71 



or two to emphasize the fact that this is a very simple law. 

 There has been an impression among a few growers — not 

 many — that the law was a complicated affair and difficult to 

 pack under. Nothing could be further from the truth. This 

 law in essence has just two branches — does just two things- 

 iirst. it esta1)lishes standard grades for apples and second it 

 requires certain marjcs to be put on closed packages. That 

 is all there is to the bill. 



Now what are those grades. They are defined in legal 

 language in the ])ill. A fancy apple is defined, for example, 

 as a well matured hand picked apple of normal shape, good 

 .'nd reasonably uniform size, sound, above medium color. 

 free from disease, insect and fungous injury, bruises and 

 other defects. Now that definition is complete and adequate 

 and correct, but Avhat does it mean? An apple packer 

 hasn't time to say that definition over to himself every time 

 he wants to jiack an apple and it isn't necessary he should. 

 An apple packer hasn't time to measure every apple with a 

 slide rule, look at it with a microscope and extract its square 

 root with a set of logarithm tables. Time is precious. A 

 groAver must have such a correct and sharp mental picture 

 of each of these grades that he will know at once when he 

 sees an apple on the table where it belongs, just as easily as 

 If he were sorting out nickels, dimes and quarters. 



In interpreting these various grades, we have done this, 

 and the simplest way to state what a fancy apple is is that 

 it is the sort of an apple which the far West ships here in 

 the Western bushel box, a highly colored, blemishless apple; 

 and needless to say there are mighty few of them raised 

 here in ^Massachusetts at the present time. 



It is not expected or hoped that for the present many 

 apples will be packed under this grade, but it was felt that 

 one grade should be established which Avould enable our 

 growers to compete with the Western grower. This grade 

 is really an ideal to striA'e towards — a difficult ideal — but 

 n.ot at all an impossible one. Now one other point to em- 

 phasize in regard to the Fancy Grade is that the apples must 



