No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 527 



demand. There is always room at the top, it is the bottom that is 

 crowded. 



Within the limits of this pai)er I could not refer to fomulas or to 

 work in detail. My purpose was to point out the necessity and im 

 portance of combatting fungi and insect by means of spraying, and 

 the feasibility of growing moderate quantities of fiirst class fruit 

 by thinning, that will command the highest price and prove remuner- 

 ative to the grower. 



GATHEKING AND MARKETING. 



By L>. M. WKRTZ, Quincy. Pa. 



The fact of the matter is I think I would rather work 

 than talk. You may not believe this, because possibly it still 

 is not true. I urged the Secretary that it was a waste of paper to 

 put my name on the program and ask me to talk about some- 

 thing that I knew so little about. So it is not my fault that I am 

 making a few remarks to you to-day. The subject has been gone 

 into so very thoroughly that I don't think of anything very serious 

 or anything that would be additional to what has been already 

 said. 



There are several things, however, with reference to the gather- 

 ing and marketing of fruit, one of which is that we should gather 

 the apples when they have reached the highest degree of color, 

 size and keeping quality. 



Considerable has been said in regard to the Baldwin in the south- 

 ern section of the State from which I come. That variety was not a 

 success until we realized that we left them hang too long on the 

 tree and by gathering them a little earlier we were able to save 

 the crop and at the same time they did not suffer from loss of 

 quality by so doing. The same would apply to the winter varieties. 

 I never marketed but several commercial crops of apples in my 

 life, consisting of York Imperial, Grimes' Golden and Ben Davis. 

 Last year the York Imperial was very heavily set and the fruit 

 dropped exceedingly. When they did this I saw that not only the 

 efforts of that year but of all the previous years w^ere dropping out 

 of my hands, and I felt very much discouraged. In the face of 

 this discouragement I concluded to gather them on piles in the 

 orchard. In a f3hort time a buyer came into the orchard and told 

 me that I had gathered my York Imperial apples too early, that 

 I should have left them hang longer, and yet if I had done so I 

 likely would have lost the entire crop. 



With my other varieties I find the same diiBculty arises. It is 

 very important to reduce the waste and loss to a minimum. In re- 

 gard to that loss and waste, especially those apples that fall for us, 

 more particularly in the commercial orchards, I believe apple grow- 

 ing like many other things is turning towards commercial lines. I 

 think it is decidedly so with fruit growing, that the orchards will 



