80 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



State Horticultural Society and then show how it is done and doue right. 

 I tell you we do not understand the first principles of handling box pack- 

 ing. It has never been shown in the State and I would like to have it 

 presented by an expert from the west who is getting out car loads and 

 car loads every year, because I believe that when we understand the 

 matter, and understand it right, it will be only a matter of a year or 

 two when most everybody will fall in line and use boxes. 



President Farrand — This would be a matter that would be up to the 

 Executive Board. Personally I would be in favor of it. 



Mr. Rowe (continuing) — You may talk until doom's day, but what 

 we want to do is to get right at the thing. I would like to get Mr. O. J. 

 Zenzel, chief judge at Spokane last year, and one of the largest packers 

 in the west, to come here and show you just how it is doue. 



Question — Would he pack the apples here? 



Mr. Rowe — He Avould bring the apples or take apples here and pack 

 them. 



A Member — I would like to have question No. 8 answered: "Is the 

 flavor of an apple preserved better by being wrapped in paper for winter 

 and spring use?" 



Mr. Bullock — It has been our experience that it has and I think you 

 will find that any apple wrapped in i>aper will retain the flavor better 

 than when left exposed to the air. When selling to city customers they 

 will appreciate the keeping of the flavor of the apple. 



A Member — Another question, No. 23 : ''What progress are Michigan 

 growers making in the use of the box for fancy apples in place of the 

 barrel?" 



Answer — Out in the west the growers are grouped together in valleys, 

 while here in Michigan we often find growers so widely scattered. In 

 my own case, there is not a man within five miles of me that grows apples 

 at all. I grow a few and I do not know of anyone that I could go in 

 with to do the box packing act. We are so widely scattered that Ave 

 could not get together so that we could use an expert box packer, and 

 for that reason I do not see how we could use the box, unless we learned 

 to pack it, and the barrel is so much more in common use that I think 

 it will be a long time before the box comes into general use. 



Mr. Rowe^ — The western apple growers are, of course, grouped closer 

 than in Michigan, but that has nothing to do with the style or shape of 

 the package in which the fruit is placed and I doubt if there is a man 

 in this room, certainly not an apple grower in Michigan, but what, when 

 shown the foundation principles of box packing in a practical way but 

 what will catch on and learn to do the work himself. There is not a 

 boy in our high schools who cannot, after being shown the foundation 

 principles of apple packing, become an expert packer. It is simply 

 routine, as simple as A, B, C, as soon as it is learned. To pack apples 

 as they should be is not very difiicult, and then the boxes are more easily 

 handled on the wagon, easier to handle in the store, in transportation. 

 The barrels are rolled and the apples get more or less bruised, and it 

 is found that apples can be handled ten per cent cheaper in boxes than 

 in barrels. 



Mr. Hartman — It 5?eems to me that the only objection to the use by the 

 Michigan growers of the box right away is the fact that it is hard to get 

 more for our apples in boxes than in barrels. We are not expert pack- 



