STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 63 



up in the orchards to lay two or three days in which they would 

 "sweat out" as the owner said, and then be gathered up and 

 carried into bins or cellars. Is it good business? Is this in line 

 with the life of 1910? I am looking at this question from the 

 commercial standpoint, first of all, and that is the point that 

 touches us all. I am thinking of the dollars and cents which 

 may be realized from our orchards. In order to do that we 

 want to make certain that our methods of handhng the fruit are 

 humane — best for the fruit and its preservation — best for the 

 conditions under which we are going to put it on the market. 



Then comes the question of sorting and packing and brand- 

 ing. I believe in all sincerity that the law put upon the statute 

 books of Maine last winter by the friends of good fruit is going 

 to do more to bring about this better condition, this more uni- 

 form quality, evidence of which we have here on these tables 

 today and which we will find in the markets, than anything 

 which has come to the State of Alaine for a great many years. 

 I believe there is nothing burdensome in that legislation, that it 

 will help insure the care of the orchard just so far as legisla- 

 tion can, and in the enforcement of the law we will come nearer 

 to the wants of the tree and its best feeding and care, and 

 protection and marketing of the fruit than we can come in any 

 other way. 



But there is something more necessary, and that has already 

 been suggested this morning in that admirable address of Prof. 

 Hurd. I wish it might be put into the hands of every man who 

 ever thought or desired to grow an apple tree. Co-operation is 

 the basis of success today through the West. We are fighting 

 single-handed and alone in New England, some of the strongest 

 unions — corporations you may call them, give them any name 

 you please — but we are fighting some of the strongest organiza- 

 tions that could be perfected, where the product of the individual 

 man is lost as soon as he delivers it at the central station, and 

 where he is known only thereafter by a number, and where all 

 his fruit is taken and carefully graded under the most rigid 

 system. That fruit is put upon the market, and when the 

 returns are made he then gets what is his due. I say we are 

 fighting single handed and alone, and this great question of 

 cooperation and of union among those who are interested in 



