302 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



want them to, but they would do it. Then I got a lot of girls, and s^aid 

 to them, *'I want to pay you so much per day for your work, and then I 

 want to pay you just so much for your 'know-how' and for your soul and 

 heart and taste." I wanted the best part of her in that packing-shed^ 

 and I wanted her to put it right into those packages, and I would pay her 

 for it; and so I got girls of that stamp, and the man who is going to grow 

 fruit and put it on the market must get that class of girls. Women are 

 conscientious and honest, they will do just what you tell them, if you 

 treat them right, and that is the only way to handle women — I will tell 

 you that! Decide upon the grade of fruit you are going to have and 

 how you are going to have it graded. Then let these ladies carefully, by 

 hand, take from the picking-basket the extra size, whatever size you 

 decide shall be extra, but perfect in every way, and put into one package; 

 let the next lady grade whatever you have decided upon as the next 

 grade, and put into another package, and a. still lower grade into a third 

 package; anything that is irregular or off color, no matter how large it 

 may be, put it into a large cull package, and if it is a little irregular and 

 smaller, put it into a small cull package. Then you will have five grades 

 of peaches, and if there is anything over-ripe or decayed, it should go iuta 

 the refuse crate. Then pack the three grades of perfect fruit, pack them 

 solidly, full from top to bottom, have them absolutely the same all the 

 way up, never any topping-out, just the same in the middle as in the 

 bottom, just the same on top as in the middle, and the same all the way 

 through — everything perfect specimens, the basket or box, or whatever 

 it may be, filled as full as you can crowd it. If it holds sixteen quarts, 

 get in eighteen if you can; if it holds ten quarts, squeeze in eleven or 

 twelve if they can be got in there; but get it full and solidly packed all the 

 way through. Let the package be — but the question of packages would 

 take up the whole evening. 



Study your markets, and what the markets want and for what they 

 will pay the most. You will find this : That people pay most for the most 

 tasteful package, the one that is neatest, and the size of the package 

 should be just as large as you can crowd into the family home. Now, a 

 family of five or six boys, with good digestion, will consume a half bushel 

 of peaches, if they are there; but if you only slip into that family a six- 

 quart package, they will eat but six quarts; if you get into the house with 

 half a bushel, so much the better. Use just as large a package as you 

 can. Do not try to see how small a one you can get, so that the people 

 can pick it up and carry it here and there, but make just as large a 

 package as will carry the fruit well and get it into the home — then you 

 have increased consumption. But the question of packages is a local 

 one. Whatever the size, whatever the shape, whatever it may be, let it 

 be of the neatest and whitest wood that you can get, regardless of cost. 

 Do not ask your basket-maker how much he is going to charge you for 

 the packages, but how good he can make them and how attractive, and 

 then get them. 



After you have packed those baskets full, and perfectly all the way 

 through, you certainly can not afford to let the fruit go to market without 

 "tooting your own horn." Fruitgrowers do not brag enough about their 

 business, and I suppose the reason is that they have not anything to brag 

 about. But if you have something to talk about, advertise it. You find 



