File 4377/1912 'Muscat Arms Traffic: Complaints of British Firms' [‎153v] (311/430)

602
THE BOARD OF TRADE JOURNAL,
[Dec. 24, 1908.
Production of Table Grapes in the Department of
Lot-et-Garonne (France).
be defective in too many instances, the grapes having suffered
from not being sufficiently tightly packed in their cases. Fruit
packed in cork dust arrived, as a rule, intact, but its appearance
was no longer fresh. The stalks had dried, and the bloom, on
which the marketable value of the grapes depends, had disappeared.
The best method of packing is thought by some to be in baskets of
which four or more are attached together, the Iruit being packed as
tightly as possible and the bunches wrapped separately in soft
paper. It might, however, be found that packing in boxes would
also give satisfactory results, provided that the bunches were
placed tightly in rows and enveloped in paper so that they could
not shift under vibration. Cases somewhat larger than those con
taining 5 kilos. (11 lbs.) used for the interior French tiade, might
be employed for export.
Whilst arrangements can be made in France to avoid more than
one operation of transfer for these goods from the station of depar
ture to the port of shipment, greater difficulties are experienced
on arrival at the latter, where the cases or baskets require to be
handled several times in passing from the railway wagon to the
platform and thence to the ship’s deck and holds, and undergo a
rough treatment which does greater inj ury to the fruit than the
whole of the rest of its journey. The same inconvenience is under
gone at the port of arrival in England.
It is suggested that operations of loading and discharging might
be greatly facilitated by the use of frames or boxes such as are
employed in shipping and landing passengers’ luggage, whereby a
great number of cases or baskets of fruit could be swung on board
or ashore at one time. Having regard to the many widely separated
districts in France from which fruit is shipped, and to the consequent
fact that it is impossible to collect together wagon loads of even two
tons, the French Railway Companies could not everywhere establish
anything like a system of special boxes for its manipulation, but it
might be feasible and advantageous for the English and Irench
lines most interested in the development of the trade to study the
question of centralising it at certain places where such measures
could be taken. The formation of some special organisation for
the sale of French fruit in the United Kingdom would also seem
to be worthy of consideration.
The President of the Chamber of Commerce at Agen, Lot-et-
Garonne, will furnish the names and addresses of the principal
shippers of fruit to any enquirers.