No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 445 



there is much more to know than I have yet learned. There are 

 many new and interesting (juestions that are constantly coming up. 

 We don't realize the possibilities in the development of our work. 

 I feel we haven't yet learned the alphabet. There are certain 

 markets for which we should grow very attractive and beautiful 

 fruit. There is a demand in Germany for our fine fruit, and France 

 now supplies that market. The French know how to put up their 

 fruit. Their apples are large and beautiful, put up in the very best 

 manner, every apple wrapped and put into single layers and in sin- 

 gle packages. They use a small box and put into it possibly two 

 dozen apples, but they will put only one layer in the box. They are 

 not only wrapped but packed in excelsior in addition. Now what 

 does that fruit return to the French producer. He gets usually, 

 from five to seven cents a piece, yet the French apples do not com- 

 pare in line flavor with American fruit. Our apples often arrive in 

 poor condition, and unattractive, yet Germans prefer them because 

 they are better flavored, and they choose them for that reason. 1 

 am shipping apples to Germany. I use a single box and select the 

 very choicest apples, every specimen perfect, wrap each apijle, and 

 in addition three boxes are packed in a case. Now the trouble with 

 our foreign shipments is that the fruit gets very rough handling, 

 when unloaded on the other side, the barrels roll on long runaways, 

 and it is the same with boxes. They jam and crash into each other 

 in unloading and much of the fruit is damaged. American shippers 

 in sending fruit to foreign countries, packing their apples in a 

 box weighing about forty pounds, and in barrels, have met with 

 frequent disappointment from injury from handling of their fruit. 

 Instead of shipping in the single box, three packages have been 

 put in a case and the case securely nailed so that when one case 

 strikes against another the fruit in the boxes will not be bruised. 

 We must not only keep our fruit from becoming over ripe, but 

 when we ship we must put it in a package that when it arrives it 

 will be marketable. 



I have given you the main point and the most essential features 

 in storage handling of fruit and shall be very glad to reply to any 

 questions that may occur to you to ask. 



MR. ELDON: How do you wrap your fruit? 



MR. POWELL: This is the difficulty the individual grower will 

 have to meet to get skillful wrappers to put up his fruit. If the 

 fruit could go to one central point like this there would be no dif- 

 ficulty in getting skilled packers to handle the fruit. I 'have been 

 able to secure very good help iu packing my fruit. Farmers' daugh- 

 ters and those of the people who live in small villages near my farm 

 ai'e interested in this skilful kind of work, and they come every year 

 to do it. 



Question. What must you pay for this work? 



MR. POWELL: We pay fifteen cents an hour. W^e can employ 

 wrajipers for t(Mi cents an hour, but prefer the better for fifteen. 



Question. What do you use to wrap the fruit? 



MR. POWELL: We use ordinary newspaper, the white unprinted 

 paper. Sometimes we use tissue paper. 



