62 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



selling it all for "Fancy Maine apples." Maine apple growers 

 if they care for the future fame of their fruit, should insist upon 

 its being honestly packed and honestly marked. Our fruit never 

 stood better in foreign markets, and I am sure that with honest 

 and skilful handling it will hold its place. This is all the more 

 important at the present time, as our Canadian neighbors, under 

 their "Fruit Marks Act," are required, under heavy penalties, to 

 pack honestly and correctly label their fruit. Maine fruit is all 

 right in competition with any grown, but we must guard its 

 fame and not allow it to suffer at the hands of the speculator who 

 buys and sells for what he can make. 



In these illustrations there are two things that stand out con- 

 spicuously — quality of fruit and care (style, if you prefer) in 

 packing. Since the selling of the fruit has now become of so 

 much importance, there comes home to us the fact that the local 

 markets are worth lookins^ after. For vears in our frenzv to 

 send our apples to foreign markets we have forgotten that the 

 home market is often the best market for fruit. If I could have 

 my way about it I would somehow place our best fruits in the 

 home markets. I would have No. i Nodheads, Kings, Mcin- 

 tosh and others, just as they matured, placed on every fruit stand 

 by the side of the oranges and bananas. Some of the Italian 

 fruit dealers in the cities have learned this trick and are doing 

 much for Maine fruit growers. First, then, make the quality 

 No. I always ; second, pack them just as neatly as you know how 

 in neat, clean packages. For local markets I prefer a small 

 package — a box or a basket, I don't know which, but something 

 the hustling, busy man can grab in his hand as he rushes for the 

 cars that will bear him to his home. If the fruit is just fine his 

 wife tells him to bring another package when these are gone, and 

 so it goes. This is the way to compete with the tropical fruits, 

 and the market will be open for us long before we get there. 



No doubt a million barrels of apples were grown in Maine in 

 1903, and a very large part of these apples are seeking a foreign 

 market. In a period of two weeks 226,000 barrels were laid 

 down in European ports and more than 3,000,000 barrels of 

 American apples will be marketed there before the season is gone. 

 At times the markets are more than full, but the Europeans seem 

 to like American apples, and are paying more than many 



