ORDERING APPLE BARRELS 



"I 



LIKE to order my apple barrels as 

 early in the season as possible," said 

 Mr. W. H. Dempsey, of Trenton, recently 

 to The Horticulturist. " I have sometimes," 

 he continued, " had them all made up in 

 May and always have them completed be- 

 fore August. There are many advantages 

 gained in this way. The timber smell has 

 all passed off, so that when the apples are 

 placed in the barrels they are not likely to 

 becom.e tainted with anv odor. It is easier 



An Old St. Lawrence Landmark 



Few occupied houses in the province are in as good a state of preservation and as old as the 

 homestead here shown. It is owned by Mr. Harold Jones, of Maitland. Mr. Jones' great 

 grandfather, with his wife a- d mother, moved o to the farm in 1783, drawing 1000 acres of land 

 from the government. The residence here shown was built in 1796, and is cunsequently 108 years 

 old. It faces and commands a lovely view of the St. Lawrence river. Mr. Jcnes' four chil- 

 dren are the sixth direct generation that has lived on the farm. Owing to portions of the original 

 acreage having been bequeathed to sons and daughters the farm now contams only - 65 acres. Not 

 an acre of the first 1000 has ever been sold. Mr. Jones conducts one of the provincial fruit ex- 

 periment stations. He has about 1100 trees of all kinds but devotes most of his attention to 

 apples. Five acres of the farm are devoted to the expermental work. Mr. Jones is increasing 

 his fruit acreage every year. 



to secure help early in the season to manu- 

 facture the barrels, and the material can 

 generally be obtained at lower prices. The 

 barrels are also set up better, inasmuch as 

 they are not thrown together the way they 

 often are late in the season when there is a 

 big demand for them. A cooper who makes 

 a barrel early in the season knows that he 



will have to make it well, or it will go to 

 pieces on his hands before he will be able to 

 sell it. 



A BETTER BARREL. 



" I prefer the eight-hoop barrel, as while 

 it costs me about three cents more to manu- 

 facture, it is much stronger than the six- 

 hoop barrel. It stands shipment so much 

 better that the difference in the cost price is 

 more than made up. Coopers here are ask- 

 ing 45 cents for manufactured barrels, com- 

 pared with 35 cents at 

 this time last year, and I 

 believe that this price is 

 likely to go up at any 

 time. 



" I prefer to have my 

 barrels made up on my 

 own farm, because it en- 

 ables me to inspect them 

 all. I buy the material 

 and have a cooper come 

 to my place and do the 

 work. If I find a cooper 

 is using some inferior 

 lumber I reject the bar- 

 rels and send them back 

 into the shop. He soon 

 learns that I will only 

 accept good work, and 

 culls out the poor and 

 cracked staves. I would 

 rather lose the poor 

 staves and have a strong 

 tight barrel than accept 

 one with holes and 

 cracks in it. When 

 barrels are turned out 



by the factory all the timber on hand 

 is used by the cooper, with the result 

 that many of the barrels are made very 

 poorly. Growers who buy from the manu- 

 facturers have to take what they can get, 

 and consequently are unable to obtain as 

 good stock as they otherwise might." 



291 



