158 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



apples are A i, or scrubby 2"s, if only they gain the profit. The 

 apples that sell in the foreign market as well as the local for 

 that matter for the highest price are those that are in the best 

 condition. 



This suggests to me a system of co-operation among our 

 growers. The first point and the most important one is to 

 establish a reputation for our apples in the market so that buyers 

 will want Maine apples. The only way to do it is to place the 

 best apples in the market as Maine apples. There should be in 

 the interest of our fruit some guarantee as to quality — some- 

 thing that will assure the buyer he is getting what he pays for. 

 Of course it will help for any one to put up nice apples, but none 

 of us have enough to gain a name for reliable fruit, year after 

 after year. Adopt some plan for selling fruit by co-operation. 

 Suppose it costs you twenty-five cents a barrel to do it, would 

 you not in many cases get fifty cents or a dollar more for your 

 fruit? 



The successful development of any scheme of co-operation 

 must be based on having good storage for the fruit. Hereto- 

 fore all the plans suggested involved shipping the apples to some 

 central point and then hold them. As we are now situated 

 there seems to be no need of operating in this way, as a simpler 

 plan may readily be found. Inexpensive storage may be pro- 

 vided at many shipping points in the State. Suppose in the 

 fall you brought your apples to a local storage house and placed 

 some of your best men in charge of them. They could save 

 you money in packing, by having the fruit carefully sorted and 

 branded your reputation would be worth something another 

 year where the fruit was sold this year. You would come out of 

 the fight stronger than you went in. 



Suppose instead of one such storage house there were others 

 when needed. Have the whole put in the hands of good local 

 managers and you would be in the way of reaping all the bene- 

 fits of co-operation. I would have you undertake it in a busi- 

 nesslike way and pull together. Your cold storage in the plan 

 proposed would be inexpensive, and your fruit would be avail- 

 able at any time and could be placed where it would be needed 

 at shortest notice. It would not, in my opinion, be many years 

 before Maine apples would be placed where they belong, at the 



