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192 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



a view of getting better packages, and better methods of 

 packing in marketing our fruit. It is a popular belief that 

 your fellow citizen, Mr. Hale, gets rather more for his fruit 

 than other people do. If that is true it is because of condi- 

 tions and causes which you can reproduce collectively, that 

 he has already done individually. There is no question in 

 my mind about that. In Oregon, last year, where these apples 

 came from, the output was 750 carloads at 600 boxes each, 

 making 450,000 boxes of fruit for the whole state. The whole 

 Oregon output is practically in the control of two men, the 

 Hood river fruit growers, and the Canyon valley fruit grow- 

 ers' union. That fruit growers' association means something. 

 You join it and sign a contract ; you are under a heavy pen- 

 alty ; you can't be in to-day and out to-morrow without suf- 

 fering the consequences ; you are bound up hard and fast to 

 obey the rules of the association. I have no doubt that nearly 

 every one of you say you can't duplicate ^Ir. Hale's opera- 

 tions, because you are small growers and he is a large one. 

 Collectively you are just as big as he is, and it is that point 

 I want to impress upon you. In the Hood river section they 

 have a fruit growers' union, and a majority of the fruit grow- 

 ers' union furnish all the packers for the whole section. No 

 fruit grower is allowed to pack his own fruit. The packer 

 is sent to the orchard when the season begins ; he gets five 

 cents a box for packing it. He goes from one orchard to 

 another, and there are as many persons employed as is neces- 

 sary to do the work in the proper time, and he puts his name 

 on the package. It is possible for a dealer in New York to 

 order a carload of apples by telegraph, and know exactly 

 what he is getting. In fact, that is the way the apples iare 

 sold. It frequently happens that the Hood river apples are 

 sold months in advance before the price is named, upon this 

 condition. Generally he orders five carloads, the price to be 

 named whenever the goods are delivered, at the market price. 

 He buys his fruit in that way, just as a merchant buys his 

 ham or lard. The first thing is to standardize your goods, 

 and the next thing is to put them in the hands of the con- 

 sumer in as small packages as you can conveniently handle. 

 The fruit here before you is certainly very fine fruit, and I 



