ayi3. 
NEW ENGLAND APPLES. 
Improving Methods of Marketing. 
It really seems as if the apple was once more 
coming to he one of New England’s mortgage lift¬ 
ers. The demand for good apples is increasing 
every year, and with better care of orchards and 
better handling of fruit at harvesting 
the percentage of No. 1 fruit is also 
increasing. There never was a time 
when the demand has been greater for 
the best apples. The same may he 
said of all lines of farm produce. The 
sooner the New England farmer in 
general will make himself thoroughly 
acquainted with the most up-to-date 
methods of tilling, spraying, fertiliz¬ 
ing. thinning, picking and packing ap¬ 
ples, the better for him. On the great 
majority of farms the owner cannot 
tell you how much a certain tree pro¬ 
duced, and whether it paid its ex¬ 
penses or not, when a few moments’ 
noting up of the work done on the trees 
would enable the farmer to tell his 
trees just as he does his live stock. If 
the Eastern farmer is going to get the 
most out of his apples he must en¬ 
deavor to produce all the No. I he 
can. This can only he done by atten¬ 
tion to all orchard work, especially 
thinning. It seems a sinful thing to 
thin out so many apples when there 
is every prospect of a bumper crop on 
a tree, but it looks very different in 
< ictober, when you have seven or eight 
bushels of large healthy apples on the 
tree instead of 15 or 1(1 bushels; one half 011 the 
tree, one-half on the ground, with a heavy crop 
of unthinned apples it is a severe struggle right 
along for the clusters of apples, but with judicious 
thinning every apple has the chance to swell and 
get all the sun it needs, without lighting with a 
bunch of four or live apples close around it. Then 
again when the Fall winds come the single apple 
strongly grown has 50 per cent more chance of 
staying on the branch than the cluster 
■ >f small immature fruit. 
Our Eastern farmers should also 
see the way that the Western coopera¬ 
tive fruit societies ship, box. pack, and 
grade their apples, to get the best re¬ 
mits. We can grow just as good fruit 
in New England as was ever grown in 
the W >st, and we have the advantage 
of a short rail haul, but it must be 
remembered that within the last five 
years many thousands of young or¬ 
chards have been set out in the West, 
and in a short time these will begin to 
add their crops to oppose us in the 
East. If some of our farmers would 
cooperate and hire one or two first- 
class box packers, and box-pack all 
their No. 1 for a year or two, they 
would then be in a position to do their 
own packing. In the majority of cases 
the apples are sold to the local dealer, 
who packs No. 1 and No. 2, and so re¬ 
lieves the farmer of a lot of trouble, 
but with a good storehouse. No. 1 will 
improve there until Winter, when the 
farmer can do his own packing and 
supply his local demand with his best 
apples at the best price. lie must 
study the market and his customers, 
and if he is near them can supply as 
needed. If he is a long distance from 
them, visit the best stores or hotels 
and make a contract for delivery as 
needed of strictly first-class fruit. 
It seems always rather a poor policy 
to sell all your apples just because the 
dealer will come and pack them and 
get them out of your way, just at the 
time when the market is glutted with 
all grades of poor fruit, thereby mak¬ 
ing little demand' for No. 1. which 
generally begins after January 1. We 
have an ever increasing market in 
Europe and South America, but the 
best market is right at home. We 
must remember and make our motto—"One 
only; the best.” E 
Maine. 
T' 1-115 
NEW-VORKER 
“ BARRIERS.'’ 
Another Use for Parcel Post. 
[The following article is the first of several which 
we are to publish <>n the subject <>f more complete par¬ 
cel post service. We are sure that ultimately there 
must be a postal express in this country. It will come 
slowly, but wo think its final appearance is sure.] 
Political economists used to say "People are separ- 
A NEW YORK KPITZENBURO. Fig. 491. 
ated by rivers, mountains, seas and mutual dread.” 
()ue by one these barriers have been conquered. Wit¬ 
ness some notable examples, the Suez Canal, the St. 
Cothard Tunnel, the Simplon Tunnel, the Brooklyn 
Bridge, the Panama Canal. The conquest of each 
one marked a distinct advance in civilization and 
human welfare. Note also the names of Watt. Ful¬ 
ton. Morse. Bell. Marconi. Wright and Ooethals— 
barrier-removers, all! Strange to say. very strange. 
basis 
quality 
ANDERSON. 
lx Holland the Heath Co., a drainage concern, has 
‘'one such valuable work that the nation has erected and 
1 urnislied a $50,000 house for this company. 
AUTUMN SCENES. Fig. 492. 
indeed, the greatest barrier of all. a barrier in¬ 
finitely more wasteful of human energy and time 
than a trip around the Horn, or a detour of the Alps, 
still remains to hamper progress and impose a bur¬ 
den. needless and heavy, upon mankind. Stranger 
still, this barrier was not even recognized as such 
by our leading men—hence they passed it by and 
attacked the lesser ones that we all knew so well. 
This big barrier stands mountain-like between the 
producer and the consumer, challenging another 
Pulton or Marconi to action. Postmaster General 
Burleson, favored by the Fates, is in a position to 
demolish it with a stroke of the pen! This con¬ 
quest, unlike the others, will require no vast treas¬ 
ure nor sacrifice of life; nevertheless 
the task will demand the courage of a 
M right and the unconquerable per¬ 
severance of an Edison. What is the 
barrier? Let me illustrate by personal 
experiences. I have an orange grove 
in Florida and a cherry orchard in 
Michigan. The barriers between me 
and the consumer are the same whether 
in the North or the South. They are 
not peculiar to fruit growers either, 
but are common to all producers— 
hence the orange will serve as a true 
type for illustration. When this fruit 
commands $1 a case in Florida my 
northern friend must pay $5 or $<; a 
case In other words, it costs four or 
five times more to carry an orange over 
the barrier than it does to produce it. 
This absurd and unnatural condition, 
due to a marketing system inordinate¬ 
ly expensive and inefficient, constitutes 
a harrier much more wasteful of 
human energy and time than a trip 
around the Horn: the - Alps are a mere 
ant hill in comparison. 
Burleson can demolish this barrier! 
How? Simply by raising the parcel 
post weight limit to 100 pounds and 
lowering the tariff to an actual cost 
establishing a rate of 50 cents a case on 
oranges from Florida to New York. Chicago, and 
intermediate points, with C. O. I). privileges in¬ 
cluded. and a similar rate for all other products. 
This would enable the producer to deal directly with 
the consumer and thereby eliminate the harrier. 
Then the consumer would pay $1.50 instead of $G 
a case for oranges, and for all other foods in pro¬ 
portion. The Northern grower would gain in kind. 
No. such a plan is not impracticable! 
Consider a train of 10 cars running on 
a passenger schedule from Florida to 
New York, carrying 300 cases to the 
car. or 3,000 cases in all. At 50 cents 
a case the train would yield revenue of 
$1,500 for a 35-hour trip. This sum 
would pay the railroads generously 
and still leave enough for local deliv¬ 
ery. in its perfected form this plan 
would require a clearing house or pos¬ 
tal market operated under the aus¬ 
pices of the post office, in which all 
foodstuffs would he handled in stand¬ 
ard packages. 
Non know the usual objections to 
such a plan, you also know with what 
stubborn ferocity the plan would he 
assailed by influential men who now 
control the harriers, and derive a profit 
therefrom; hence, you will understand 
why I said "The task will require the 
courage of a Wright and the uncon¬ 
querable perseverance "of an Edison.” 
Bear in mind, however, that this plan 
is absolutely correct from a scientific 
standpoint, and for this reason its 
adoption is assured sooner or later. 
Bear in mind also, that the greatest 
engineering work ever attempted has 
just been brought to a successful com¬ 
pletion by a public official. In view of 
this fact it would he simply idiotic to 
assert that a public official could not 
manage successfully a petty enterprise 
like a postal market, especially when 
assisted by the splendid delivery ser¬ 
vice, already in operation. 
Carrying the finished product to the 
user, a dunce's job. is easy and simple 
compared to making the article. The 
postal market would exemplify thi; 
tact with crystal clearness, and would 
establish a correct and natural rela¬ 
tion between the cost of production 
and marketing, hitherto an impos¬ 
sibility owing to the heavy charges affixed by a 
horde of middlemen. Furthermore, the prompt and 
rapid delivery through the postal market would er 
tirely prevent damage from decay, at present a 
source of great loss and a large factor in the barrier. 
Here is something in which every farmer and every 
consumer is vitally interested. r. l. green. 
