i9iS 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page ip 



U. S. Bureau of Markets, Etc. 



Continued from page 7. 



structions covering many of the crops, 

 like its bulletin on the subject of load- 

 ing Western cantaloupes. Many others 

 are prepared and offered for free dis- 

 tribution. 



The storage of crops, when not in 

 transit, is another vital feature of the 

 fruit industry. Aside from cold-storage 

 plants, which are necessary and always 

 expensive, this Bureau has worked to 

 develop proper principles of common 

 storage, where no refrigeration is em- 

 ployed, and has developed them so far 

 that, in the past year, between 40 and 

 50 such storehouses have been built in 

 the Northwest, adapting the standard 

 plans to local conditions. In some of 

 them, the past season's crop of apples 

 stored up to March was in just as good 

 condition as in cold storage. They 

 have been held later, but it is not rec- 

 ommended. Keeping apples success- 

 fully in common storage is not entirely 

 a question of handling in storage. They 

 must be grown properly, cultivated, 

 watered, sprayed, harvested at the 

 proper time, packed properly, the 

 storage must be built properly, and, 

 lastly, it must be handled properly. 



The ncwset phase of the Bureau's 

 activities to affect the horticulturists is 

 the enforcement of the Federal Food 

 Inspection Law, which was passed by 

 Congress last August. Since foods were 

 first raised in the country and sold in 

 the city, it has been one long wrangle 

 about the condition in which they ar- 

 rived in market. The fact of the loss 

 to growers, shippers and consumers has 

 been long recognized, but the responsi- 

 bility was not traced, so it resulted in 

 a constantly augmented ill feeling 

 between the shippers and the receivers 

 who, in fact, were merely quarreling 

 over the profits while the public was 

 paying the bill. In any market in the 

 country, retrimmed cabbage and celery, 

 and repacked tomatoes, and various 

 other products are quoted, which means 

 that a considerable part of what was 

 shipped by the grower is thrown away 

 by the city dealers and, if there is not 

 to be a loss by one of them, the con- 

 sumer must pay enough for the fraction 

 that he receives to reimburse the 

 grower for the whole article. The agri- 

 cultural interests have clamored for 

 government inspection for many years, 

 because they thought that when a 

 dealer reported goods as arriving par- 

 tially or all decayed, he was really 

 stealing them from them and selling 

 them at a premium. Therefore, the law 

 was framed for the protection of the 

 shipper who might be a thousand miles 

 away from his product. Inspection 

 may be had upon his application or that 

 of his representative, but is not given 

 on the request of the receiver who, if 

 he has bought f.o.b. shipping point, and 

 the goods arrive decayed, cannot in- 

 voke the service of inspection to pro- 

 tect himself. 



There is one fundamental that must 

 never be overlooked. No perishable 

 product improves in transit as regards 

 any condition that was detrimental to it 



'pan 



aa\ 



It's the lasting quality and rich 

 tobacco taste that makes Real 

 Gravely Chewing Plug cost 

 you no more to chew than 

 ordinary plug. 



Peyton Brand 



Real Gravely 

 Chewing Plug 



lOc a pouch — and worth it 



when it started. In spite of the inter- 

 ests that asked, and the way the law 

 was worded, the actual working of it 

 is rather an indictment of the shipper 

 than the city dealer. I do not mean by 

 that the dealers are all honest. But 

 actual reports show conditions even 

 worse than the trade previously re- 

 ported because, for many years, it has 

 been charging up a certain per cent of 

 loss to overhead and shrinkage and let- 

 ting the consumer pay the bill, when as 

 a matter of fact inspection has demon- 

 strated that the goods were infected 

 before they started to market with a 

 disease that later consumed them. If 



infected while growing, they are in- 

 ferior when shipped and probably 

 spoiled when they arrive in market. 



In its inspection activities the Bu- 

 reau of Markets co-operates fully with 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry. Both are 

 animated with a desire to give actual 

 service and enable the country to get 

 full value from its marvelous produc- 

 tions. The rescue of the citrus industry 

 from bankruptcy and annihilation is a 

 monument to the work of the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry. After developing to 

 great proportions, it was about to be 

 wiped out because of the ravages of 

 blue mold, which, up to a few years 



