FRUITS IX FRAXKLIX COUXTY. 63 



expected to receive. A large part of the fruit consists of late 

 keeping varieties, and thousands of barrels of these are dumped 

 on the docks that are hard and immature, and will not be edible 

 for several months after they arrive. Storage abroad is expen- 

 sive or impossible and much of the fruit is slaughtered simply 

 because it is immature. In other words fruit that goes to market 

 should be about ready for the consumer. A gfood system of 

 storage at home can be made inexpensive, so that the fruit may 

 be held until it is just right for shipping. This policy would add 

 many dollars to the net receipts for Maine fruit. A city con- 

 sumer does not know what to do with a barrel of green apples. 

 The commission men say it doesn't matter, the fruit better go 

 forward, but you will notice that the varieties that are mature 

 are quite likely to bear the highest price if only they reach the 

 market in good condition. 



Mr. Geo. T. Powell recently wrote the Rural New-Yorker as 

 follows : "While spending two weeks at the Willard Hotel in 

 Washington some time since, and finding no baked sweet apples 

 on the bill of fare, I asked the head waiter if he would not have 

 them provided. At the next meal baked sweet apples and cream 

 were on the bill of fare. I was given a seat at a private table 

 with a man, his wife and his children. The lady, observing my 

 ordering, ordered baked apples and cream. She found them so 

 delicious she told her husband to try them ; then the children had 

 them, and for two weeks these were ordered by the entire fam- 

 ily, besides myself, twice a day. With such an increase in the 

 use of apples as this in hotels alone, hundreds of thousands of 

 barrels of apples more would be consumed than at the present 

 time.'' Mr. Powell taught those people what a good baked 

 apple tastes like. 



Now, Maine has thousands of summer boarders every year. 

 They come here to get away from crowded cities, to enjoy our 

 invigorating air, to drink pure water from our hillside springs, 

 to bask in our glorious sunshine, and last but by no means least 

 to enjoy the delicacies produced on our farms. Many a 

 farmer's wife has sold her cheese to the visitors because they 

 found nothing like it in the city. From city homes many orders 

 come back to the farms for butter, for fresh eggs and other good 

 things. Now, suppose every one who has a visitor should serve 

 apples baked, stewed, jellied, in any way to make them luscious 



