TWENTIETH ANNUAL MEETING. 155 



American people have just awakened to the apple as an eating 

 fruit, and the fruit-stands in all our great cities to-day show 

 that. And we owe a large debt of gratitude to the Northwest 

 for stirring us up in the way of better marketing, packing and 

 grading. And the secret of their success is what Mr. Drew 

 has told us about their work there points the future, and it is 

 the point of view of how it has been done. The whole 

 key-note of it all has really been co-operation, working to- 

 gether, that is the key-note of his whole story, it seems to me, 

 of their success. And isn't it up to us to do the same thing? 

 Of course, we read about certain favored districts, but the 

 whole state of Connecticut is almost accessible to us, that is 

 one central point from all over Connecticut. If those gro\yers 

 in Wenatchee found it necessary to get together, we can do 

 the same thing here when we are ready. The only trouble, 

 as I said yesterday, is we have been blest with too good op- 

 portunities. Each of us have been able to go to town with 

 our peaches and potatoes and get some cash for them. The ma- 

 jority of the growers in the State this year sold their apples 

 at $3.00 a barrel, I don't know of any under $3.00 a barrel: 

 We have sold all our apples for at least $5.00 a barrel because 

 w^e worked together. That is a good big percentage to pay 

 for working together. I ran over in my own mind ( I am not 

 good on percentages), but taking our crop at Seymour this 

 year where some of the boxes came from, about 6.000 bushels, 

 there was less than five per cent of culls. There was about 

 six per cent of what we called culls, and those culls sold at 

 an average of $2.50 a barrel because they were culls. They 

 are good fruit, and the balance of the fruit graded as A and 

 AA grade, and the A grade, which is really seconds, is sold 

 throughout the season directly from the orchard at $5.00 and 

 $4.50. I made one sale yesterday of 58 barrels at $5.00 for 

 seconds, and the higher grades are worth more, and it is a 

 smaller percentage of reductions in the orchard here in the 

 East when we follow tlie methods of our friends in the West. 

 And as to what he said about diseases and their insect pests 

 this year, those of you who read the paper called "Better 



