FRUITS IN FRANKLIN COUNTY. 6l 



Last year, as you very well remember, much of ]Vlaine fruit, 

 on account of the immense crop in other parts of the country 

 sold at a low price or was fed to stock, or rotted in the cellars. 

 Mr. John W. Clark of Massachusetts, a skilful grower and a 

 skilful handler of fruit, had 3,000 barrels of apples. 1,000 of 

 these he sent to a cold storage house in Boston, and 2,000 were 

 stored by himself. As I have already said, fruit was selling low, 

 but Mr. Clark so handled his fruit that the entire 3,000 barrels 

 averaged him somewhere around S3.00 per barrel. 



Last spring we sent to Xew York for a bushel box of Oregon 

 apples. We didn't care what variety they were, but we did want 

 a box of the fancy apples we read about. The box met us over 

 to Cornish where we exhibited it to the fruit growers to show 

 the style the Oregon fruit growers put on when they send their 

 fruit across the continent to compete with the eastern fruit that 

 is loafing around a glutted market. Stamped on one side of 

 the box in large letters were these words, "Oregon xA.pples." 

 On one end was stenciled the name of the grower, his residence, 

 etc. On removing the cover the first thing to meet the eye was 

 a sheet of heavy blue paper, covering the fruit which was care- 

 fully wrapped in white paper, the apples lying on the side in 

 rows; between the layers was another sheet of blue paper and 

 another at the bottom. These apples at the time were selling 

 for $4.00 a box and that was what we paid for this box. The 

 variety was Spitzenberg and larger apples of the same variety 

 were selling for $6.00 and $7.00 for the bushel box. The apples 

 were not so good as specimens we had on the exhibit-on tables 

 at Cornish. Every apple was perfect ; the size was uniform ; the 

 color was good, and the packing as nearly perfect as those 

 Pacific fruit growers could make it. It was the style of packing 

 and quality of fruit that commanded the price. 



A large part of the fruit grown in this part of the State is for 

 export. In conversation with the agent here I was much grati- 

 fied to learn that he told people how to put up their apples and 

 that beyond this, his company made every man responsible for 

 the packing of his fruit. Good, bad, or indififerent as it might 

 appear when it reached the market, the fruit sold on its merits. 

 I am all out of sorts with these buyers who go about the country 

 buying our excellent fruit and then dumping it all together and 



