FORTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 127 



let it hang a day too long, but we give it as much time on the trees as we 

 can. 



Our main storage room is about 30 by 40 feet with 12 or 14 foot ceiling. 

 Around the sides of this room we have openings about every ten feet, 

 eight-inch galvanized pipe taking the air up to the ice chamber above 

 which holds about a carload of ice. This warm air coming up, forces 

 the cold air down into the storage room below, thus giving a circula- 

 tion of air. We do not try to keep apples all winter by this method, but 

 do keep them until the middle of February or early in March. Tn stor- 

 ing our apples, we do not sort or pack them in the orchard, but haul 

 them, culls and all, just as they are picked, directly into the storehouse. 

 If the weather is especially warm, we let them lay out of doors over night 

 and take them into the storehouse in the morning after the apples have 

 got cooled off, and we sort them and pack them in the store house when 

 marketed. This saves time during the harvesting season and allows us 

 to utilize the bad weather for packing. During the time that we are 

 hauling the apples into the storage house, the temperature is from 40 

 to 45 degrees, hnt after we are through hauling, it is nearly 32 or 33. 

 We do not have to stop to sort or pack at all during harvest, but just 

 take everything as it comes from the orchard and put it into the store- 

 house. As we receive the orders from our trade, we pack and ship them 

 from time to time. This gives us work for our help during the winter, 

 as well as making less work for them during the busy season. We try- 

 to employ about the same number of men winter and summer and to 

 keep our help the whole year around. Of course we are not able to 

 (juite do this, but we employ very little unskilled help at harvest and keep 

 our best hands with us all the year. 



When I started to plant my orchards twenty-five years ago I went on 

 the assumption that the markets were glutted with poor fruit and that 

 the people would be willing to pay twenty-five cents extra for quality. I 

 felt that there was plenty of call for good apples, honestly packed and of 

 high quality, and I have never regretted my decision, nor had occasion 

 to change my mind. We have not tried to educate the people, but we 

 have found that a higher quality of fruit makes a l^etter demand for 

 it, and that to reach the best class of trade, we must have a high class 

 article. We do not ti'y to sell direct to the consumer but have always 

 preferred to deal through the grocers and commission men, small fruit, 

 such as berries, cherries etc. going to the commission men and the less 

 perishable fruit as apples, pears, etc. going partly to the private con- 

 sumer and partly to the grocer. With the perishable fruit, we arrange 

 with one or two commission men to handle our crop and then we stay 

 with him during the whole season, helping him to build up a demand for 

 the fruit and then being in position to get the best prices for our 

 fruit, when the market begins to have a slump. And right here I want 

 to say a word in favor of the commission men. We should give the com- 

 mission men a great deal more credit than we do. All commission men 

 are not dishonest and they are not all trying to rob the fruit raiser. 



I was in the office of a big commission man and he was at his wits end 

 to know what to do with fruit that was coming in, with the market glut- 

 ted and the prices down. He was spending money telegraphing to the 

 growers to stop shipping while the market was in that condition. He 

 said to me "Here is the market flooded with fruit and these men who 



