INDIANA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 505 



NIGHT SESSION. 



The meeting was called to ordev by the Cliairiuan at 7:30. Rev. W. 

 G. Clinton, of Centenary M. E. Church, led iu prayer. 



Chairman Latta: Ladies and Gentlemen— I have the plea.sure of in- 

 trodiichig !Mr. Stanton, I'resident of_ the Southern Illinois Horticultural 

 Society. 



Mr. Stanton: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen— As the President 

 has explained, I come to you entirely unprepared to talk on any given 

 subject; but along horticultural lines I am always able to say something. 

 Whether it will be of any special value to you or not I can not promise. 



I understand this evening you nad a paper on "Fruit Interests of 

 Southern Indiana— What They Are and AVhat They May Become"— that 

 was Mr. Simpson's paper. "How the Fruit Possibilities of Southern In- 

 diana Maj' Be Realized," by Mr. Burton. Those two themes I believe 

 were pretty well brought out so far as the adaptation of this territory is 

 concerned. There are several other papers I notice on the program here, 

 and I do not wish to take up much of your time, so I would rather begin 

 as the fruit matures and discuss the subject from the maturity of the 

 fruit until it is marketed. 



There is a great deal in having a package that is an attractive one; 

 and- there is a great deal in having attractive fruit in that package. In 

 order to get that result, there is something in the manner and in the 

 plan of gathering and packing this fruit. I know there used to be a 

 process of gathering fruit, and possibly some of you are still pursuing 

 that plan— that was. to pick the apples and pile them under the trees, 

 and when you got ready you paci^ed and barreled them and shipped them 

 away. Noav the theory that an apple must go through the sweat, the 

 same as your Avheat, has been exploded some time ago in the opinion of 

 most commercial growers. The theory noAv is, that an apple picked di- 

 rectly from the tvee and put into the barrel without ever touching the 

 ground, and shipped immediately to market or put into storage is the 

 l)est. That is the prevailing opinion now as to the best process of hand- 

 ling the apple. 



People, until a year or so ago, Avere of the opinion that an apple should 

 be picked just before maturity, and I can not say that I have changed 

 my mind yet; but all late experimentalists along that line claim that an 

 apple will keep better if it is picked when it is entirely ripe— one already 

 matured. We have always thought that the next stage after maturity 

 Avas decay, and considered, therefore, if Ave should pick the apple just 

 befDre maturity and put it in cold storage, and hold it till aa'c were ready 

 to place it on the market, it would keep much better than if picked at 

 maturity. The groat objection to putting it in cold storage has been, it 



