Winter Meeting. 265 



It was very interesting and astoninshing to me to- find, not only at this 

 jioint, but at all stations along the two lines of railroad, the long dis- 

 tances that men would haul their fruit to market. It was no uncommon 

 thing to find fruit most any day that had been hauled twenty-five, 

 thirty, and some times as far as forty miles, and delivered in fine con- 

 dition. In other cases, where men had but a short distance to haul 

 their fruit and every opportunity was favorable for them to obtain the 

 best market price, they brought their fruit to market in a worthless 

 condition, owing to a lack of a little horticultural education in handling. 

 1 haA^e seen fine, large Willowtwigs that had been shaken from the 

 trees on to the hard, stonv around and then hauled carefullv to market 



/ t. CD iJ 



on a spring wagoai. I have also seen fine Yorks carefully hand picked 

 in half-bushel baskets and then poured into two-bushel sacks, letting the 

 apjDles drop the full length of sack, then settled down and handled as 

 so much corn, and taken to market expecting the fruit dealer to buy 

 them, and Avhen the fruit is refused or they do not receive the price 

 they expected, they then put the blame of the careless and rough hand- 

 ling to their wife, or poor little children. 



This has been one of the years that the commercial orchardist or 

 fruit grower was not in it, for in all points visited, the large orchards 

 had scarcely an^' apples and the greater portion of the fruit marketed 

 this year came from orchards of less than a thousand trees ; consequently 

 the apple buyer was forced to look to the small orchards for his supply 

 of fruit. 



Surely tlie lessons learned this year liy the fruit dealer has been 

 very dear to him and his disappointments very bitter; owing to the 

 imperfect condition of fruit, the many worthless varieties, the rough 

 handlino' before beina,' received, and the lonii' continued liot weather 

 durins; the handling season, all of which has been vow nnieli ajrainst his 

 success. 



Aften ten days of hard work at Salem, liaving to visit very many 

 orchards, in some of wliich T scarcely could find a jx'rfect specimen, I 

 procured ten l)ari'('ls of fruit. -Judge Woodsidc fui'iiished one barrel 

 of York and Tngi-nui ; O. S. liousU one barrel of Ingram and Ben 

 Davis; P. Weller one barrel of Ben Davis and Ingram. The other 

 seven barrels wei-c 1)OUiilit fi-oni difF(U*ent individuals, each bavins; their 



