I40 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



inspect each and every barrel, if they see fit, and where they see 

 it comes below that standard to condemn it. Now let me ask 

 you one question. Does Maine today want to grade their No. i 

 Baldwin apples two and one-half inches, free from defects? 

 If so, what proportion of your apples will be No. i ? I don't 

 believe one-third of them would be this year. Now are you 

 willing that a law should be passed that says you shall not put 

 in a barrel of apples an apple less than two and one-half inches 

 in diameter and free from defects and send it to market as a 

 good apple? I am afraid when you think it over carefully you 

 will say "Go slow." Now I don't think — and I speak from the 

 point of a man who makes his living growing fruit — I am not 

 here simply to talk theory — it is what affects my pocket, and it 

 is my fruit that fills my pocket if I get anything in it, and it is 

 for my interest to fill it as full as I can. Now you take this 

 year, the dry weather and the heavy crops have made your apples 

 small, under size. Now in grading my apples my rule is this, 

 grade my apples according to their general style, of the whole 

 crop, — if my apples run large throughout, to make them run 

 large; if they run medium, to make them medium grade, and 

 if they run small to put in smaller apples than I would if they 

 were medium or large, provided that apple is perfect. Because 

 I would rather have in a barrel of No. i apples an apple two 

 inches in diameter that is perfect, well colored, not wormy, not 

 a defect on it, but a smooth, solid, bright colored apple, perfect 

 in form and free from defects, — I would rather have that than 

 an apple three inches through that is wormy or has hard knots 

 in it. It will give better satisfaction. And if your apples run 

 even, they won't find fault with them either, if there are more 

 or less of this smaller grade ; but make them run even and not 

 put the large ones at the face end and the little ones at the 

 bottom. Of course when you face a barrel of apples you face 

 them up with the best you have ; but don't put any more. Just 

 face them up with good nice apples and put in a few just one 

 layer below the face and then fill your barrel up just as the 

 apples run from the face end to the top, or the bottom, which- 

 ever that may be, and mark them, if it is a No. i grade mark 

 them a No. i grade, and when they open that barrel they see just 

 what they are. Now I wouldn't want to have a law enacted that 



