PICKIMJ AND MAJiKETING FRUIT. 183 



Mr. Swan: Did you advertise to get these men to come to your or- 

 chard? 



Mr. Murphy: No, they knew what I was doing as well as I did. They 

 knew I was raising apples and they came out to see about the crop. 



Professor Emerson: What do you consider a number one apple, in 

 grading. I would like to know just what a number one apple is. 



Mr. Murphy: I thought all fruit-growers knew what a number one 

 apple is. It is simply a perfect and true apple. A true type of the variety 

 it represents, and an average size. In grading apples it is very easy to 

 catch on to a number one, or in buying apples. I was in a store here last 

 night where they were selling Jonathans three for a dime, they were of 

 medium size, but strictly number ones. The man said he paid $2 a box 

 for them, but he sold them more readily and more of them than the home 

 grown Ben Davis. "We can raise number one apples easier than Colorado 

 can; with one-half the care than Oregon gives, where they raise the finest 

 apples in the world. They are compelled to do certain things there or 

 they can't accomplish anything. If a man knows the variety of an apple 

 he can pretty nearly tell what shape it ought to be, and he can tell 

 whether there is a worm hole or a scab on it or anything of that kind, 

 and of course the number one can't take all the perfect apples on the 

 tree because there must be a limit to the size, they may be perfect in 

 eveiything except size, and you may have to put them in number two if 

 you come right down to the true method of grading apples. We ship in 

 barrels. We haven't enough apples fit for boxing to fool with boxes. 



A Member: What material do you use for an insecticide? 



Mr. Murphy: There are a good many different things: Arsenate of lead, 

 white arsenic, soda, Paris green; and Paris green is just as safe and as 

 good as anything else. It will not do to let it stand, because it will settle, 

 but if yon thoroughly mix until ready to spray and you continue to spray 

 until you get the receptacle empty, all right; but if it settles it is hard to 

 get loose again. But I have had the best of luck with Paris green, and it 

 is cheaper. Not that we want to figure on cheap work, but if a thing is 

 just as good, it is all right. 



Mr. Williams: I would like to ask if the orchardists around your 

 country are planting clover in their orchards or adopting clean culture. 



Mr. Murphy: You remember the Laramie orchard which had six crops 

 in six years? That was plowed three to five inches deep five times and no 

 harrow run in it. It was left so the water would have plenty of room to 

 settle before it would create a wash. But in a good many cases now the 

 spreading disc is coming into use more or less as it is easy to get under 

 trees that are low. You can spread it sixteen feet and throw the dirt all 

 around the trees, and I think it will come into use so as to prevent so 

 much plowing of the orchards. 



Mr. Williams: Should you prune high? 



Mr. Murphy: Yes, sir, you should prune high enough for a team to 

 go under the trees. 



