson; Venus, a 
bright rose tipped white ; and Dawn of 
Day, a snow white with large and hand¬ 
some shaped flowers. I describe the 
above as being the most effective, hut 
these by no means exhaust the collec¬ 
tion. There are many other beautiful 
varieties which would make a long list 
were I to describe them, but I may give 
a few names which may suffice—Darius, 
Vulcan, Dorothy, Gertrude, Prince 
Teck, The Bride, Surprise, Beauty, 
and Prince Bismarck, all of which tend 
to make the herbaceous border 
during the present month. 
The double Chinese Paeonies are 
somewhat later than the single forms, 
/ and of these I will say something when 
more developed ; at present most of them 
are in bud, with the exception of a 
few, of which mention may be made as 
early flowering sorts, such as, Adelaide 
de Lache, carmine rose, very large; 
John Fraser, beautiful rose; Madame 
Furtado, rose pink; Belle Douaissiene, 
delicate blush, which passes off white ; 
Comte de Paris, outer petals rose car¬ 
mine, centre blush. The strong bushy 
plants promise well for a host of their 
delightfully fragrant blossoms, and will 
in a short time be exhibited at the London and Local 
Flower Shows in full force. 
The double and single Paeonies luxuriate in 
almost any soil or situation, which adapts them very 
fittingly as " Everybody’s Flowers.” But the best 
results so as to obtain size of bloom and finest 
colour, together with strong growth, is to plant in a 
rich deep soil well trenched with an admixture of 
well-rotted manure. There are truly no plants more 
showy or more noble than the Paeonies, whether 
planted in beds, borders or shrubberies. 
Messrs. Barr & Sons are exhibiting for a series of 
weeks a collection of these effective plants, and such 
others as are in flower, at the Industrial Exhibi¬ 
tion, Earl’s Court, where admirers of pretty things 
can see them any day.— IV.L. 
gay 
The True Banana.—At the last meeting of the 
Maidstone Gardeners’ Society a special vote of 
thanks was accorded to Mr. Fremlin (gardener, Mr. 
Cuckow) for his exhibit of some fruits of the true 
Banana, Musa sapientum, a species of great food 
value in the tropics, but not much cultivated for its 
fruits in this country, where M. Cavendishii finds 
most favour. 
