158 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



class. We know that they have not the facilities nor the ability to pro- 

 duce the first grade of fruit. There can be nothing but failure awaiting 

 them; the men themselves are not adaj)ted to it. 



Mr. Van Lindley of North Carolina: I think there has been enough 

 said by Mr. VanDeman, how to make a market for fruit. If his instruc- 

 tions are followed I have no doubt you will have success. The plan he 

 suggests is what I have been trying to follow, and I will say something 

 of the manner of packing fruit adopted in North Carolina. We use what 

 is known as the six-pound-basket crate; when full it weighs forty pounds. 

 There are six baskets to fill, and they each hold about two rows of good- 

 size peaches, and the bottom row is just as large as the top one, if you 

 expect to have a rei^utation. In addition to that, we usually take two 

 pieces of paper for each basket, just large enough to go down the side 

 of the basket. The paper is slipped down on the side of the 

 peaches, on each side, and when the basket is filled we put a few 

 little twigs of the peach tree in with the leaves on. It is very quickly 

 done, and we turn the paper over and pack them. Our peaches, pre- 

 pared in that way, brought from fifty to seventj'^-five cents extra per 

 crate, all season, and the market was practically glutted with good fruit 

 from other sections. I suppose it didn't cost us ten cents more per crate, 

 and it paid us fifty to seventy-five cents extra. We have a big reputa- 

 tion on our package and the manner in which we put it up, and I don't 

 believe in the future we will have any trouble in finding a market for 

 our fruit. Of course, the object is to have only fine peaches, and we 

 expect to continue receiving fancy prices. The market never has been 

 glutted with really fine fruit. 



Mr. Brooke of Kansas: In Denver a man went into a packing-house 

 and asked for Wild Goose plums. The packer didn't have any, but had 

 some Oregon and Sand Hill plums. He asked the price. The Sand Hill 

 plums were priced twenty cents per basket more than the Oregon plums. 

 He took the Sand Hill plums. They were what he wanted, and though 

 the Oregon plums were tine they were not worth anything except to look 

 at. Another illustration of the same thing is this : There was a carload 

 of apples shipped into Topeka, Kansas, one year when Kansas was out 

 of apples. These came in boxes similar to those used for oranges. When 

 they were opened they looked very much like oranges; they were beauti- 

 ful apples. I obtained a few to take to a horticultural meeting, to show 

 them. They were so fine that I didn't know what they were. I examined 

 the box, and ^'Newtown pippins" was printed on it. The man from whom 

 I obtained these showed me some other Newtown pippins. They were 

 green, half the size of the others, and the only difference in the produc- 

 tion of the fruit was this : One orchard was in northern California and 

 the other in southern Oregon. The orchards were only two or three 

 miles apart, but one orchard was allowed to take care of itself; the sun- 

 light never got to the apples, and they came to the market inferior fruit. 

 No one would take them to be the same variety. The other man kept 

 his trees trimmed so that the sun colored the fruit. It was simply the 

 difference in care, and I warrant you that one man received more than 

 a hundred per cent, more than the other for the trouble he took. As to 

 commercial orcharding, that is going to be a success, and Kansas is 

 going to lead, at least in apples. 



