t>4 



been consumed right here in New England and the money 

 which went for that excess transportation in carrying them 

 1,000 to 1,500 miles away from the point of production 

 should have gone into the pockets of the producer back on 

 the farm, instead of being added to that cost which was nec- 

 essary in selling those apples out on the Chicago market? 

 Now, the question of packing is one that appeals to you and 

 one which Mr. Annin has handled very fully and completely. 

 The packing as it is done in the section where that work 

 is developed has been mighty interesting. We go on to our 

 local market here, and while there is a grading law, and 

 while those laws are being followed carefully, yet there is a 

 difference in the idea and opinion, as was suggested, rela- 

 tive to the color. We do not find the same uniformity and 

 type when it is the individual doing his packing alone. 



We find how that was overcome up in the Oregon and 

 Washington section and down in California by their central 

 packing establishments. It has worked successfully so that 

 when a man v/ants to buy a carload of apples from anyone 

 of those exchanges he knows that they can be bought safely 

 by telegram or telephone. Can that same man on the Bos- 

 ton market or the Springfield market or any other market 

 in New England buy your apples by telephone and buy 

 them safely? There are a few whose apples he can buy 

 safely in that manner, but they are in the minority, — they 

 are in the very small minority. 



Men here apply business to their farms as best it can 

 be done by individuals, but we have not yet developed that 

 co-operative spirit, it seems to me, in this part of the coun- 

 try, that is booming agriculture and booming the fruit in- 

 dustry in every other portion of the country. 



When it comes to that question of transportation, we 

 had an interesting letter come in this last week from a man 

 in the central part of Connecticut who was interested in 

 growing apples. Fie said he was interested in the work of 

 developing central exchanges in this part of the country 

 because he had suffered losses about long enough by the 



