140 FRUIT-GROWING 



portant one. The barrel makers are using tac- 

 tics which may cause them the loss of the goose 

 that has been laying their golden eggs for they 

 have advanced prices without rhyme or reason 

 simply because it appeared that the growers 

 would pay any price asked. Barrels that could 

 be bought for thirty cents about three years 

 ago were sold as high as a dollar and sixty cents 

 and even more, last fall. I happen to know 

 something about the prices of raw materials in 

 that particular game and I know that the in- 

 crease is absolutely unjustified. It is a case of 

 pure, or impure, profiteering from the ground 

 up. As a result I know of many growers who 

 will next year use baskets for their winter ap- 

 ples just as they have been using them for sum- 

 mer fruits for a long time. That such pack- 

 ages will be a success is abundantly evident 

 from the fact that several growers have already 

 tried them out. In the spring of 1920 I saw a 

 large shipment of Delicious that had been held 

 over in baskets and they were in perfect con- 

 dition — just as perfect as though they had been 

 in barrels. 



Now after we have grown all these apples 

 and gotten them packed in barrels or boxes or 

 baskets, what are we going to do with them? 

 That is the real question in the apple game and 

 it is one that the growers have given less at- 

 tention than they have any other branch of 



