STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 141 



business tends to develop a class of ideas somewhat different 

 from those usually held by the farmer. Some of these ideas 1 

 have found useful for application to the business of farming 

 and fruit-raising. I offer a single example: We, at our shops, 

 find that it does not pay to turn out any work that has any 

 unsightliness in appearance to apologize for, or any defects in 

 material or workmanship to be corrected. If any of our pro- 

 ducts develop unforseen defects we are anxious, at any cost, to 

 replace them with work that is satisfactory to our customer; 

 our idea being, to keep our customers in such a frame of mind 

 that he is willing to buy our goods again and to recommend them 

 to his neighbors. If, in a manufacturing business, it pays to 

 take such pains to please " the trade," I claim that it will, also, 

 pay in the apple business. Now as to suggestions in detail: 



HARVESTING. 



Before picking, allow your apples to get ripe enough to have a 

 good color. Determine first of all that you will not send to a 

 distant market anything that grades below "choice." Instruct 

 the pickers to waste no time nor labor on specimens they know 

 to be below this grade. It does not pay to hand-pick culls 

 merely to give the tree a tidy appearance. The small specimens 

 of early varieties, if allowed to remain on the trees, will grow to 

 full size. 



If baskets are used, have them lined with old carpet or some 

 soft material. Many pickers use a bag slung over their shoulder, 

 which I think preferable to a basket. Do not pick apples while 

 they are wet, nor allow them to get wet after you take them in 

 hand. Do not put them on the ground, but in boxes, for con- 

 veyance to the place of packing. Bushel boxes measuring seven- 

 teen and one-half inches long, fourteen inches wide, and twelve 

 inches deep with gains cut in the ends for handles are most con- 

 venient for this purpose, as they fit into a farm wagon box and 

 are easily lifted in and out. Provide each picker with a piece of 

 chalk with which to mark his name or number on each box he 

 fills. This relieves the man who collects the boxes from the ne- 

 cessity of keeping any record of his load and admits of the 

 record-keeping all being done at the place of packing. 



PACKING. 



Make it a rule to pack your own fruit so that if you have to 

 consign it to some distant market, you need not fear the compe- 

 tition of other packers. 



Use only new, clean barrels of full three bushel measure. At 

 your place of packing, whether it be barn, shed or tent, pro- 

 vide a bench or trestle of proper height to bring the top of the 

 boxes on a level with the top of a barrel ; thus most of the apples 

 can be put directly into the barrel without the use of a basket. 



