Winter Meeting. 323 



our best apples are cheap we can reach them." I will ask the party when 

 apples were cheap. When did you know a fair grade of apples to sell 

 in the winter months for less than 25 cents per peck in grocery stores? 

 This means $1 per bushel. Do you call that cheap? 



I started out to answer the question, What shall be done with No. 

 2 apples? It seems to me we have gone far enough with preliminaries. 

 We will stop now and try to tell you what we think had better be done. 

 First, let us teach and insist that every grower raise just as few of 

 those apples as possible. When he grows them, handle them just as he 

 does his best apples. Make a clean grade of No. 2 apples. When this 

 is done you will not have over 10 or 15 per cent of the amount of the 

 best apples, provided you have cultivated your orchard with care and 

 judgment and have studied your soil and the wants of your trees. 



The No. 2 apples, packed as 1 have stated, will always find a buyer. 

 If you do not find a buyer when you pack, ship them right on to stor- 

 age. Have them stored separate from your best apples. If you have 

 a nice pack of them — I mean if you have graded as close as you did 

 your best apples — they will keep just about as well. You will find that 

 they will soon be sold out of your way to parties who would not buy or 

 even look at your best apples. 



I wish to be understood in the stand I have taken in this paper, 

 that I am not defending the great avalanche of ungraded apples that is 

 'dumped on the market in scoop-shovel fashion, in bulk from orchards 

 that are not cared for by the owners of such and who depend upon Prov- 

 idence for results. In some sections of our country — and I might say 

 'even states — there are growers who, on occasions, fail to lay in pack- 

 ages enough for their crop of fruit until it is too late, when in some 

 cases the apples are found frozen on the trees or gathered and put in 

 piles and frozen until they are unfit for storage. Then, at the last hour 

 of peril, they shovel these apples into cars, and they are thrown on 

 the market at any price they can get for them. They cannot go into 

 cold storage, and must be sold before the car is unloaded. This demoral- 

 izes the market, destroying confidence and even antagonizing the great 

 help cold storage has been for horticulture. 



I think one of the most ruinous practices in the great fruit-growing 

 centers is shipping apples in bulk. And I am sure if fruit growers 

 would properly care for their orchards and handle their apples as above 

 mentioned, there would be no necessity for such shipments. 



Now, again to the question. Let us lay aside selfish motives and 

 let us work for the great development of the fruit interest by being 

 what we profess to be ; by taking hold of this work with sincerity of 

 purpose; by putting on the market a better grade of our best apples; 



