WINTEK MEETING, 1881. 5 



SIZE OF FKUIT PACKAGES. 



A letter was read by tlie Secretary from J. S. Woodward, of Lockport, N. 

 Y., asking concerning, the size of our standard apple barrel, and saying that a 

 committee on apple barrels had been selected by the Western New York Society 

 and the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association to confer witli our society and the 

 Ohio society, and, if practicable, get at a uniform statute apple paclcage. 



President Lyon also presented a similar communication from the Canadian 

 society. 



Mr. Baldwin, of Oakland county, said a standard measure might be a good 

 thing, but it was liardly ever used. All sorts and sizes of barrels were used in 

 packing apples, with little or no reference to any standard. The measurement 

 of a Michigan apple barrel, according to the amended law of 1871, is the same 

 as a flour barrel, to Avit: Staves twenty-seven inches long and head sixteen 

 and one-lialf inches in diameter. 



Mr. Guild, of Saginaw, wished that we might have a more accurate standard 

 than this, and thought the apple standard ought to be a standard of weight. 



Mr. Reeves: We have a standard bushel weight; act number sixty-three of 

 the session laws of 1877 declares that whenever apples are bought or sold by 

 weight forty-eight pounds shall constitute a bushel. The barrel is not a very 

 reliable unit of measurement I have found by a little computation. I have 

 been down on the street and made some measurements which I give you. An 

 apple barrel with twenty-seven inch stave and sixteen and one-half inch head 

 with a two inch bilge contains 0,250 inches, or two bushels one and three- 

 tenths i)ecks ; but with a four inch bilge the barrel contains 7,215 inches, or 

 two bushels two and three-tenths pecks. A cracker barrel with the same head 

 and a thirty inch stave with a two inch bilge contains 7,589 inches, or two 

 bushels three and three-tenths pecks, while a barrel with same measurement 

 and a four inch bilge contains three bushels and eight tenths of a peck. It 

 will be seen by this that when orchards are bought by the barrel and the buyer 

 furnishes his own packages a great difference in the yield may be made by the 

 use of varying barrels. 



On motion of Mr. Mann, a committee of three was selected to take this 

 matter of apple barrels into consideration and confer with like committees from 

 other states with the object in view of securing a uniform standard. 



The President named as such committee Messrs. Garfield, Guild and Mann. 



MISSISSIPPI VALLEY HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



A communication was received from Mr. Wm. Kowe concerning the Missis- 

 sippi Valley Horticultural Society. He spoke of the association in terms of 

 praise, saying that the apparent failure in some points at its exhibition in 1880 

 was not due to any fault of the Society, but rather of the parties who guaran- 

 teed the payment of premiums and afterwards retreated from their guarantee. 

 A request was read by the Secretary from an oflticer of the Mississippi Society 

 that we select a vice president for our State to accord with the following 

 articles of association of that Society: 



Article I. — The organization shall be known as the Mississippi Valley Horticul- 

 tural Society. Its object shall be tiie promotion of horticulture. 



Article 2. — Any person may become a member upon the payment of two dollars, 

 and membership shall continue upon the payment of two dollars annually. 



Article III.— Its officers shall consist of a President, First Vice President, Secre- 



