SO STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



instead of handling ten barrels a day, bandies two or three. He be- 

 comes alarmed and to protect himself from loss marks up the retail 

 price to the clouds and reduces his purchase price to the wholesaler. 

 Consumption is limited, markets are restricted and whoever owns ap- 

 ples takes a loss. 



These experiences are repeated year after year in every city of the 

 land. The City of Rochester, where I live, in the heart of one of the 

 greatest apple belts of the world, is one of the poorest markets in ex- 

 istence. It ought to be one of the best, but the growers of apples who 

 have a market at their door draw into that city and peddle the culls 

 and "junk," until we have the reputation of being consumers of cider 

 apples. 



One evening early last winter I was at dinner with a friend of mine 

 and his wife said to me: "Why can't I get any good apples? You 

 say there was a big crop and plenty of them, but I haven't had a de- 

 cent apple this year. I am through with them. I shall not buy an- 

 other one. The last I ordered I threw away and I could only use half 

 of those I ordered before." Inquiry revealed that she had been get- 

 ling cider apples and fruit affected with the Baldwin spot. Here was 

 a consumer alienated for the rest of the season. In Philadelphia, in 

 I'.iOT and 1908, it was almost impossible to force the sale of apples at 

 any price. Housewives would come into the stores and refuse to even 

 look at or consider them. Retailers were met with the statement, "I 

 don't want to even hear the word apple — I am sick and tired of them. 

 I am through with them for this year." And this thing went on up and 

 down the land until there was no market and the losses of growers, 

 dealers and handlers mounted into the millions. In western New York 

 alone they amounted to upwards of $3,000,000. Killed by "junk" and 

 the worst lot of rubbish ever attempted to be foisted on a confiding 

 public. Over the fresh made grave of that year and other years since 

 there should have been erected a shaft of black marble and on it in 

 white letters should have been: "A Suicide — A Jackass Kicked Himself 

 To Death." 



What a commentary upon our intelligence, our business acumen, 

 our foresight and our honesty! Why, we weren't fit to be trusted with 

 a peanut or popcorn wagon. 



At one of the hearings last winter on the Sulzer Bill we had an 

 actual demonstration of the vices of a good deal of our modern pack- 

 ing. We went on (lie public market in the city of Washington and 

 bought at random, without examining it, a barrel of apples branded 

 "Extra Fancy Virginia Rome Beauty" and had it sent up to the House 

 Committee Room of Coinage, Weights and Measures. We opened it 

 there for the first time for the purpose of comparing it with a barrel 

 of apples packed by Hon. S. L. Lupton of Winchester, Ya.. in accord- 

 ance with the provisions of the old Lafean Bill — now the Sulzer Bill, 

 and a barrel which we knew was right. That barrel of Rome Beauties 

 didn't have a peck of apples in it, outside of the face and back, fit 

 even for a No. 2. They were diseased, spotted, under size, off color 

 and wormv. Thev were scarcely fit for cider. And vet that barrel was 

 branded "Extra Fancy." Thousands of barrels just like it are in the 

 markets of this country every year. They pass into the hands of the 



