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OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Picking. — If you want your fruit to keep well, pick before the seeds 

 get quite black. Handle as you would handle eggs. Put an old sack 

 or a wad of leaves or straw at the bottom of your buckets or baskets so 

 as not to have the first picked apples rolling around on hard material. 

 Handle as little as possible. Sort out any defective or wormy fruit and 

 dispose of it at once. Don't ship it to glut the market with trash and 

 spoil the sale of your own good fruit. Hogs, driers, cider presses, 

 vinegar barrels are all available. 



Packing. — Pack in standard size boxes, 10 x 11 x 22 inches. This 

 size box was adopted as a "free package'' when the rule was made that 

 apple boxes should not be returned to the shipper. The box was 

 reduced from 11x12x22 to compensate the shipper for the loss of his 

 box by using one that held fewer apples. Now, some growers are 

 altogether too generous — they give the old amount of apples and a "free 

 package" as well. 



Pack honestly — same size and quality -throughout; but the trade 

 expects you to pack your most highly colored fruit on top, so as to 

 please the eye. The eye does the buying usually in all commodities. 

 For green or yellow apples, line your boxes with red paper. White- 

 wood boxes are preferred by the trade. Be careful not to have your 

 boxes underfilled. At the ends the fruit should be just on a level with 

 the top of the box, but should crown up at least half an inch in the 

 center so as to nail every apple snug in its place, so as not to rattle in 

 the box when it is shaken. If the end apples are too high, nailing on 

 the lid is apt to bruise them, and on opening the box big black spots 

 disfigure your fruit and diminish its price. 



Prices are usually good if you have fine, well-keeping, bright-colored, 

 nice-flavored fruit. If you care to study the curve of price in foreign 

 markets, there is a chart published by Woodall & Co., of Liverpool, 

 giving the ups and downs for the last five years on the basis of Bald- 

 wins of four classes — Canadian, New York, Boston, and Maine. Cana- 

 dian are invariably highest, probably because the barrel is full weight. 

 Early spring or late winter usually bring biggest prices. November is 

 about the worst month to sell. Often, in our San Francisco market, 

 Thanksgiving time is as good as any for ripe, high-colored fruit. 

 Apples sell for cash f. o. b. Beliflowers ranged this year from 75 cents 

 to $1.00 a box, and the demand exceeded the supply. 



Profits depend much on the growers willingness to give liberal care to 

 his business. Don't try to get rich by declining to spend the needful 

 money to fertilize, prune, cultivate, and spray your orchard. Don't be 

 afraid to thin your fruit because you think it expensive, and fear there 

 will not be enough left to make a crop. In orcharding, follow the 



