OUR FRUIT INTERESTS DISCUSSED. 



149 



the middle of the mark, and scoop out the 

 earth as deep as the length of the roots that 

 are to go in. Make only twenty or thirty 

 holes before you plant, if you are doing the 

 work alone, keeping the roots of the plants 

 meanwhile in wet moss or moist earth, but 

 not in water lest they rot. Give each plant 

 a jerk, to spread out the roots as you put it 

 in the hole; lean it against the side next the 

 mark, and set it so it will stand nearly an 

 inch deeper than it stood originally, to allow 

 for the settling of the soil ; but be careful 

 not to cover the crown — that is the top of 

 the thick stem from which all the leaves 

 spring. Now scrape with your foot about 

 half the soil vthat was Hoed out back in on 



the roots so as to cover them well up to the 

 stem, and then step in the hole. Do not be 

 afraid to lean your whole weight on the soil 

 just over the roots. It is life to the plant to 

 firm it well. 



Now if the soil is rather dry, and the day 

 hot, this is the point to apply half-a-cupful of 

 water, and let it soak away before filling up. 

 But in early planting, the plants are so 

 nearly dormant, and the soil so moist that 

 that no watering will be needed. Just 

 scrape in the rest of the soil with your foot 

 and go on, but be sure to leave it as loose 

 as possible on the surface. Now you will 

 find it has taken only a little over one 

 thousand plants to set out your quarter acre. 



OUR FRUIT INTERESTS DISCUSSED. 



THE FRUIT MARKS ACT. 



;HEN a man does wrong in any of 

 his public dealings he never does 

 it because he loves to do it but 

 because his neighbor is per- 

 mitted to do it. When he packs his apples 

 for market he does not put the large ones at 

 each end of the barrel and his culls in the 

 centre because of any natural inclination to 

 cheat or deceive, but because his neighbor is 

 allowed to do it, and he cannot afford to let 

 his neighbor have an advantage over him. 

 Now that the Fruit Marks Act has been in- 

 troduced and is being enforced, the farmer 

 or fruit grower is hard to find who does not 

 approve of it and hail it as one of the best 

 things that the Fruit Growers Association 

 has yet done for the general public. I meet 

 with many farmers and in speaking of the 

 Act they all admit that it is a good thing, 



and that we will soon have honest packing 

 if it is propdrly enforced. 



Mr. Elmer Lick will bear out the gist of this 

 testimony, I think so far as this County is 

 concerned. Mr. Lick visited this County in 

 institute work, and I never saw a greater 

 interest taken of the farmers generally in 

 what a speaker had to say than they did in 

 Mr, Licks talks in connection with the Fruit 

 Marks Act, and the handling and shipping of 

 apples generally. On the working of this 

 new measure and the result that it is aiming 

 at, Mr. Lick could speak with authority and 

 he found the farmers willing and anxious to 

 hear him. No fruit representitive ever did 

 better work, work that left an impression, 

 and calculated to lead to good results than 

 Mr. Lick did through this district this year. 

 The Fruit Marks Act is all right, and it is 



