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fruit that is not supplied with the necessary elements to produce fruit of proper 

 quality that fruit will not cany as well as it would otherwise. Then the jjickmg— 

 I conbider that prohably one of the greatest secrets of the whole apple trade, and 

 apples are the chief commercial fruit of this country. Probably the greatest secret 

 in the whole trade is the simple secret of knowing when to pick the apples. There 

 is a point the people have not considered sufficiently. There is a right time to pick 

 the apples and there is a wrong time. If you leave that fruit upon the trees until 

 you consider it is ripe then the ripening process is a decaying process, and it has 

 gone so far that that fruit will not carry to a distant market— no, or it even will 

 not carry to a very near market. It has lost a lai'ge proportion of its proper keep- 

 ing quality. JSTow, that is a point that is well worth studying. I have found this 

 frequently after picking up good windfalls that of course have fallen about the time 

 an apple begins to get its colour, about the time the apple has reached its maturity, so 

 far as growth is concerned. Taking these windfalls and packing them away care- 

 fully in the same cellar with picked apples, I find that the culls or windfalls 

 will keep longer than the others. Why ? Because the windfalls are picked by nature 

 in the windstorm in proper time, and the others lefttoo long on the tree. What wo want 

 is to have our fruit keep for the longest possible time and i-each the furthest mar- 

 ket. Then the packers are to blame. There is a certain amount of blame there for 

 looseness in packing. The packer should be a scientific man ; he should understand 

 each individual variety he is packing, because a variety slightly spongy will re- 

 quire a little more to tighten the barrel properly than a variety that is crisp. There 

 is a certain amount of give to it, and it will require a little more to fill that barrel 

 and have it tight. On the other hand, a great many packers put too much in a 

 barrel. There is no necessity for that at all. That is not good packing. Then, pass- 

 ing from that, I would give certain points I would fix in the matter, perhaps not 

 strictly according to the text given me. However, they are points that come in in 

 introducing the subject, and should receive a great deal of care. We have heard a 

 great deal about the packages in which cheese aiid butter are sold ; we saw a speci- 

 men on the table to-day of a package of cheap butter — good butter made cheapen 

 account of the package. We want the same thing in fruit; we want a good package, 

 a neat package and a clean package, because when we go to the distant market the 

 buyer is going to judge what is inside by the package. If he sees a good package 

 that has caused some trouble and expense to manufacture, a neat package and a clean 

 package, he naturally concludes that the owner of that could not aflbrd to put up a 

 mean, contemptible article inside. He has something worth while there, and he is 

 very willing to buy on the chances ; whereas, in the other case they would not buy ; 

 if they did so it would be at low pirices. It is necessary in shipping that we should 

 have cars perfectly clean. There is a point wherein we have fou.nd very great diffi- 

 culty. As well as having cars clean, those cars should be supplied to us with dis- 

 patch. When we have fruit to ship we want the cars there, and in some sections 

 where we have not competition we find a great deal of trouble in getting clean cars. 

 I have seen shippers ship in cattle cars, in open cars used for shipping cattle, and 

 they were bound to get the fruit off in some way, to save it from perishing. These 

 are points that are necessary to be looked after, and these arc points we want the 

 railway companies to look after. We want the railway companies to look after these 

 points in pi'oper season, and they should know the fruit districts and the quantity 

 which will require shipment. They can easy know in proper time about the ship- 

 ping quantity from the different sections, judging from what, they can tell the 

 amount of car room that will be required during the season. They can get 

 these particulars for the summer, fall, and winter fruits, and know pretty near the 

 approximate amount to be furnished, and they can judge the cars they want to 

 supply. It is absolutely necessary to look to the supply, and have enough of the 

 cars on hand to carry that fruit away. Then wo have found fault frequently with 

 the railway companies and other carrying companies for delay. A great deal of the 

 delays on the railway company's hands is owing to the company's employees shunt- 

 ing the cars off here and there, where there is a car or two to be got here and more at 



