184 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, © 
misshapen, wormy or rotten fruit than there is in a lame horse, a hump- 
backed pig, or a tuberculous cow. Stock men have the good sense to keep 
that grade of stock at home, and if we would retain the interest of the public 
in our fruit exhibits we must show an equal appreciation of the tastes and 
feelings of that public and begin to realize that the day when an apple was a 
novelty, simply because it was grown in Minnesota, has passed and will never 
return. It is far better to cut down a collection to very narrow proportions 
than to admit anything that flagrantly offends the eye of the average fair 
goer. 
Each plate should be labeled carefully as it is packed away. We have a 
system of labeling each apple that we have found very convenient. Having 
prepared a complete list of all the varieties we propose to exhibit, we number 
them on that list 1, 2, 3, etc., from top to bottom, and having this list with 
us as we select the plates of each variety we write its number with common 
ink and smooth gold pen in the cavity of each apple as close to the base of 
the stem as it is convenient to reach. We thus have each apple safely 
labeled, however far it may happen to stray from its proper fellowship. It 
may be well to state that apples should be shown with full natural stem 
and with as much calyx as naturally belongs to the variety. 
Second. Transporation. This is a matter that should be carefully pro- 
vided for, or fruit of the highest excellence may be so bruised that it will 
be hard to make it look presentable. For the small exhibit, that ought 
to be sent to the fair by hundreds of amateurs all over the state, no package 
is better than the common splint market basket, with the usual handle that 
makes it easy for expressmen to move it about and prevents anything being 
piled on top of it. Each specimen should be wrapped with one or two 
thicknesses of newspaper, and the sides and bottom of the basket padded 
slightly with excelsior, hay or crumpled paper, and when filled a piece of 
stout express paper or decent looking cloth should be tied over the top of 
the basket. Mark the package plainly with your name and address, and 
send it, express prepaid, to the “Superintendent of the Horticultural Build- 
ing, State Fair Grounds, Hamline, Minn.” If the fruit has been properly 
entered the premiums that it receives will duly be returned. Such fruit 
should reach the grounds during the latter half of the week before the fair. 
If the exhibit is a large one, and it is not thought best to take the trouble 
to prepare special packages for it, we would still prefer handled baskets of 
some kind rather than boxes, as they are so much less likely to be rolled 
about and the fruit within bruised. There is, however, no package that we 
have seen that is quite so satisfactory for a large exhibit of apples as com- 
mon egg crates, fitted with home made fillers. They are very cheap and 
light, and the expressmen, having already formed the habit of handling them 
“like eggs,” we may expect the most decent treatment to be accorded our 
fruit while in their hands. We use fillers of two sizes, each 234 inches deep, 
one holding sixteen medium sized apples, and the other nine large sized 
apples. These fillers are made from common building paper, and any bright 
boy can arrange a pattern and make them if he be furnished with a sample 
of the common egg filler as a guide. Living over a hundred miles from the 
fair, we have never had any trouble with bruised fruit since using this pack- 
age, and as the crates are so light, and are returned to us by the express 
company at a cost of only ten cents each, we feel that it is not only the best 
but the cheapest package we can use. 
