state; pomoIvOGical society. 117 



different sizes of barrels which are at the present time being 

 used in the State. When I first began to sell apples, we at that 

 time used wholly old barrels, and as many of you know in buy- 

 ing those we got a good many of what we call small sugar bar- 

 rels. Well, I thought they looked pretty large and I took time to 

 measure one of them one day and I found they held so much 

 that it was like throwing money away to buy them. So I gave 

 that up. So two years ago they asked me pretty high for new 

 barrels, and knowing that they had the same size of heads and 

 the same length of stave I supposed they held the same as flour 

 barrels, and having an opportunity to buy two or three hundred 

 flour barrels at a good deal lower price, I purchased them. But 

 when I came to get the new barrels home and place them side 

 by side with the old ones, I thought I would take the trouble 

 to measure them, as I raised a quantity of yellow-eyed beans. 

 I filled the new barrel full of beans ; then I turned them into 

 a Washburn & Crosby barrel — a good many of you know what 

 those are, a short thick-set barrel — and it took about three quarts 

 to fill it. Then we took some shaved hoop barrels such as the 

 all round flour comes in, and it took about seven quarts to fill 

 that if I remember rightly. Then we took another barrel and 

 it only took fourteen quarts more than the new barrel to fill that. 

 Now that don't seem a great deal on a barrel of apples, but I 

 took time the other day to figure it out to see what difference 

 it would make on this year's crop of apples whether I sold them 

 in these new barrels, and it made the sum of $300, about that — 

 whether I packed them in the new barrel or the larger size of 

 old barrels. So you see though it is a sort of dry subject, it is 

 really a subject of a good deal of interest to us when it comes 

 to dollars and cents, and of course it is not only of interest to 

 us but of interest to the one who buys the apples. They get 

 considerably more for the money with a large barrel than with a 

 small one. 



Now, if it is in order, I should like to make a motion that a 

 committee be appointed to look this matter up more fully. Of 

 course we can do nothing about a law this coming winter, until 

 after we have another meeting a year from now, and it seems 

 to me it would be a good plan if there could be a committee 

 appointed to look up the matter. As perhaps some of you 



