66 STATK POMOLOr.ICAL SOCIKTY. 



matter tlio cxpc»rionce of successful fruitgrowers may be accepted as 

 a safe guide in tiie selection of new stock for replacincr the old, or 

 in setting out new orchards and gardens. 



MAHKK.TIXG TIIE FHL'IT CliOr AN IMroKTANT (^U'KSTIOX. 



Not many years agothea[)ple growers in Maine who were fortunate 

 enough to have a few apples for sale took them to the village store 

 in bags and baskets, but now so great has the countrv l)ecorae in the 

 production of apples that Maine fruit not only goes from State 

 to State in search of consumers, but in immense quantities ii shipped 

 by ocean steamers to foreign marts. The apples have to be properly 

 picked, sorted and i)acked if they are to sell for the highest prices. 

 Only a few years since an apple grower not a thousand miles from 

 here sent some laborers to gather his fruit. You ought to have seen 

 them do it. A long pole was used lo beat the apples fiom the limbs 

 they could not reach and in this bruised condition the apples were 

 put into barrels and placed upon the market. Another man handl(;d 

 his apples as carefully as he would a nest of fresh-laid egg^, and for 

 his trouble received nearly a dollar extra on each barrel he sold. 

 Both men were raising apples for profit, too. The supply of barrels 

 is another matter often di&(;ussed at our meetings. The time Ifas 

 come when Maine need^ more flour barrels than its people can empty 

 during the year. During the fall an apple buyer said he had a car- 

 load of barrels shipped from Boston to his railroad station, on which 

 the freight was fifteen cents per barrel. On investigating the matter 

 it was found the Boston and Maine Railroad received four cents of 

 this amount and our enterprising Maine Central the balance. More 

 barrels were needed from the same source and a special rate was se- 

 cured after a good deal of difficulty — but even then the Maine Central 

 got the lion's share, for it carried the barrels a less distance and re- 

 ceived six cents and the Boston and Maine the same as before. This, 

 too, for empty barrels that must go back over the road again when 

 filled. It may be time for us to say something as a Society upon this 

 matter of freights. Again, I notice that it costs one-half as much 

 to send a barrel of apples from here to Boston as it costs to send 

 them from that point by steamer across the ocean. So rapidly are 

 our fruit-growing interests increasing that all these matters connected 

 with marketing should rtceive in the future even more careful con- 

 sideration than the Societ}' has given them in the past. At several 

 points in Maine parties are making barrels for orchardists and some 



