ANNUAL WINTER 3IEETING AT WARRENSBURG. 225 



enable them to reach the market for which they are intended in good 

 condition, and should not be packed with a few nice specimens upon 

 the outside and a great amount of worthless trash in the middle of the 

 box, as, I am sorry to say, is the case in a great majority of cases. 



If apples, place a fair sample upon the face with good, sound, 

 smooth fruit clear through the barrel, carrying the over-ripe, knotty 

 or inferior fruit to the evaporator, cider mill or pig pen, where it will 

 do you much more good than in the middle of the barrel where it is 

 usually placed, causing the purchaser to use language that would make 

 the packer blush with shame could he be present. 



The fruit business of the country has become of too much impor- 

 tance to be conducted in the haphazard manner of the past, and unless 

 a radical change is effected, the producer will see the experience of 

 the past season repeated annually, and find the balance upon the 

 wrong side of the sheet. 



The apple crop has never paid the producer what it could be made 

 to pay with proper management, because of the great haste of the pro- 

 ducer to get it into market and realize upon it. It is an almost uni- 

 versal custom, as soon as a few wormy apples fall upon the ground, to 

 go into the orchard and pick the whole crop, especially of fall fruit, 

 and in many cases a month before the proper time; and in this imma- 

 ture condition it is sent to market, where it ?s either sold for a very 

 low price or allowed to decay in the hands of the commission mer- 

 chant because,' on account of its utter unfitness for use, no one will 

 purchase it if they can get an article that nature has rendered 

 palatable. 



Every orchardist should be prepared to take care of his winter 

 apples, FO as not to be forced to rush them into market in the fall 

 when the receipts are so heavy that they must in most cases be sold 

 to speculators who store them up for winter use, when they almost 

 always realize a handsome profit upon 'them, which might be realized 

 by the grower if he had patience to wait for it. 



In conclusion, I will say that to malve a success of the fruit busi- 

 ness, it will be necessary for the ignorant to either learn or quit the 

 business, the dishonest to become convinced that the only way to suc- 

 ceed is to change their course ; for all to produce only what they can 

 place upon the market in good condition ; ship only good goods, such 

 as you would yourself purchase were you at the other end of the line ; 

 select a commission merchant that has a reputation, experience and 

 facilities for handling your class of goods in the most accessible large 

 distributing market, consign all your goods to him, giving him a regu- 



n R — 15 



