STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 59 



Mr. McLatchy: In 1901 I handled something like ten 

 thousand barrels of farmer-packed fruit. The farmer-packed 

 brought the top of the market and there was no complaint what- 

 ever in regard to their packing. In soliciting the business from 

 the farmers they are very careful in impressing on them the way 

 apples should be packed, and in many cases they were packed 

 in a great deal better shape than the dealers pack them. 



Mr. True: It seems to me w^e have got to have a radical 

 change here in some way — I don't know how we are going to 

 get at it — but the way it has been if a man comes to me and 

 wants to know if I have got two, three or four hundred barrels 

 of apples to sell, why, I have got to say, yes, I have. " Well, 

 what do you ask for them ? " " Well, I think I ought to have 

 about so much." " Well, I will give you so much and come and 

 pack them." Well, that is a square business transaction, sell 

 him the apples and he comes and packs them as he sees fit, pays 

 so much a barrel, and he puts in about everything there is there. 

 And we get the money and we are glad of it, for that time. But 

 next year — our fruit, as Mr. McLatchy says, is getting a black 

 eye — and the next year he cannot pay us quite as much and we 

 have to set our price a little lower. But he takes them all and 

 we are glad of it. And the next year a little worse. Now what 

 is going to be the remedy ? We have got to have some radical 

 change here in some way. All I want is the man to rise up 

 and tell us just what we ought to do. Is the trouble with the 

 packer or the grower? He comes and packs the apples but 

 unless he cleans them all up the grower is on his back. 



Mr. E. E. Hardy : I believe the trouble is with the grower. 

 Just like the man up in Franklin county that makes maple syrup 

 and wants to get rid of it all, and the market is a dollar a gallon 

 for anybody who makes good stuff. He cuts the price to 75 

 cents and he gets $75 for his 100 gallons. The other fellow 

 holds his price up to a dollar and gets $75 for 75 gallons. Now 

 the fellow who would talk apples in that way would get good 

 prices for them in the end. 



Prof. MuNSON : There is one thing about this discussion, 

 while it may not result in anything this year and it may not next 

 year, if this Society keeps everlastingly at it the time is going to 

 come within a very few years, I am satisfied, when the growers 

 of the State of Maine, backed up by law, can say that the fruit 

 which goes out from the State of Maine is just as good as the 



