32 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



fully. In that way, apples can be poured from a barrel 

 without bruising; and in order to have apples keep, it is 

 necessary that they should not be bruised. Therefore, I 

 have them handled as carefully as possible, and put them in 

 these bins, and they keep remarkably well. 



Mr. Howe of Shrewsbury. I rise to ask a question, but 

 before doing so, I will state a little experience in regard to 

 the treatment of apples. Some years ago, I put four barrels 

 of apples in the extreme northerly corner of my cellar. I 

 selected them with great care, and did not allow a worm-hole 

 or a knurly place in one of them. When I put them up, 

 apples were worth about a dollar a barrel. Somewhere from 

 the first to the middle of January, a gentleman from North- 

 borough, being in town, came to me and asked me if I had 

 any apples to sell. I told him I had put up some barrels very 

 nicely, but I couldn't tell in what condition they were. He 

 said he would go and see them. So I went into the cellar, 

 and I turned the barrels over, — they were setting on their 

 heads. It was an extremely cold time, and I found that they 

 rattled; in other words, they were very much frozen. Said 

 he, "I don't want them." Said I, "Very well." I turned 

 them back, and they stayed there until about the first day of 

 April, and the same man came to me and wanted to know if 

 I had any apples to sell. I told him I didn't know whether I 

 had any or not ; I had four or five barrels in the cellar that I 

 had not looked at, and what condition they were in, I could 

 not tell. Apples were worth then some $2.50 a barrel. 

 "Well," said he, "I will go and look at them." We went 

 down cellar, and turned those same barrels over, and found 

 them perfectly full. Says he, "I will look at them." I 

 opened a barrel, and saw they looked very well. Said I, 

 "There are four barrels, and you may have two of them for 

 $2.50 a barrel, or I will pick them over, and you may have 

 them for $2.75 a barrel. Says he, "I will take them at 

 $2.50." He told me afterwards that he made money by taking 

 them as they were, for there was not more than a peck of 

 apples in the two barrels that were not perfectly sound. That 

 is my experience with apples. 



Now, I simply want to make an inquiry in regard to trees. 

 I have spent considerable money on pear-trees, and I have 



