55 



THE PRESIDENT : From some things that I\Ir. Browne 

 has said to me. I think his experience has been valuable on 

 this question, and 1 am going to call on him to discuss it 

 with you. 



MR. MARCUS BROWNE : When your secretary asked 

 me to come up and speak a few words this afternoon in re- 

 gard to my amateur attempts at canning apples, etc., this 

 fall, I at first said I would not. My attitude has always 

 been that if I have a good thing I should keep it to myself, 

 and I think I am just like the rest of the New England farm- 

 ers in that respect. However, after havrng been on the road 

 for the last six weeks and getting banged around and kicked 

 out of doors I realize that if we are really going to do much 

 we must pass on a few of these good things and get to- 

 gether. Cooperation has been a word we hear a good dtal 

 of in ^Massachusetts, and forget it as soon as we hear it, and 

 we are all afraid of our neighbors, but we have got to get 

 over that if we are going to get ahead. 



I went into canning this year, not because I wanted to 

 but because I had to. I have studied the subject off and on 

 for three years, and the commission returns began to be so 

 bad that I realized that if I was going to get anything at all 

 out of my crop I had got to do something, so up to inside of 

 two weeks I was canning. I haven't a factory; I have a 

 wagon shed, whitewashed it and put a floor in and used 

 plenty of water. On the question of canning apples, in the 

 first place you have got to have a pretty good apple. I al- 

 ways had an idea the canners used everything the hogs 

 didn't want, but I find that isn't so. You can deacon a bar- 

 rel of apples and get away with it, but you can't do it with 

 your cans, because the can will blow its head off in about six 

 weeks. Cans cost money. The No. .10 cans, a gallon can, 

 holding about three quarts, cost me this year $42 a thous- 

 and, f. o. b. shipping point. They come in cases of a dozen 

 each, and the case costs you twelve cents besides that, and 

 you have got to have the case, and your freight costs you 

 about $'4 a thousand, in carload lots, sight draft against bill 



