state; pomologicai. society. 73 



and we have taken out the sheep and are going to plow up that 

 orchard. I beHeve the plow and harrow are very valuable helps 

 to the orchard. I think the ground ought to be kept loose and 

 light so that the air can get down to the roots and so that the 

 water can get dov/n, and above all keep the top of the ground 

 stirred constantly by the harrow so that the water down in the 

 lower tiers of the soil won't all evaporate. I think once or 

 twice «we have saved our crop in dry summers when there was 

 likely to be a drought — I think we have saved our crop by 

 harrowing the surface, breaking up the top of the ground so as 

 to prevent the evaporation through the ground. 



Now I don't know that it was intended that I should speak 

 about packing apples, but I think perhaps the most essential 

 thing about growing apples is the way in which they are picked 

 and packed. And I think one reason why these Pacific Coast 

 apples sell for such high prices — those from California and 

 Oregon and Colorado, for instance, that we .hear so much 

 about — is that they pay more attention to picking and packing 

 than we do. When apples are picked and wrapped up in paper 

 and packed away in a box, a man is apt to be more careful than 

 when he is packing his apples away in a barrel. I rather think 

 that taking the thing by and large, with a great many notable 

 exceptions — I rather think that the Western apples are better 

 packed than are our Eastern apples. I think more men out 

 West take trouble in packing their apples than there are in the 

 East. I don't say there are not a great many men here in the 

 East who pack apples just as well as anybody in the whole coun- 

 try, but I think we are afPicted with more men here in the East 

 whcvdon't pack their apples well. Now if I send a barrel of apples 

 up to the market that is badly packed, that is a great injury to 

 you. Because there are very few purchasers of apples who 

 know anything about it, almost ever}^body in the big cities, for 

 instance, thinks one barrel of apples is exactly like another. 

 They have been accustomed to buy their coal — they can't tell 

 the difiference between one lump of coal and another, one ton of 

 coal and another, and they think it is the same way .with apples. 

 If I send to market a barrel of apples that is badly packed, 

 bruised or poor fruit in the inside, and handled roughly, why the 

 person that buys that barrel of apples is not going to content 

 himself with saying "I will never get any apples from that man 



