52 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE, 



into these cities and towns of our own we could put many 

 thousand apples and boxes of fruit every year. 



I also believe that under organization we should have pack- 

 ing houses and storehouses, and those are things we need. If 

 this great machine which has been used here this morning, the 

 grading machine, and other makes, prove a success, as I am 

 sure they will, it will go far towards solving the question of 

 grading apples. Then, whoever handles the apples, whether it 

 be the speculator or whether you organize and handle your 

 apples yourselves, the use of this machine will lead to the 

 erection of packing houses, and the apples of the men who pro- 

 duce small quantities of apples, the men with small orchards, 

 will be brought together and put into these packing houses, 

 and they can be put up in a uniform manner. 



And again, we need more storehouses to hold our apples into 

 the cold season. As I hinted a moment ago, when there is a 

 large crop we rush it upon the market. We haven't any place 

 to store the apples. Many of the farmers with lOo or 200 

 barrels of apples, cannot take care of them. A man 

 with 500 barrels, unless he has made a special provision, is 

 unable to store them through the cold season. So I believe 

 that the organization work will develop into the organization 

 of packing houses and storehouses. When we get to that 

 point our apples will become standardized. Of course the 

 tendency of the apple packing law is in that direction. That 

 is one of the reasons why it was enacted, but it never will be 

 fully accomplished until we come to the point when our apples 

 can be packed in packing houses, when the apples coming 

 from different farms, different varieties, grown under differ- 

 ent circumstances, can be brought together and packed at a 

 common packing room. 



We want to standardize not only the fruit itself, but also 

 the brand, and that was the intention of the law, but under 

 the condition that exists today, a No. i barrel of apples in one 

 section and packed by one party, is a different thing from a 

 No. I apple in another section, packed by another party. This 

 is a matter which seems to me of serious import. 



Again, we find men who want to mark the No. i apples with 

 about four X's on them, or something of that kind. I suppose 

 they think it adds to the merits of the apple in some way, but 



