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flicting dates this week. It was unfortunate that we should have 

 picked out a date that made it impossible for any of your people 

 to be in attendance. 



At the meeting at Hotel Raleigh on Tuesday and Wednesday 

 of this w^eek, the matters discussed were as follows : It was decided 

 that in the following line of work laid down we might more profit- 

 ably confine the membership to the five states, Virginia, West Vir- 

 ginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delav/are, taking in, of course, 

 any people from the District of Columbia. We did not feel that we 

 necessarily would be antagonistic to New York or to Georgia and 

 states farther south, although matters might come up where there 

 would be a conflict of interest ; but we felt that we could accomplish 

 more by limiting the membership to these states. You will notice 

 by the constitution, that the Eastern Fruit Growers' Association is 

 open to membership to commercial fruit growers or men and women 

 engaged in scientific research work relating thereto in the five states 

 mentioned. The membership fee is $i.oo; for societies, $5.00. It 

 is to be hoped that Adams county will join as a society and a num- 

 ber of you as individuals. 



What shall the standard package law be? You people are 

 backing a proposed LaFean pjill standardizing a 28^^ inch barrel 

 stave. We were fighting for just such a barrel. In Virginia the 

 state law makes standard a barrel one inch shorter with a 273^ inch 

 stave. If any effective legislation on standard packages is to be 

 passed by Congress, the fruit growers who are vitally affected must 

 go before Congress united and demand the same standard. If you 

 people from Pennsylvania, and we from West Virginia and Mary- 

 land go down before the Agricultural Committee in favor of a 28}^ 

 inch barrel, but the strong Virginia Society send a big delegation 

 up there claiming that such a standard is unjust, and there should 

 be a 27^^ inch barrel, it is very likely that the bill will never come 

 out of the Committee, which fact proves the necessity of an organi- 

 zation like the Eastern Fruit Growers' Association. The result of 

 the discussion was that a committee of five, one from each of the 

 five states, was appointed. This committee is expected to canvass 

 the sentiment of their various states. I hope we can persuade the 

 Virginia people that they are wrong. If we do persuade them then 

 the fruit growers will go before congress united in effecting legis- 

 lation along that line. 



I have here a table of rates on which Hagerstown is taken as a 

 basis for this section. On the shipments going to points like New 

 Orleans or Jacksonville, the freight rates from all stations are just 

 the same as the Hagerstown rates. Now the point is this : The price 

 of apples through this whole York Imperial belt depends largely 

 upon the lowest price in any one section. If the dealer can buy 

 York Imperial apples in Winchester or Martinsburg for $2.50 he 

 will not come here and buy yours at $2.75. This York Imperial 

 belt is well defined, and my experience is that the lowest market 

 price, packing and other things considered, governs the territory. 

 The rate from Rochester to Memphis is thirty-five cents per hun- 

 dred, and from Hagerstown to Memphis, thirty-five cents per hun- 

 dred. Your York Imperial may not go so exclusively to the south- 



