SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 39 



Indi\'i(luals handlino- their own fruit may not feel the 

 ■necessity for this action, but the great majority are, and 

 will be, dependent upon the foreign markets and the fact 

 of legal standard requirements governing grading, packing 

 and branding, with penalties for failure, ofTers the only 

 solution to the problem facing the growers. Maine will 

 ship this year over two million barrels of apples, and this 

 question of requtation becomes of paramount importance. 



The system of facing, which implies what an exam- 

 ination does not sustain, is a species of dishonesty from 

 which the consumer must be protected. 



1 beg- here to be permitted to present the following- 

 letter just received from the official head of the fruit de- 

 partment of Canada. I believe the experience of Canadian 

 growers v\'orthy of our consideration. 



Ottawa, Canada, January 13, 1908. 



"I am in receipt of your letter of the 8th instant on my return 

 to Ottawa. I shall be glad, indeed, to assist you in any way I can 

 in your endeavors to secure honest grading and packing. 



"One of the most noticeable improvements in our packing, directly 

 traceable to the Fruit Marks Act, is the almost total absence of any 

 thing like overfacing. When you open a barrel of Canadian fruit and 

 see the face, you see a sample of the contents all the way through. 

 From my personal knowledge of the business before the Fruit Marks 

 Act was passed, it was the exception rather than the rule to see a 

 barrel not over-faced. 



"I regret to say that we have this year many examples of over- 

 grading, but this is largely upon a point where there is a legitimate 

 difference of opinion, namely in point of size. The Fruit Marks Act 

 prescribes that No. 1 apples shall not be less than medium in size, 

 and this year the apples in Ontario are particularly small, and we have 

 had a larger number of violations of the Act in point of size than we 

 have had for a large number of years, but in all other respects the 

 grading is better than in former years. We have, however, had some 

 complaints from buyers in the Old Country, who paid more for apples 

 than they were worth and are now endeavoring to. get even by de- 

 manding a better quality than their contracts called for. 



"The Fruit Marks Act has given us a workable No. 2 grade. 

 Never before was a No. 2 grade marketable. It was impossible to 

 make contracts in the North West for the No. 2 grade until the 

 amendments to the Act in 1906, which defined this grade. Tf the 



