Vermont State Horticultural Society. 7& 



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Apples for the last five years have been placed in boxes ; that 

 matter was accepted more readily than we expected and here 

 we are with apples boxes everywhere in the markets and a part 

 of the regular business. We have pretty nearly settled down 

 and sobered up and adopted these boxes. You know what the 

 apple box is — a box that holds a bushel, approximately — not a 

 heaping bushel — a box measuring lo x ii x 20 — a standard box 

 though it has not been legalized by any legislature as yet. I am 

 not recommending boxes O'- comparing them with barrels. The 

 barrel has its place, and the box its place. I don't believe we 

 are going to get away from the barrel, but we will retain the box. 



Another subject is that of a smaller package than the bushel 

 box. In all the retail markets in the last year where I have 

 been, I have seen the common four quart basket, just such as the 

 Georgia people ship their peaches in. I don't believe I visited 

 a single retail market in Washington or Boston but what I saw 

 apples in those four quart boxes on sale. For the most part, 

 growers did not put them in those boxes, they were placed 

 there by the dealers ; but it shows there is a demand for such 

 packages, and the fruit grower is going to fall in with that 

 demand and furnish a smaller package. In New York, the last 

 year or two, apples have been sold by the dozen ; this requires 

 some new style of a package. I have seen them put up in paste 

 board boxes, like eggs. We have got to think up some sort of a 

 scheme for handling them in that way. We are, therefore, enter- 

 ing upon another change in fruit packing. 



Storage — Probably the greatest change has been the devel- 

 opment of the cold storage industry. We used to keep apples 

 in the hay mow or put them down cellar, and various other 

 ways, some good and some bad. Apples will keep well in a hay 

 mow, and they will keep first rate in a good cellar, if they are 

 good apples and properly put in. Then we came to the develop- 

 ment of special houses built for that purpose, like Kinney's 

 which have been most successful ; but for the last four or five 

 years the cold storage houses have been developed. Since that 

 time we have learned a great deal about handling apples. Now 

 we can handle them with great safety, seldom losing any, when 

 they are put in in good condition. They are taken out in no 

 better condition than we put them in, but they will not be apt 

 to be spoiled badly. Every year there are more and more apples 

 put into cold storage. Perhaps we have nearly reached the limit 

 of cold storage in this country. That has been a great 

 development in the last five years, and has had a great influence 

 upon the sale of the fruit. 



I believe it is a fact that there is a greater confidence in the 

 apple market than there was a few years ago. I can remember 



