12a 



on such a large scale that it has probably dazed some of us. 



MR. WHITCOMB, Littleton : I do not know as I ought 

 to take much of your time, but I am on my feet because I 

 could not sit down. I am now enthusiastically interested. 

 Now, you say, "Why, getting interested in this co-operative 

 movement doesn't mean much," but out home I am consid- 

 ered a pretty conservative New Englander, and you prob- 

 ably all know what that means. 



I think the Marlboro Exchange has got the idea, and 

 that it is going to make it possible to organize these ex- 

 changes all over the state, all over New England, and there- 

 by organize the New England Fruit Growers Exchange and 

 the Eastern States Exchange. We have tried a little co- 

 operating there in my town and it did not work, and I think 

 it was the way we went at it ; but I think this idea in Marl- 

 boro of selling the individual orchards to the buyer is some- 

 thing that the growers can all get together on. We know 

 in the West, of course, they bring their fruit together and 

 grade it in one grading station and grade it the same. There 

 they have hundreds of thousands of cases of probably the 

 same soil, under the same conditions, but we know with our 

 New England apples that there are no two orchards that 

 can be graded alike and be graded fair to the producer of 

 those apples; and I think this Marl])oro idea is an idea of 

 bringing the buyer into those orchards and selling the in- 

 dividual orchards and then packing them to a standard, the 

 same standard, but you can't make certain apples come up 

 to certain other orchards even with the same brand. So all 

 over New England and I think if this idea can be brought in 

 there will be no trouble in organizing the fruit growers ah 

 over New England. 



MR. SCHEUERLE : That idea was brought in. That 

 was the very thing that Mr. Powell brought out in our con- 

 versation with him. We told Mr. Powell of these conditions. 

 "Why," he said, "my dear man, the variation in the oranges 

 of California was vastly greater than the variation of apples 

 in New England." That is one of the matters that we dis- 



