STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. II5 



Have been closely connected with the apple business in this 

 State, both as a buyer and exporter, for more than 20 years, I 

 am able to speak from a good amount of practical experience. 



Take any product you please and tell me if the package which 

 contains it has not a great deal to do with your being attracted 

 or repelled in the consideration of its purchase. 



If the package is old, or broken, or dirty, you want one that 

 is not old or broken or dirty. If they vary in size, you want to 

 be sure as to which size you are to get. 



There are three qualities which an apple barrel should possess : 

 namely, neatness, strength and uniformity. 



If you consider my experience and judgment of any value, 

 I ask you to consider that these three things are essentials. 

 That the statement is not merely an academic or theoretical 

 notion, but hard, stubborn fact, that means dollars as well as 

 pride and satisfaction. 



New England is the only place where apples are packed in old 

 flour barrels. 



Maine seems to be the only State where the barrel maker has 

 made anything he pleased for an apple barrel. Made it of any 

 size and out of any sort of material. Hooped it with ash, with 

 elm, with gray birch, or with hay wire, and called it an "apple 

 barrel." Happily the worst of this has passed away ; but there 

 is still room for improvement. Some Maine barrel makers are 

 making very good barrels. Others are not. 



What competition does Maine have to meet in the disposition 

 of her apples? 



She has to meet the competition of the world ! What, then, 

 are the essentials from a practical business point of view, that 

 we may be able to meet that competition with success ? 



The fruit must be of as good quality, must be as well handled, 

 and must be put upon the market in as attractive form. 



Situated at the seaboard Maine naturally seeks a foreign 

 market for her apples. In that market Canada is our great 

 competitor. Canada does not, and can not, grow better Bald- 

 win apples than can be grown in ]\Iaine. Her fruit sells higher 

 than our own in British markets. Why is it? 



There are two reasons. The first is that peculiar quality of 

 the British mind which causes it to pay more for anything grown 



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