STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 41 



cider. What has been your experience, and have you experimented 

 an}' in this matter? 



Mr. Whittier. During the first of my experience as an orchard ist, 

 for about four years, I could do nothing else with the refuse fruit. I 

 fed from three to six hundred bushels to sheep. They liked them 

 very much but it did not pa}' me to do it. I should say that if a 

 man had time and could afford to hire help it would pay, but if he 

 could not I would employ some other way of using up the poor fruit. 

 1 know that it does not pay me to take care of it in that way. 



Mr. 8. R. Leland, Farmington. Will it pay better to feed them 

 to pigs than to sheep? 



Mr. Whittier. I fed apples to a shoat from the fall uutil the fol- 

 lowing spring and could not see that the animal was in any better 

 condition than before for having received them. I boil them until soft 

 and then feed them mixed with meal or shorts. 



Mr. D. J. Briggs, South Turner. I would like to return to the 

 subject of barrels. What size barrel do you use and how much will 

 they hold? 



Mr. Whittier. The barrels are seventeen and one-quarter inches 

 in diameter across the head, with the staves twenty-eight inches long. 

 The way they are set up makes considerable difference with the 

 amount they will hold. If the staves are narrow there is some bilge. 

 I should mix the staves and thus insure a better uniformity in the 

 capacity. 



Mr. Briggs. We have been making our own barrels and there 

 has been a great deal of discussion about the matter aud much differ- 

 ence of opinion in regard to the amount that a barrel should hold. 

 What do you consider the proper amount for a barrel to hold ? 



Mr. Whittier. I do not think I can state definitely in relation to 

 it. There is a great deal of difference everywhere. Some heap the 

 measure and others do not. I think it almost impossible to state, 

 either by bulk or weight, the amount which it would take to make a 

 barrel of apples. 



Mr. Leland. Has the time arrived for the use of new barrels? 



Mr. Whittier. Yes, sir, it is time now. 



Question. Do new barrels increase the valae of the fruit? 



Mr. Whittier. Yes, sir, because many of the old barrels that 

 are picked up are unfit for packing apples into. I want good new 

 barrels and then I feel safe about my fruit. I have tried both ways 

 and think it better and in the end cheaper to use new barrels. 



