m-DJANA HOETiCULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



3Y5 



they kicked about cold storage, because they did not come out all right. If 

 you want to take good apples out of cold storage you must put good 

 apples in. 



As to the packages in which apples should be put. I think some day 

 the barrel will be discarded for packing apples. We should do all we can 

 the increase the consumption of apples and other fruit, and one way to do 

 this is to make fruit easy to buy. A year ago there came over from 

 Belgium a couple of young men recently graduated from tlie university. 

 Their father had ample means to allow them to travel, and they were 

 making a tour of the world before selecting professions. They traveled 

 through our country and were amazed with the ease with which fruit 

 was grown here, and they decided they would take up fruit culture in 

 America. Then they studied the question closely, visited fruit growers, 

 and in time came to me in regard to the matter. In speaking of apples 

 they exclaimed at the magnificent apples that were gi-own here, but said 

 there certainly was something wrong about the disti-ibution of the fruit. 

 They said that in one city they found fruit very scarce and very high 

 priced, while in another not far away they found it very plenty and very 

 cheap. They asked why we did not distribute it better. They said they 

 could go to a fruit stand and get an apple for five cents or three for ten 

 cents,, as the case might be; but if they wanted apples in any other 

 quantity short of a barrel they could not get them. They said they could 

 not take a barrel of apples with them to their room in a hotel. They' 

 asked why apples were not packed in smaller packages so that people 

 could take them to their rooms or to their homes. I agreed with them that 

 they should be packed in some other packages than barrels. You know 

 many people in our cities live in flats— called so because they are flat up 

 edgewise— and they have no place in which they can store a barrel of 

 apples. Why not pack our apples in boxes? A package as large as you 

 can induce people to buy unbroken is the best thing for us. We should 

 not encourage families to buy broken packages of frait. If we make thai 

 packages so large that the retailer must break them, we are catering to 

 low consumption of fruit. To increase the consumption of apples and to 

 increase their attractiveness and increase their keeping qualities, we 

 should put them in smaller packages than barrels. My present belief is 

 that a bushel box is what we should pack them in. That is a package 

 of such a size that a family can easily take care of it, and it is one through 

 which the cold air of the cold storage plant can reach promptly. There 

 is everything in its favor and nothing against it, except that it costs a 

 little more. I have found in fruit growing, however, that when you get 

 something that costs you a little more, you can charge it up to the other 

 fellow— he will pay it if grade and quality are all right. That is true in 

 every business; the final purchaser pays the freight. Don't you remember 

 what we said when we talked about the tariff years ago? You know it 

 was said that the foreigner paid the tariff when they brought their goods 



