92 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



market at the highest point, must be adopted by every grower 

 seeking to make the industry of greatest vakie to themselves and 

 the State. These have been emphasized over and over again, 

 yet progress along the lines of improvement is slow and tedious. 



The great bulk of apples shipped from Maine this season have 

 sold for less than one dollar per barrel, not counting package, 

 while other shippers who have conformed to what are termed 

 new conditions, but which have been emphasized for years by 

 this society, have found prices satisfactory and demand active. 

 The difference between sixty cents and one dollar twenty to one 

 fifty, minus barrels or packages, is too wide a margin to be lost 

 sight of. For years the value of the box, bushel or half-barrel 

 has been urged, but not until the price of barrels became wellnigh 

 prohibitive did the subject attract general attention. The intro- 

 duction of the box for shipment, no matter what the shape and 

 size, will call for a grading of fruit never before attempted by 

 the average grower, and the fixing of the size and shape of the 

 most desirable and economical package becomes a subject of vital 

 importance to the orchardists of Maine. When barrels cost 

 from thirty-five to forty-five cents each, there is danger of the 

 use of those of inferior grade, to the certain loss of the producer. 

 You cannot force the market, but must cultivate it, and any 

 attempt to put choice fruit before would-be purchasers in unat- 

 tractive packages will be certain to reduce the price paid to the 

 level of ordinary fruit. If the market is willing to pay for the 

 best, it surely must be offered the buyer in most tempting form 

 and condition, and to establish what this is becomes one of the 

 most important duties of this Pomological Society at the present 

 time. 



With all the experience of years pressing upon us, the thor- 

 ough spraying of the apple trees is still woefully neglected, and 

 because of this the quantity of second grade fruit becomes a 

 menace to the market, and a decided loss to the careful grower 

 and packer. It may not be possible now to reach this by legis- 

 lation, but the day will surely come when severe penalties should 

 be inflicted upon those who insist upon neglect of the essential 

 principles of protection, and permit their orchards to be breed- 

 ing places for the myriad forms of insect pests. 



