478 ANNUAL REPORT OP THE Ott. DoC. 



your insurance business. He will forward to any European market 

 you direct. But, the more common method is to export through the 

 New York representatives of the larger European markets. It 

 costs no more to have them handle your goods, and they will com- 

 municate with European houses and find you a good market and 

 are supposed to know the exact conditions there. The same condi- 

 tion prevails over there as we have here. New York is in the market 

 to-day and to-morrow it may be off. By keeping in touch with the 

 markets, they are able to place your shipments in that particular 

 market which bids fair to return the largest amount to the grower. 

 There are several perfectly responsible, very reliable and conser- 

 vative European houses and they seldom fail to bring back a satis- 

 factory return from your shipment. It is necessary to use great 

 care when picking and when each basket is emptied so as not to 

 bruise the fruit and the barrel should be filled fuller than you would 

 fill it for domestic markets. The matter of thoroughly shaking 

 barrels when filling, I think, is the great secret of export packing. 

 It is necessary that this care should be used for this reason; the 

 English markets are very much displeased with barrels that ar- 

 rive there not full. It makes a difference of about 2.5 cents a 

 barrel, and that shows the necessity of growing fruit which has a 

 good carrying quality. We have found no fruit which has a car- 

 rying quality equal to the well known Ben Davis. Along this line, 

 I would emphasize the matter of fertilizing, thorough cultivation 

 and spraying in order to grow the very best quality of fruit. It 

 has been found in my own experience advisable to modify our 

 former plan of annual cultivation somewhat. We find that we grow 

 finer fruit by allowing a cover crop to remain one year. We prefer 

 Mammoth clover for this purpose. By this method we are able to 

 grow a firmer fruit, of better color and of better size. 



MR. BLACK: Would it be best to line barrels so as to take up 

 slack caused by shrinkage of fruit. 



MR. CATCHPOLE: With certain varieties, yes; still ordinarily I 

 think the trouble is more a matter of transporation than it is of 

 shrinkage. 



CHESTER TYSON: Do you find any difficulty with the feeding 

 roots coming too high. 



MR. CATCHPOLE: We have had no serious trouble and see no 

 bad results. 



MR. E. C. TYSON : What do you think of the feasibility of having 

 a local storage house? 



MR. CATCHPOLE: In case of export, I think that it would be 

 advisable. In any case it is all right to have a central packing 

 house. With the very large trees, such as we have, trees running 

 twenty-five to thirty feet high, it isn't necessary to move the pack- 

 ing table very often in the orchard and for the cold storage, possibly 

 we can get them in better shape than by using a packing house. Per- 

 sonally, I am very much in favor of the packing house. You get a 

 more uniform grade because you are mixing up the product of many 

 trees before it goes over the sorting table. 



Member: What package do you use in taking apples direct from 

 trees to packing house? 



MR. CATCHPOLE: Slat bushel crates. 



Member: Do not the slat edges bruise the fruit? 



