IS STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



then taken to the store-house nnheaded, or else the fruit should be carried 

 direct!}' to sheds, well carpeted with straw, and left there in bulk to bo sorted 

 and packed at convenience. An outlay of five dollars for lumber would suf- 

 fice for a shed, holding one hundred l)arrels of fruit. A number of such sheds, 

 placed either as temporary or permanent structures through the orchard, would 

 enable the pickers to carry all the fruit to them without rchandling. The fruit 

 could be packed after the hurry of picking is over. Care, in selecting the 

 fruit, could be better secured, and none but truly choice fruit need then go into 

 winter storage. We would in this way raise the standard of the quality of our 

 fruit, and. save our good apples from the damaging effects of proximity with 

 bad ones. 



The next branch of our subject is "How to dispose of the fruit,"" and we 

 may in the same connection discuss the mode of shipping it. 



'No general rule can be given as to the best time to sell. What might be the 

 advantage of one might prove the disadvantage of the other. If the larger 

 part of our crop should go into the hands of dealers in the fall, those who hold 

 till spring might realize the advance in price, which usually follows ])utting the 

 control of the market into the hands of middlemen. The best rule for all 

 selling is to do it when a fair price can be obtained. He who sells directly from 

 his orchard saves all the expense of storage, decay of fruit, trouble of sorting 

 and repacking, as well as interest u])on the value of his crop. Fruit will bear 

 shipment better when not fully ripe, hence, if it is to be sent to a distant 

 market, the fall is the best time. I look with a good deal of interest to the 

 improvement of the Welland and St. Lawrence canals, now making, and to 

 be completed this year, which is expected to enable large ocean vessels to land 

 at any port of our lakes, thus enabling our orchardists to send fruit direct to 

 Europe without transliipment. Ocean freights arc usually high, but when a 

 three bushel barrel of ai)ples can be laid down in Liverpool at one dollar and 

 a quarter per barrel for freight, our fruit growers may expect a new era in 

 orcharding. Apples will always be high in England. England unlike her neigh- 

 bor France, lives under a peculiar land system. Most French farmers are the 

 owners of their farms. In England the farmers are usually mere tenants. 

 Such have little encouragement to plant trees of any kind, the fruit of wliicli 

 others may enjoy. The result is, the land is sown to annual crops, and large 

 orchards are the exception. This condition of things will make England a 

 good market for our apples, and we only want the era of cheaper ocean freights 

 to solve the problem of success. I leave to the experimenters of cider-making 

 to say what increased value may be given to that product of our apple crop, 

 by concentrating it, by some rapid process of evaporation, or by freezing out 

 much of the water, and so making a partial su])stitute for wine and brandy in 

 cookerv. When the time shall come that America sliall imitate the thrift and 

 industry of France, and shall grow the sugar beet at the side of the orchards, 

 and thus make sugar cheap, all of our tables may then afford a rich apple 

 jelly as a relish for our steaks, and save the expense of imported sauces. More 

 than this, when our uwn cooks shall learn that any good apple slowly cooked 

 several hours in its own juice, will come out red as a cherry, tart, rich and 

 more palatable than the old time apple sauce or a})ple butter, they will 

 advance more tlian one ste}) in cookery. 



We suggest this, make the most of our apples as an article of food. Consult 

 the most a])2)roved mode of serving them up on our tables, and thus successfully 

 dispose of at least a part of the crop. 



