438 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



this a false policy, as we are certain that sticking to the one brand for the 

 finest fruit will really pay the best. 



As regards the varieties and colors of apples that sell best, the Baldwin 

 is undoubtedly the description that meets with largest consumption in this 

 country, and this and other red apples as a rule sell most readily. Green- 

 ings, if of really good quality and size, generally command fair prices, unless 

 it happens that our own English crop is very large, in which case our own 

 growth competes more keenly with this description than with the red 

 apples. Late in the season, when most other sorts are getting soft and 

 poor conditioned, there is generally a good demand for Russets, and par- 

 ticularly Golden Russets if of good size. Newtown Pippins are of course 

 the finest table fruit received from your country, but of this class we can 

 only advise shipments of the choicest quality, more particularly in a year 

 when apples are plentiful and cheap, as if the fruit is poor and small it can 

 only be sold for cooking purposes, whereas if selected and fine it is used al- 

 most exclusively for the table. 



As regards the size of barrel, we should recommend either the usual full 

 flour barrel size shipped from Boston or from Canada, New York being 

 smaller and not so well liked here. 



As to packing, this should undoubtedly be done most carefully, very 

 shortly before shipping, and the fruit tightly pressed down into the barrel. 

 The buyers on this side will not take a barrel as perfectly sound if the fruit 

 can be heard to shake inside at all, and it is easily understood that apples 

 coming a long voyage by steamer, if not tightly packed, must get shaken to> 

 a certain degree and thus depreciated in value. 



How Apples are Sold in England. — At a meeting of the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society, Charles F. Curtis gave an account of the method of 

 selling apples in England. This is wholly by auction. There are five auc- 

 tioneers in the business at Liverpool, and all the apples received are sold by 

 one of them. The sale is held in a large amphitheatre, in the center of 

 which is a large table, on which a barrel of each mark is poured out as a 

 sample. Each auctioneer sells for three-qarters of an hour at a time, and 

 the sales continue, if necessary, till 10 o'clock at night. Apples are sold in 

 lots of twenty barrels each. The understanding is that the apples shall be 

 perfectly tight in the barrel; when such bring twenty-five shillings per bar- 

 rel, "shakers," or those not tightly packed, will bring four shillings less. 

 The next grade is "wet and wasted," which bring only half the price of 

 the best. The Baldwin is the only variety sold to any amount ; it is the 

 only one which can be obtained in sufficient quantity to sell by the thousand 

 barrels. Retail lots and odds and ends are not wanted. Sales are held 

 three days in a week. 



A Word About Packing for Europe. — An English authority says that 

 there is no reason why this splendid fruit should not be imported here just 

 as when it is gathered from the tree. A common but soft kind of tissue 

 paper should envelop each apple before it is placed in the cask, and this 

 tissue paper should have been soaked in a solution of salicylic acid, and 

 dried before it is used. The best preparation of salicylic acid for this pur- 

 pose is the alcoholic solution, made by the strongest spirit, and then diluted 



