62 STATS POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



for ones and twos and packs them himself. And yet that very 

 course continued is going to ruin the fruit prospects in the State 

 of Maine. We are putting the stamp of the State of Maine on 

 an inferior quality of apples, — that is what we are doing. We 

 are saying to the world, " These are No. i Maine Baldwins, the 

 best we can grow," and they are wormy and they are small and 

 they are gnarly and they are inferior. Why ? Because the man 

 who bought them thought they would pass on the market. They 

 grade them from a commercial standpoint solely. They are 

 looking after the dollars and cents and they are grading from 

 that standpoint entirely. They take whatever will pass as a No. 

 I Baldwin, and you and I and others who are trying to grow 

 Baldwins in the State of Maine have to take the responsibility 

 when they reach the great markets, and the State of Maine is 

 graded two to four shillings below Canada. If we are satisfied 

 with that, let us let it go on. 



How many wormy apples do you suppose there were in those 

 boxes of Kings that Mr. Pope sent to Boston and got $2 . 50 

 for? Do you suppose that he could grade apples in that way 

 and sell at any such price ? That is this year, his Kings ; selling 

 his Gravensteins for $2.50 to $3 a box, — a bushel box, $7.50 

 a barrel. Do you suppose it would be possible if they were 

 graded by one of these buyers? There is no criticism to fall 

 upon these men. They are measuring the business purely and 

 simply from a commercial standpoint. They are after the 

 dollars and they are sharp too, and they are going to pay just as 

 good profits as they can afford to pay, and they are going to put 

 in the barrel everything which they think will pass in the market 

 to which they are going and bring the price — measuring, I say, 

 the business purely from a commercial standpoint. And that 

 spirit of commercialism unless we look out is going to injure the 

 State of Maine seriously. 



This subject, to which Prof. Munson called attention two years 

 ago, came up again last year and this resolution looking to the 

 grading of the fruit was put into my hands and I was asked to 

 look it up and report at this session. 



I have here a letter from the chief of the fruit division at 

 Ottawa, written in the spring of this year, which I would like to 

 read. Touching the Fruit Marks act, he says : 



" I am sending you a copy of the Fruit Marks act of 1901. 

 This act is enforced by nine government inspectors appointed 



