COLD STORAGE OF APPLES. 309 



about a dollar a barrel to get them to storage and to pay the storage 

 for two months, and when they were finally sold they brought me 

 seventy cents per barrel. Apples that were shipped to Minneapolis 

 about that time came in competition with the apples that were 

 shipped from Michigan byway of Lake Superior and Duluth, and 

 they put their apples in at a lower figure than they could have come 

 from Owatonna. I shipped some apples this year to cold storage 

 that whenever the market went flat would not bring enough to 

 pay for shipping. I had about forty barrels on hand, and I did not 

 know what to do with them, so I thought I would put them into cold 

 storage. I did so, and they finally sold for enough to pay storage, 

 freight, etc. The commission man told me that if it had not been for 

 the rise in the price of apples this year my apples probably would 

 not have brought me a dollar a barrel. My motto has always been. 

 "Fools for luck," and that time I got just enough to pay for my 

 trouble. I do not know anything more about cold storage except 

 my own storage plant. 



Mr. Elliot: Speaking of cold storage and preparation of fruit for 

 market, in my travels I have seen different methods adopted. In 

 September when it is warm, as it was this year, it seems to me it ia 

 not wise to pick apples and put them right into the barrels. In Cal- 

 ifornia they put their apples in heaps and put straw over them to 

 shade them and let them remain in the open air; then they sort them 

 and barrel them. In going through one of our retail stores I noticed 

 a box of Washington apples, and I detected wheat chaff in the box, 

 from which I inferred that that was the method pursued there, to 

 pile them and cover them with chaff and straw. If I were growing 

 apples to put into cold storage, I would adopt the plan of putting 

 them into a cold room and letting them remain there a week or ten 

 days to ripen and show the imperfect apples. I do not care how 

 carefully j'ou select them, you will always find some imperfect 

 apples. No one can explain just why this is so, but that is the 

 reason why your apples were loose in the barrel. I think they 

 shrink a little. After they have been through a sweat, apples will 

 be in a better condition for storing than if immediately put into 

 cold storage. 



Mr. President: How long do you think it would take apples to 

 ripen in the barrel ? 



Mr. Elliot: I don't know; it would depend on varieties. 



The President: How long would it take the Wealthy? 



Mr. Elliot: I should say at least ten days. 



Mr. Hartwell: Would it not depend on the weather? 



Mr. Elliot: Yes, I think it would to some extent. 



Sec'y Latham: I have had a little experience with cold storage on a 

 small scale, and the first experience was the most successful I ever 

 had. During the fall of 1892 I purchased a good many barrels of 

 Wealthy apples for the Minnesota exhibit at the world's fair. They 

 were carefully selected, gathered and barreled, but through some 

 oversight they were not shipped as I intended they should be; they 

 were left in somebody's woodshed. When I discovered the fact, I 

 went in haste and examined the fruit and found it was already very 



