528 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc, 



become larger and there will be less of them and unless we are 

 equipped to take care of the by-products the percentage of profit 

 will be less, while they should be greater to the commercial grower 

 just as in the petroleum or meat packing industry. While there is 

 practically no profit in the main line of goods, there is in the by- 

 products. So the question arises with reference to our fallen fruit 

 and how best to handle it, whether it should be used by an evapora- 

 tor, cider press or manufactured into a jelly product. It seems to 

 me it is a subject that wo should consider seriously and act upon 

 intelligently, 



I feel from my limited experience that I ought not to advise one 

 way or another with reference to picking apples and putting them 

 on piles under trees, which 1 did last year because I was not able 

 to barrel them immediately, ^^'e picked the York Imperial in that 

 wa}' and they improved very much in color in the piles, but at the 

 same time many of them sun scalded and there was considerable rot 

 and decay, and on account of additional handling which resulted 

 in additional expense I feel that under all the circumstances it was 

 a mistake. I should have barreled them at once when picking. There 

 may be points in favor of and against the principle but it seems 

 to me it is best to have a barrelling table in the orchard and as the 

 apples are picked in the bag or basket they should be emptied on the 

 table and at once sorted and barrelled for market. 



Another important question is with reference to the handling 

 of apples. I find a great many of us do not handle them as care- 

 fully as we should; we handle them as if they were stones or pota- 

 toes, while we should be more careful. We all know we can work 

 with a poisonous liquid, and if we have no sores on our hands we 

 will not be affected but if we do have a sore, there is great danger 

 of blood poisoning. I look at the apple in the same way ;* that the 

 skin should not be broken so that the germs cannot enter and make 

 trouble later on. 



Then after we have arranged about the barrelling, I feel that an- 

 other important question is getting them into cold storage as 

 quickly as possible. It seems, by the way of comi)arison, that we 

 should pick fruit very much as we handle fresh meat, and we know 

 of the desirability of cooling fresh meat as soon after the animal 

 is killed as possible, and the same way with our fruit, the sooner 

 it can be gotten into cold storage tlie iDctter it will be. 



Now with reference to marketing apples, it depends very much on 

 the size of the crop and the kind of market the fruit grower has, 

 or expects to supply. If he has a small crop it seems to me better 

 to supply the local demands because it will require an orchard of 

 considerable size until it would pay to erect a cold storage plant 

 for his personal use. 



MR. HALE. — What about the neighbors co-operating in the erec- 

 tion of a cold storage plant? 



MR, WERTZ. — That might be the thing to do under certain con- 

 ditions. The principle of co-operation is the coming principle, whe- 

 ther it be in railroads or anv business line, and if the details could 

 be worked out on a co-operative plan, and a plant erected, it might 

 work out all right and be of great benelit. However, for farmers, on 

 general principles, to erect a cold storage plant of their own, I think 



