Down North and Up Along 
cover later. They command higher prices at 
home than abroad ; at least we bought them in 
Baddeck at the rate of six dollars a barrel. 
The Nova Scotians complain that they can- 
not get good apples because the best are sent 
to England. Discrimination against home 
consumers and in favour of foreign markets is 
not peculiar to Nova Scotia, however. One 
hears the same story the world over wherever 
the commodities of a place are exported. 
We recall the apology of a Florida Cracker 
from whom we tried to buy some early vege- 
tables: "We have none that are fit to eat. 
We shipped all the best. All that we could n't 
ship we fed to the pigs, and what the pigs 
would n't eat we ate ourselves." 
London pays well where apples are good, but 
does not take her fruit upon faith even from 
her loyal provinces, as a certain farmer learned 
to his cost. The story goes that he shipped 
his apples as they grew, best and poorest to- 
gether, but by some chance the best were on 
top. In London each barrel was tested, 
clear to the bottom^ and all of his were rejected. 
Thus he lost his whole crop plus the cost of 
transportation, a calamity which ruined him 
54 
