ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 169 



the pineapple, if you put it in slices, very often you cannot 

 use enough, and if you cut it in big pieces it does not look so 

 well, but by cutting it on a board before it is put in the cans, 

 drawing a long knife across it both ways, and cutting it into 

 pieces about half an inch square, it will, in shrinking, get down 

 to about three-eighths, and it makes better preserves, and looks 

 very pretty. It is very attractive in the market. It sells in the 

 market very readily indeed. 



Now the second point is to get the best fruit possible for 

 canning. If you put poor fruit in tin cans nobody can see it, 

 but they will not be apt to buy much more that you put up. 

 When it is put up in glass the fruit shows right up, and }-ou 

 have got to put in good fruit. It's bad policy, of course, to 

 put poor fruit in either, but you can cover it up in tin where it 

 cannot be done in glass. And that is one beauty of the glass 

 package. It helps in the selling, but your lasting hold on the 

 market depends on your putting up such good fruit that they 

 will call for it year after year. Have it good. To do that, you 

 want vour fruit fresh, and you want it ripe, and you want it 

 sound, and you must have your fruit supply close at hand. 

 Since we went out of tins we have had more difficulty in getting 

 the best fruits, because some of the growers nearby us do not 

 have enough for our use of the right quality. By going a little 

 distance from our establishment, however, we have been able to 

 get first rate goods for our purpose. 



Another point: In my judgment I should say that the 48 and 

 60 quart crates were better than the 32-quart crates for carrying 

 fruit into the market just right. The 32-quart crate is objec- 

 tionable, because the shaking of the car is so great that the 

 wobble of the crate at the time will shake up the top layer so 

 you would hardly recognize the fruit, but you take the 48 and 

 60-quart crates and the top does not seem to be disturbed at all. 

 That is something worth having, as it gets more of the fruit to 

 market in first-class condition. But the 32-quart crates are 

 much better than nothing. We have had dealers come in with 

 several crates of fruit that were spoiled in that way, particularly 

 raspberries and strawberries, and wanted us to take them. 

 They thought we could use them in our canning. We told 

 them we would not have them ; that we could not afiford to risk 

 our business by putting up any fruit which was not the very 



