22 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



in the hands of tlie apple grower. All he needs is the courage 

 to tackle the problem and thereby make money on his own 

 crop by being in a position to dispose of it when the market 

 demands it. To my idea, it can be done through the coopera- 

 tion of storage houses of a proper kind, which I believe should 

 be built near to the railroad stations, so that the apples can be 

 handled with a great saving of labor, taking them direct from 

 the orchard to the storage house, and then at the proper time 

 shipping them from there to the market. 



1 have listened a good many times in the past to speeches 

 upon what ought to be done in Maine to make apple growing 

 profitable but I have failed to hear -many men discuss this 

 question of the selling of them, the methods of handling to a 

 good advantage the apples grown in Maine. For that reason 

 I thought the first opportunity I had I would ofifer these sug- 

 gestions. To my mind it is the most important question to-day 

 in connection with the business. I have not undertaken to tell 

 you what kind of storage houses should be made, whether cold 

 storage or storage to keep out frost because I don't know, but 

 it is the kind of storage houses such as are used in other places 

 where they are cared for to the best advantage, that our Maine 

 farmers need. 



I understand that the suggestion is to be made that the State 

 provide a cold storage plant for the apples raised on Highmoor 

 Fal-m, at the railroad station near the farm. I believe this will 

 be a very profitable experiment along this line. If done, it will 

 be done at the expense of the State. If mistakes are made, they 

 can be remedied and the lesson learned, and the people can all 

 have the advantage of it. I sincerely hope it will be undertaken 

 in the near future, because I thoroughly believe that unless we 

 provide for the better handling of the apples grown in Maine 

 by the farmers having orchards of five hundred, a thousand and 

 two thousand trees, as many have, and which trees will soon 

 come into bearing, the prices will be so poor for the crops, 

 that it will lead to discouragement in this industry and hinder its 

 further development. 



