28 CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 



or wet. In the same season 13 per cent, of 3,000 barrels from 

 Portland were similarly listed. The depreciation on these two 

 shipments would represent a loss of not less than $40,000. 



The package we have been using — the barrel — is neither con- 

 venient, economical nor conducive to honesty. The large package 

 gives special opportunity for careless methods or dishonest practices, 

 while the small package encourages careful grading and the produc- 

 tion of a fine article. We need legislation covering packing and 

 packages. It is no less a dishonest act to place culls in the center 

 of a barrel of apples than to adulterate an article of food with 

 an inferior substance. Let us work towards securing uniform 

 packages, uniform methods of packing and uniform standards 

 which shall govern our grades. Here is a great opportunity for 

 co-operation in New England. A movement embracing the adop- 

 tion of these principles and aiming to secure legislation has been 

 under way in New England for several years, and this year sub- 

 stantial progress has been made by the adoption of specific require- 

 ments governing packages and packing by the Maine State 

 Pomological Society at its last session. Other States wiU un- 

 doubtedly follow, but this conference gives unequaled opportunity 

 for furthering the project. 



Interesting Capital. 



Why should men of means and the young men of our country 

 be more willing to go to the Pacific coast and invest from $200 to 

 $400 per acre in unimproved land, 3,000 miles or more from the 

 great markets of the United States, than to invest a quarter of 

 these amounts in orchard enterprises near the center of consump- 

 tion and at the gateway of the foreign market? Can we not pro- 

 duce a satisfactory product? Unquestionably, yes. No country 

 under the sun can produce better quality in the apples of New 

 England origin than the soil and climate of New England itself. 

 Then why this apathy at home, this activity in relation to distant 

 lands ? 



Probably the human desire for the new, the somewhat spec- 

 ulative, leads men into untried fields; but, more than all, the 

 evidence of the practical man is satisfyingly convincing. What 

 we need in New England are men with the same faith, the 

 same optimism and energy that eastern men acquire when they 

 cast in their lot with the westerner. Given an equal amount 

 of energy, resource, industry and methods, properly applied in the 



