i8o 
AMERICAN POMOEOGICAL SOCIETY 
President Goodman: I think we ought to get a lesson there. 
Mr. Hears: I want to say that my experience is that the apples want 
to he graded very close as to the size, and that even if our apples are being 
sold by the barrel rather than by the box, practically all are resold by the 
peck. In one case I sold six hundred barrels to one grocer, they all went to 
him in the barrels, and only ten per cent of them sold in the original pack- 
age, and he claimed that the grade — they had all been graded very carefully 
according to size — had increased his trade enormously, and especially when 
the apples were sold by the peck. The man who bought this consignment 
operates on the assumption that different sizes in the barrel help out in a 
barrel sale but in the peck sale people were willing to pay one price for one 
size and another for another size, hence the desirability of having barrels of 
definite size when for sale by the peck, and the color does not seem to make 
much difference. 
President Goodman: They were the grades, the sizes, that he required? 
Mr. Mears: Yes, nothing but perfect apples of the highest grade off 
these sizes, say two and one-half inches firsts; two and one quarter to two and 
one-half seconds; below two and one-quarter, thirds. 
Mr. Dalton: I have listened to this discussion with a great deal off in- 
terest, and want to say that I think the suggestion made by the President 
is an appropriate one. I believe that the attempt to ornament the face of 
the barrel did not originate at the instance either of the grower or the con- 
sumer, but with that fastidious gentleman known as the commission man. 
He wants the beautiful appearance when he opens the barrel: I think that is 
the reason for it. I believe that a man who will put inferior apples in the 
middle of the barrel will steal if he has an opportunity and thinks he will 
not be detected. That is my judgment about it. And hence I do not think 
that a barrel ought to be faced at all, for it is not necessary. And the same 
thing in my judgment prevails in reference to size. 
I live out in Missouri, and this fall one of these pussy-footed gentry came 
out and looked at the apple crop and wanted to make a price. “Well," I 
said, “how much will you give?" He said, “I will give so much for No. 1, and 
so much for No. 2." Said I, “What do you mean by No. 2?" “Why," he 
said, “I mean a smaller apple than No. 1." And I said tor him, “What right 
have you to call a small apple a No. 2 apple?" “Oh!, it is a different grade," 
he replied. And I looked at him — he is not a very large man and I am a 
pretty good sized man — and I said, “And so would you call me a No. 1 man and 
you a No. 2 man?" (Laughter and applause.) 
We have the most ridiculous and contemptible ideas about this thing 
of the grading of apples. What we want is an honest grade, and not a lot 
of cider apples in the middle of the barrel, better ones under the head, and 
then the beautiful colored head. I consider that we should have honesty- 
in our apple packs just as we would have honesty in our society, and in our 
families and homes, and in our company life and dealings, and we can make 
or maintain the same standards if we will. That is what we want. I heart- 
ily concur in the suggestion of the President. Of course we have always 
done this, as we have probably had no opportunity to express ourselves very 
effectually otherwise; but what I do say and insist upon is that we shall 
