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The Business Farmer s Paper 
VoL. LXNVII. 
NEW Y()RK, JANUARY P2. lOlS. 
No. 44(H. 
The Bogus Apple Packer Again 
Not the Farmer in this Case 
HE JIIDDLEMAX’S I'ACK.—The town of Col- 
raiii, Mass., is the center of a large apple di.s- 
trict. In a good year .‘tO.fWM) Parrels are shijiped out 
of town over the little electric road, and Puyers are 
always numerous at apple season. Farmers have 
tlie reputation of ••deaconing''their apples. luit I have 
seen enough this year to know that the farmer is 
not always the one to Plame. A Puyer can. under 
the Massachusetts law. which Py the way is an ad- 
miraPie one in mo.st respects, ruin the reimtation of 
a whole community for honest dealings. Most of the 
apples here are sold to the Puyc'r. who furnishes a 
man or men to do the packing and whose men are 
responsible for the pack. Many of the hu.vers are 
men of good reputation who put the goods up in 
was over when the packing was done, and w.as .aston- 
ished at what went into the barrel, anything that 
wasn't rotten, regardless of size or condition. Then 
the Parrel was labeled. “Baldwins, A Crade. 'IY 2 inch 
minimum." :ind the packers name. .T. C. Ta)see, Buck- 
land, Mass., put on. Now Mr. Losee does not live 
in Buckland. which is a nearby town, and the buyer 
of that Parrel of apples, not knowing that would 
rightfully “cuss'’ an.vone who lived within 100 miles 
of this district. In other cases the words “Extra 
Selected Backing" were put on the Parrels that were 
in nowise rightfully as described. In another case 
the ••seconds’’ were double-faced with better apple.s, 
than went into the A grade. 
I.inTIT BEN.V.LTY.—Now this year we have had a 
very eflicient apple inspector, and Mr. Losee promptly 
found himself in trouble, lie was hauled up and 
convicted on three counts, but his tines only 
apples was grown and packed Py a member of the 
(’olr.ain Fruit Browers' .Vssociation. and is supposed 
to contain"—and here the wording of the Pu.ver’s 
contract was quoted. “If for any reason you are 
dissatisfied you will confer a favor on the Associa¬ 
tion by communicating at once with IL JI. Eastman, 
manager.’’ This led to two ends. It spurred the 
farmer on to make his pack good and has advertise<l 
his apples so that there will be a market next year. 
Most of the apples so sold went to Indianapolis and 
were evidently resold and sent to Bhiladelphia for 
I have already had two communications from com¬ 
mission men there commending the fruit and asking 
for prices, etc. My purpose in writing this article 
is to show that it is not always the farmer who is 
crooked. We have hu.vers who are geutlemmen. their 
word as good as their bond : their record for honor¬ 
able dealing as good as couUl be wished. There are. 
Work in a Western New York Commercial Apple Orchard. Fig. 10 
honest form but. sad to s.ay. this is not true of tluMii 
all. Fnder the Massachusetts law. ai>ples must be 
marked Fancy. A. B. or Fugraded. If any two gra<les 
are packed together they must be marked “Un¬ 
graded.'’ They must not be overfaced and the 
name of the p>i<l:<>r and not the groicer appears on 
the barnd. 
A LIBELOUS LABEL.—Last Fall, representatives 
of the B.allston Storage Kefrigerator Co. of New 
York were active buyers around here. Their repre¬ 
sentative. a Mr. I.osee, superintended the packing 
and did some buying. Among the ai)ides bought 
was a lot belonging to E. W. Coombs & Son. These 
api)les had been hail hit and badly daniagi'd and 
were sold as such, being bought b.v a member of the 
firm. The sellers are men of standing in the com¬ 
munity who take great pride in their fruit, and were 
anxious to have it marked ••hail-struck.'’ These, 
however, were the packing instructions. ‘•Face the 
barrel doidile with good api)les. I*ut in a bushel of 
good ones, then in the middle if you have any Black- 
twig or Mussets put in a bushel, then about half a 
bushel of fairly good ones and then nail it up.’’ I 
totaled about if.'!.” and costs, moreoviu- he had to erase 
the words ‘•Extra Selected Packing’’ from many of 
the barrels .so branded. When Mr. Losee found him¬ 
self in trouble he did two things: first, he had the 
uufiiccd end of Mr Coomlis’ liarrels marked so that 
inspector wouldn't find them overfaced and then, 
instead of using the stencil n^ipiired by the Massa¬ 
chusetts law he used ones which said in substance 
that his api)les were packed umh*r a Federal statute, 
and he denied the right of the State to touch him. 
INJUSTICE TO THE COMMUNITY.—In the 
meantime, howevi'r. hundreds of barrels are mis¬ 
branded, ajiples had gone, all marked with the name 
of Mr. I.osee, with a rc^sidmice of Buckland. Mass., 
claimed. The buyer, not knowing the law or Mr. 
I.osi'e or the circumstances, will attribute the work 
to some crooked farmer and will give this whole 
territory a black eye. 
AHVANTAOES OF CO-OPERATION. — Some of 
the farmers tried co-ojierative selling and the plan 
has proved successful. Each man packed his own 
apples, and his name went on the liarrel. In each 
barrel was placed a card saying “This barrel of 
however, enough others to bring a lot of discredit to 
the buying end. n. .m. kast.max. 
Wasting Plant Food 
T HF (iri'at Problem of Nitrogen." in Tiik It. 
N.-Y. for Nov o. is timely and imiiortant, but 
only one side of the i)roblem is touched. A great deal is 
said about getting more nitrogen, but nothing about 
lessening the waste of nitrogen. To me this seems 
the greater element of the problem. Nature, under 
luM- own condition.s, maintains a balance in this, as 
in other things, her store of available nitrogen mere¬ 
ly going back and forth from animal to idant and 
from plant to animal. The little waste is made up 
by the activity of the bacteria in the root nodules 
of leguminous plants. But man upsets nature’.s bal¬ 
ance and wastes her i»recious store. Make a mental 
lucture of the orchards, fields and forests of our 
countr.v, covered with trees and plants whose tiny 
root hair.s. permeating almost every cubic inch of 
soil, are picking up the soluble nitrates for construc¬ 
tion or storage. Picture the resulting plants, fruits, 
