STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 39 



nice quality. For those who do not raise enough to pay for them 

 to have an evaporator, canning can be done at a profit, and it would 

 cost but a small sum to fit up for that on a small S3ale. 



Apples should be marketed in good, tight, new, clean barrels of 

 full size ; but I warn 3-ou that it will be useless to have ever so nice 

 barrels unless the fruit is eqaally good, and if it has not been care- 

 fully handled when picking and storing, the best sorting in the 

 world after that cannot make them nice enough to bring a fancy 

 price. 



For those who raise limited quantities, and who do not wish to 

 send into market their fruit under their own brand, I think more 

 money can be obtained for their fruit by sorting it, as others usually 

 do, than by making it extra good. It is the practice of some ship- 

 pers to send apples abroad. No. 1 and 2's all together, with only care 

 to cover the barrel heads with X's, and will pay about the going 

 market price for them. If this can be followed it will be a good 

 chance for careless fruit growers to dispose of their fruit, but I fear 

 it will be bad for the reputation of Maine fruit. There i« a greater 

 difference in price between extra good fruit and that which has been 

 carelessly handled and sorted, later in the season, than there is in 

 the fall or early winter. Fruit that has been badly handled must be 

 disposed of earl}* or else there will be a great loss on it ; and if it is 

 put into market late it will be in bad condition, and then it is that 

 very nice fruit will bring a very satisfactory price, and I have never 

 known it to fail, often selling for nearly double market price. I can- 

 not find language strong enough to express my contempt of the 

 practice of deaconing apples, or putting good ones at the ends of 

 the barrel and poor ones in the middle. It is the silliest and most 

 suicidal practice I know of. What opinion can a man have of him- 

 self, to say nothing of the opinion of others, who sells fruit which he 

 declares to be nice and alike all through but proves to be poor all 

 except a few on top, and he knows he will be found out almost as 

 soon as he is gone ; and then again, how many times can he sell his 

 fruit there except at the price of poor fruit, no matter how well it 

 appears or what he sa^'s about it? 



Many, if not most, of the wholesale buyers an:l commission men 

 desire to have their apples put up with about one-half bushel of the 

 best ones at the faced end of the barrel. If you are looking for a 

 commission merchant, and he directs you to put up your apples in 

 that way, look out for him, but if he desires to have them put up 



