A PECUUAR APPLE SITUATION. 41 



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This cost of handling fruit in quantity makes quite an item of 

 expense to the farmer, of which he is hardly conscious, since 

 it has always been done in that way. If the team is used in the 

 early morning for this work it would not materially interfere 

 with the picking, and at the end of the season would cost the 

 farmer less than the usual way of storage and then sending the 

 fruit to the station for shipment. 



This plan would involve the expenditure of more money than 

 most individual growers would have, but collectively there is 

 money enough for any such enterprise. A stock company, 

 organized particularly to aid its stockholders could be made to 

 pay liberally, for when the storage house is not needed for fruit 

 there are other crops from the farm for which storage would 

 be needed. In other words if it was not needed for fruit the 

 building would be worth all it cost for other storage. 



OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED BY THIS PLAN. 



Better Packing. No one at the present time is satisfied with 

 the way in which our fruit is packed. There are some who are 

 doing nice work in this direction, but the fact that leading men 

 interested in the industry have considered it necessary to ask 

 the legislature to pass a law requiring good packing of fruit 

 under heavy penalty, clearly points to something that is wrong. 

 The storage plan proposed would afford the employment of 

 expert packers. Of so much importance are they considered in 

 the far West that all the apples of the Hood River region are 

 sorted and put up by them, and they are held responsible for the 

 quality. The immense price these apples are selling for even in 

 Maine tells us plainer than words that before our fruit can hold 

 in our own markets the place it should, more attention must be 

 paid to skilful packing and sorting. Apples brought to the 

 storehouse could be sorted and packed to meet the demands of 

 the consumers. 



Placed on the market when ready. Most growers have sev- 

 eral varieties of apples. In some cases it would be wiser if 

 they had more but in most cases they have too many. The 

 different varieties are maturing at different times. Collected in 

 storage in large quantities, it would be an easy matter to have 

 the fruit forwarded when it was in the best condition for market. 



