FRUIT EXPORT.
SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT.
INTERVIEW WITH MR G. T. SMITE.
(IIV OUR. OWX KEPOHTISU.) Away back m tho autumn I had an interview with Mr d. T.. Smith, tho proprietor of SmiUrfield .gardens, m the course of which I collated a good deal of interes'ing matter. Tliat matter I did ,raj best to put before yom- .readers m an mtevHHtinjf form. On tli.it occasion Mr Smith gave me to understand that it was Ills intention to make the experiment of exporting some apples to the Old Country, the result of which experiment lie* would take, ways and means of letting mfr know. Tho experiment h;is been made, and the result has been ascertained, and I now give as nearly as possible'in. Mr Smith's own language details of the-ex-periment. ;/ .. « ■;.;. Mr Smith told me that two casei of apples, each .containing about lOQlbs, were picked by him from his own orchard and packed by him with his own hancfc on the 28th April, 1890. "One case'was sent to my friend Mr Oliphant, residing m BauftVihire, Scotland. The other was sent to Mr Huco Friedlander's brother m London. Both were sent as presents. Thoy were shipped by Mr Friedlander m the s.s. Duke of Buckingham about the 6th of May, and by last mail I received from my friend m Banffishire a letter m which he says that the apples arrived all m splendid condition, except four apples lin No. 8, which were damaged. The fruit was beautiful and highly- perfumed. I kept the different kinds of apples very distinctly separate m the cases, and numbered the kinds for-reference by ;Mr Oliphant and Mr Friedlander, retaining, for myself here the full tables of the contents of each case, so that I am able to give the names of the- kinds sent and the numbers attached to them. As the cases were not an exact copy of each other 1, as the tables will show, the numbers do not represent the same apple ; but it is worthy of, note that it was the same apple m each case that gave way m export. Mr Friedlander tells me his brother wrote to say that his case of apples arrived m splendid condition exsept No. 4, slightly damaged, but tliat class of apple would sell well m London. It will be seen that No. 4 m Mr Friedlander's case and No. 8 m Mr Oliphant's were samples of the " Margil," as fine an apple as one could wish to see. "Let me give you the mode I adopted m packing them, and copies of the names of the varities I .sent with th« -numbers attached to them. Each apple was wrapped separately m tissue paper, placed m layers, and between each layer a sheet of the " Guardian" newspaper. In this case at least the name was not a misnomer, for well indeed did it guard the fruit. The whole were packed m two common large-sized gin boxes, nailed down closely, and no air holes left. Here are the name tablet! :— No. 1 Case. (Mr Waldcmar Friedlander, London.) No. I—Baxter Pearmain. 2—Scarlet Peartnain. 3— Sykehousc Ruasett. 4— Margil. s—Jonathan.s—Jonathan. 6—London Pippin. 7—Dumlow Seedling. B—Perfection. 9—Winter Majetin. . No. 2 Ca?e. (Mr Oliphant, Banffshire.) No. 1- Smith's Recovered. 2 —Munroe's Favorite. ] 3—Prince Bismarck. , ■ ' ■ 4—Ben Davis. « s—Dumlow Seedling. j (s—-London: Pippin. ". / . tf 7 —Jonathan. fi S—Maryi 1; '" ; : 9 Scarlet Pearmain. 10-Carter's* Blue. ; 11—Sykehouse Russett. j 12—French Crab. 'v " The same class of apple as I sent Hohie I was selling here to the fruit shops at l|d per lb, and Mr Friedlander informs me that the cost of sending the apples Home would be, roughly calculated, about Id per lb. The fruit from nailing down to opening had been about'seventy, days packed, and had stood very well indeed, as, with the exception of a fewlof the Margils all the others arrived irfjirime condition. The price m London Was liot quoted by Mr Friedlander, but seeing that it wits Julyfwhen the/cases landed, fruit would be fetching good prices, jas that month is equivalent to our January. " All of these apple scions I originally brought over here from Australia. r 'PrinW ''Bismarck ' is an Australian seedling which I was the first to introduce here. 'Bfen Davis ' is of Yankee origin, and a gof)d apple." , ' I may here state that No. 1 apple the case that went to Scotland has lost! its name by some means' or other, and m the list given to me , was marked "name lost." As the poor apple can't go through the world without a name, I have taken the liberty, of calling it " Smith's recovered." Altogether Mr Smith is quite satisfied with the result of his exporting experiment, so far as being able to send Home the fruit m good condition goes. It only remains to ascertain now what sort of a market will be found for high class fruit on whicli freight at a penny per lb h*s to be • paid, or if frieght can be obtained at a lighter figure than. that.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AG18901008.2.6
Bibliographic details
FRUIT EXPORT., Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2538, 8 October 1890
Word Count
837FRUIT EXPORT. Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2538, 8 October 1890
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