40 STATE POMOLCKilCAL SOCIETY. 



alike all through, whether he is buying of you or is to sell on com- 

 missiou, you may score one for his honesty with you as well as his 

 customers, and he is the one who will get tile best price for j'our 

 really nice fruit. 



The fruit interest in this State is destined to be an important one 

 and a profitable one too, if we will onl}- take care to put it up as it 

 should be in order to gain a high reputation, and every one who does 

 not do so is an injury to the business. If we would increase our 

 profits from fruit we had better spend our time and energies in in- 

 creasing the production, than to spend them in trying to sell poor 

 apples for No. I's. I know of parties that try so hard to sell all of 

 their crop for No 1, that they have to look up a new buyer every 

 year. That is not the way to make orcharding profitable nor the 

 wa}' to make an honest man feel satisfied with himself. 



Maine fruit commands a little better price than that from other 

 States, but it is not because it is better sorted or handled, but because 

 of its later keeping qualities. Where we now get twenty-five cents 

 per barrel higher for our apples we should and could by care in putting 

 them up get dollars more per barrel with such apples as we can raise. 

 I wish all fruit growers and shippers could realize the advantages to 

 be gained by establishing a high reputation for extra sorting and 

 handling our apples and the sooner it is done the easier and better 

 for us. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. "W. P. Atherton. Do you manufacture your own barrels? 



Mr. Whittier. Yes, sir, I have followed that practice for some 

 years. I have the material worked up at the mill and put them to- 

 gether myself. 



Question. The matter of feeding apples to stock is an open ques- 

 tion and one of considerable importance, and I should like to know 

 if you think it a profitable method of using up refuse fruit? 



Mr. Whittier. In reply to the question I would ssij that in my 

 opinion it is a practice that amounts to but very little. It ma}' be of 

 considerable benefit to the stock but I do not think it will pay, 

 especially where 3'ou have to hire help. If you could do the work 

 yourself it would be a good way of using up poor apples. 



Question. What would you do when a man has from three to four 

 hundred bushels of refuse apples which he does not know what to do 

 with? That is my case and I feel too mean to make them up into 



