FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 12/ 



a box than a barrel, and time is valuable at all times of the 

 year. There are all those things to consider, and it is a very 

 easy matter to pick out a box and say this box is not packed 

 properly, but yet I think all the New England orchardists 

 ought to be up on the box question, and ought to be shipping 

 a few boxes to build up our reputation, and keep in touch 

 with the practices of other sections. Storage is a very impor- 

 tant matter to the New England apple orchardist. How 

 many dairymen are there in the state of Connecticut that have 

 not got a good dairy barn? How many apple orchardists 

 are there in the state of Connecticut that have got a good 

 apple house? We don't think of those things as we should; 

 we are not studying them as close as we should. Up in our 

 part of New England, there are not half enough apple houses. 

 If we have lOO barrels of apples, we ought to have a place 

 to put them away in ; and if we haven't, when the buyer 

 comes up from New York he will say to us, "You have got 

 to take our price, because you haven't got a place to keep 

 them in ;" and every farmer that hasn't got a storehouse is 

 under the control of those buyers and speculators, and they 

 are the shrewdest workers in the country, and they are men 

 that don't care how tight they hold you, and they will beat 

 the farmer down until they get his apples as cheap as they 

 can, and they combine every effort to get a wedge under 

 him, so as to get his neighbor's apples a little lower. Now 

 the day has gone by when the American agriculturist shall 

 wait for the speculator, whoever he may be, to set the prices 

 on farm goods ; the time has gone by when the New England 

 farmer should allow speculators to come to New England 

 and tell us what our apples are worth. Look at this associa- 

 tion that was spoken of this morning. They have their organ- 

 ization, and before the apple crop is ready to harvest, they 

 know what the condition of the crop is all over this country, 

 and they know what the market in this country and foreign 

 countries is, and they are prepared to know what they must 

 pay for apples. They paid an enormous price for apples this 

 year, and they took anything that was put into a barrel, 

 because they knew that the opportunity would be open to 

 th^m to dispose of that apple product, no matter what was 



