152 STATU POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



perhaps selling one hundred thousand barrels a week, that bar- 

 rel is not as represented to be, — it is not the man who is blamed 

 but the whole State of Maine suffers. W'e want some inspection 

 by which the dishonest man shall be compelled to put up an 

 honest product, in order to protect the five-sixths or nine-tenths 

 of the people, as it may be, who are honest. That is the reason 

 why I want some inspection, and I don't believe you can have 

 it too rigorous in order to establish a reputation. Reputation 

 is essential in the business world. Without it we- cannot do 

 business. We have got to trust to every man. We ought to 

 have a rigorous inspection as regards the smaller package. This 

 year, for instance, living within about four miles of a manu- 

 facturing town of some eight or nine thousand inhabitants, we 

 happened to have a certain number of barrels of Snows, very 

 nice ; we were offered $2.50 a barrel for them but thought we 

 could do better. They were put up in baskets and sdld readily 

 for from 60 to 75 cents a basket. We are looking more at the 

 quality than the quantity. Do you suppose that the manu- 

 facturers of breakfast food could get ten or twenty-five cents 

 for a hundred pounds such as they sell to you in the package? It 

 is the small package — they look at the package and don't ask 

 the price. I put in some six weeks in British Columbia on the 

 coast, and among the Institute delegation there, there was a 

 young man who was an expert in British Columbia. He had 

 been sent by the Dominion Government over to the Hood river 

 to get the latest ideas about the packing of fruit. He came 

 back with certain ideas, and went round giving exhibitions of 

 just how fruit ought to be packed. And I learned something 

 there. The boxes were different from anything I see here. 

 They were supposed to hold about forty pounds. They were 

 slatted sufficiently strong so that while they might spring a little 

 bit there was no danger of the box breaking. I found out, for 

 instance you throw down enough of apples to make two boxes 

 of the same kind, and almost without selection he would put 

 four rows of apples, in one box, the very select, the next box he 

 would put four rows and a half into it, and there was hardly 

 any difference in the appearance of those two boxes — one box 

 contained the big apples, but the second looked about as well as 

 the first because they had been separated from each other. I 



