334 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Handling Apples. 



The publication committee of the National Apple Shippers' Asso- 

 ciation has issued the following address to apple-growers : 



The National Apple Shippers' Association desires to acquaint 

 apple-growers of the country with the aims of the Association, and to 

 ask their aid in the reforms proposed. Dealers, shippers and growers 

 must prosper together or not at all. In this view of mutual interest, 

 the following suggestions are submitted to orchardists, representing 

 the result of careful thought and discussion : 



Ist. It will be to the advantage of all interested in apples — 

 growers, dealers and consumers — if there is a recognized size and 

 quality of packages as well as for size and quality of fruit, both in 

 what is known as No. 1 and No. 2 apples. A good size of package is 

 easily suggested, one that has been in use for some years by the best 

 class of Western dealers and larger orchardists. A full size flour bar- 

 rel (that is a barrel with IT^inch diameter of head and 28^-inch length 

 of stave) will meet all requirements, giving a good, generous-looking 

 barrel, and, when well shaken down and pressed, holding three bushels 

 of apples. In some sections of the West the barrel now in use is 

 smaller than this size, but these barrels are invariably discriminated 

 against by the better class of traders. In fact, they are generally 

 spoken of as the "snide" barrels. In a good apple year, like the pres- 

 ent, the difference of a peck of apples in a barrel will mean to the 

 grower not more than five cents in the orchard, but when the apple 

 comes to sell in the market, the small barrel will bring on an average 

 at least twenty-five cents less. Besides, the trade is so generally con- 

 vinced that a package "snide" generally contains fruit "snide" in qual- 

 ity that they avoid it as far as possible, even at a fair difference in 

 price, and as a consequence in times of over supply they are the ones 

 neglected, while the more honest-looking, if not really more honest 

 packages are given more prominence and consequent better sale. 



2d. It is not so easy to arrive at a proper standard for size and 

 quality of fruit for the reason that sizes and qaalities of the same vari- 

 eties vary considerably in different sections and in different seasons. 

 The standard adopted by the Association will come as near to properly 

 covering the ground as is possible without naming all varieties of ap- 

 ples, and it is recommended to your favorable attention: " That the 

 grade No. 1 shall be divided into two classes — A and B. That the 

 standard for size for class A shall not be less than two and one-half 



