324 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



aud the system of gradiug packages. He had heard that if the apples were 

 tight in the package they were graded as good without examination ; l)ut if 

 loose they were discarded without examination. 



Dr. C. H. Perkins: The usual way at the auction rooms in tlie city of London, Eng., 

 with either Canadian or American apples, is to empty a barrel on the floor where all the 

 dealers can see them, and if they are put up honestly they command a good price. 

 There is where our Canadian friends have had the advantage over western New York 

 apples. The Canadian shippers bring forward a package which holds three full bushels, 

 and the size of the package is uniform. Go to New York and see the apples landed 

 there, and of all the different-size packages it is possible for human beings to produce, 

 western New York can beat the world. There are nail kegs, pony barrels, a sixteen- 

 inch, a sixteen-and-one-half-inch, and a seventeen-inch head, with twenty-six and 

 twenty-eight inch stave. Then the putting up of the apples is as nondescript as the 

 package. I am only a child compared with many of you, and it ill-behooves me to come 

 here and open my mouth to gentlemen of much more experience; but I happen to know 

 something about it. It has grieved me for more than twenty-five years that with such 

 a climate as we have, and in view of the fact that there is no country that can raise 

 such long-keeping apples, and of such excellent quality, as western New York, that we 

 let our advantages go because we do not send out our stock in proper packages. The 

 best goods bring the best prices, and we must pack the fruit so that we can realize the 

 price we ought to command. 



Mr. C. M. Hooker: I differ somewhat from the remarks of Mr. Perkins, at least so far 

 as this county is concerned. I think there is no doubt it is the immense quantity that 

 has gone to foreign markets that has induced the short prices. Apples from Canada 

 and all parts have sold at a great loss to the exporters in many cases. We have been 

 exporting ours. Our mode of packmg has been to run the apples, for all fancy, faced 

 properly and well shaken down, and the barrel filled up four or five times, then put on 

 four or five quarts more than for home market. You would think the apples would be 

 ruined, and the top ones are, but they can not be packed too tight. We ship only the 

 good-keepers, the Baldwin being the favorite apple. We use a three-bushel barrel, and 

 I think it should be generally known that, in this county of Monroe, we do not use all 

 sizes of packages. 



Mr. Perkins: I have had to do with the export trade for the past fifteen years, and 

 have exported a large quantity of evaporated fruit this year. To prove what I have 

 said, I know that the cider mills are the only ones that are short of apples. That will 

 teach any one a lesson. In most cases I sent my own men to put up the apples, and in a 

 few cases I took the apples as put up, and I bought from the dealer; where my own 

 men went I made money, but lost in the other cases. 



Mr. Allen: I would suggest also that the barrel be kept dry after being filled. A bar- 

 rel must not be left out to get wet and swell. W^estern New York apples_ are largely 

 stamped "Canadian Apples," consequently Canada has been getting the benefit of Mon- 

 roe county's good apples. 



Mr. Varney: I wish the farmers of Erie county could have heard Mr. Perkins' remarks. 

 Their apples have been put up in all kinds of packages, and then left out in the ram 

 every fall since I can remember. Now, however, an effort is being made to secure a uni- 

 form barrel. 



Following the reading of Orleans county report by Mr. Virgil Bogue, Mr. 

 Hopkins asked if they would recommend the using of an apple gatherer. 



Mr. Bogue: Two of my neighbors, one with six and the other with eight acres, were 

 iinable to get help at picking time, and afterward three men picked the whole in one 

 week's time and barreled them. One buyer said he did not want them because they 

 were picked in that way, whilst another paid five cents better because they were picked 

 with the picker, believing them to be worth that much more. 



Mr. Harris: After examining apples that had been picked one day with the apple 

 gatherer and those by hand, I decided those were best and bruised the least that were 

 gathered with the gatherer. I was so well pleased with it that I went and bought a 

 two-thirds interest in one the next day. It cost me just about one half less to pick 

 than by hand, and I think they were worth fully as much more. The most economical 

 way to use it is with five men. Place two in the tree, one on the ground, and two oper- 

 ating the gatherer. I think five men could gather two hundred barrels in a common 

 orchard in one day. 



A discussion arising in reference to the spraying of trees with Paris 



