380 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 5, 1921 
Mr. Fruit Grower: 
Now is the time to place 
your order for 
STANDARD 
FISH OIL SOAP 
(Formerly Called Whale Oil Soap ) 
THE BEST SPREADER 
for NICOTINE SPRAYS 
Manufactured for over 50 years by 
Cook & Swan Co., Inc. 
148 Front Street New York City, U. S. A. 
1921 WILL PAY BIG 
IF YOU BEGIN NOW 
to combat destructive insects and parasites that infest 
your tree6, vines and plants. Insure effectiveness and 
economy by spraying with 
GOOD’S FISH OIL SOAPS 
Ci.niniouly known as "Whale Oil .Soap" 
Standard quality for years. 
I'soil ami recommended by V. S. Department of Agricul¬ 
ture and State Experimental Stations. 
You will find the use of cheap substitutes disappointing 
and costly in the end. Insist on having GOOD'S FISH till. 
SOAPS and be certain of GOOD RESULTS. 
Supplied by leading seedsmen or direct from 
JAMES GOOD, Inc.,SS AL 
TKKNTON AND SI'SQFKH A N N A AVB., 1*1111.A DEI.l’HIA 
Handy Pocket Manual of Plant Diseases mailed gratis on request. 
FERTILIZERS 
We Recommend for 
Potatoes, General Trucking, Gardening 
Croxton Brand 
4-3-5 and 4-8-2 Mixtures 
Wo also sell Raw Materials, carloads or 
less Ilian carloads, as follows: 
NITRATE OF SODA 
SULPHATE OF AMMONIA AND 
PHOSPHATE 
BLOOD AND TANKAGE 
BONE MEAL 
MURIATE OF POTASH 
SULPHATE OF POTASH 
The “EVER-READ Y” 
Address Dept. F 
N.J. FERTILIZER & CHEMICAL CO. 
Factory Croxton, Jersey City, N. J. 
Office, 60 Trinity Place, New York 
is the best Power Sprayer for the fruit grower who 
wants a well-made Bprnyingoutfit. Write for Free 
Catalogue giving specifications and description. 
VAN NOUHUYS* MACHINE WORKS 
44 Liberty Street, Albany, N. Y. 
or fruits and vegetables 
“even when there is no fungus g 
TRADE MARK REGISTERED 
Commercial Fruit Culture 
The Future of New England’s Fruit 
Business 
A Retrospect. —As I look back over 
the past 50 years and realize the ever- 
increasing demand for better fruit, both 
in varieties and with better packing, 1 
believe there have been and will continue 
to be greater opportunities for making 
money and enjoying what is best in farm 
life, on many New England farms in the 
growing of orchard fruits than any other 
line of farming. Fifty years ago the or¬ 
chards here were mostly small and not 
well cared for, largely Baldwins. Most of 
this fruit was .sold at the farm to buyers 
who shaped to other markets. No buyer, 
as far ;is we know, ever put up a strictly 
honest pack himself, or expected it from 
the farmer, and apples were mostly 
packed one grade, Nos. 1 and 2 together*, 
the barrels well faced at both ends. Some 
dealers put up a snide pack with very 
poor fruit in the middle of the barrels. I 
bad a neighbor who lost a good chance 
to sell, refusing to pack lii.s apples as the 
dealer wished, although satisfied with the 
price. At that time there was a better 
demand for ungraded fruit, as a store¬ 
keeper said vo me lie had customers who 
wished different priced fruit, and so could 
clean up the whole barrel without loss. 
Now the grower must do the sorting. Yet 
I believe the farmers of that time who put 
up their own fruit and shipped direct to 
market put up a more honest pack than 
the dealers. 
An Honest Pack. —When I com¬ 
menced shipping to the Boston market I 
started out to put a strictly honest pack 
in four grades, and in a short time my 
commission house could sell my fruit by 
the grade marks without opening the 
package, and has been able to do so ever 
since. This, with the growing <>f good 
fruit, has been the greatest factor in my 
success. The fruit grower of the future 
who expects to receive pleasure or profits 
out of the business must live up to it. 
Our markets call for better fruit and im¬ 
proved packing every year, with varieties 
that cover a long season. Build up a rep¬ 
utation and keep it up. It will mean dol¬ 
lars to you, and you will stand a little 
straighter in the market place than with 
fruit you could not recommend to a 
friend. .Tust one illustration of what It 
might do for you. In 1896 there was a 
bumper crop of apples here. The dealers 
soon refused to buy at any price, and 
apples were shipped from this town to 
England and nothing returned the grow¬ 
ers. Boston was flooded by local growers 
at 25 cents per bushel box or less. I 
stored as usual, and also some pretty fair 
drops which T desired to get off first. 
Early in the Winter 1 visited my commis¬ 
sion firm to see about shipping my apples. 
The head salesman was not in and I 
asked another salesman how apples were 
selling. ‘‘No sale; can hardly give them 
away. We don’t want any more now; 
got more than we can sell already,” he 
said. I replied, “They have not. had any 
trouble to sell my apples. He looked up 
and said, “Is your name Mead?” and 
when satisfied replied, “You better go into 
the office." They found the salesman 
and we talked the matter over. lie asked 
how much I expected, and said he did not 
know if they could sell them as high as 
that, but I could ship 10 barrels to arrive 
Friday morning. Monday morning I re¬ 
ceived word. “Apples all sold; ship more 
immediately.” And I never received as 
many calls for more apples from them as 
in that Winter of glutted markets. 
Choosing a Location. —Most orchards 
in the past have grown up around the 
man, on his farm or near where the or- 
Chardist lived. With larger orchards, 
keener competition, the necessity of keep¬ 
ing trained help the year round, the loca¬ 
tion and fitness of the land for orchard 
purposes will count much more than in 
the past. And no man or company should 
invest largely in fruit business without a 
thorough study of the possibilities of a 
location for the orchards. Neither should 
they try to save money by buying a cheap 
one. Later the extra profits of a single 
year might more than pay for all that 
had been saved in buying a cheap location. 
Yet there are in every New England 
State locations where the man who 
chooses varieties wisely to fit his en¬ 
vironment can make money. But good 
roads and the truck will in thp future 
play a big part in orchard profits, and 
personally I would not choose a location 
where I could not depend upon them for 
transportation. The markets of today 
prefer the open pack. A truck is loaded 
and delivers the fruit direct to the whole¬ 
sale house'. 
Boxes or Barrels. —Boxes have taken 
the place of barrels lipro. and my experi¬ 
ence has been that two boxes (bushel) 
sell for about the same price as a barrel 
of apples. The packing counts, also. I 
shipped some Baldwins before Thanks¬ 
giving in the smaller bushel box, 17 */jx- 
17 , /i>x7 1 /l>. They were 126 count, and sold 
at $3.50 per bushel. I do not believe a 
barrel would have sold at wholesale as 
these were $7 pc*r barrel. In their season 
Duchess. Gravenstein, Wealthy and Mc¬ 
Intosh sold at higher prices, and I 
heard of some Gravensteins at $6 per 
bushel box this last season. Most of my 
bushel boxes arc 18x1 RxS. T have never 
personally used the Western pack or 
papered the fruit, and these prices are for 
a good solid pack in bushel boxes. There 
has been a great increase in the demand 
for Summer and Fall fruit of high qual¬ 
ity at extra good prices in the last few 
years, and the truck has a great advan¬ 
tage in handling this kind of fruit. 
Thinning. —This is something that 
will pay any grower who can obtain prop¬ 
er help to do it. Lately I heard a Farm 
Bureau demonstrator at an orchard dem¬ 
onstration meeting tell his hearers that it 
did not pay to thin apples, so I take it 
there arc still some who have something 
to learn in the growing of good apples. 
The sizing machine, or grader, will be¬ 
come a necessity where the Western pack 
is used and will prove profitable on most 
farms where much fruit is grown, and 
will be used more every year as the de¬ 
mand increasi s for better packing. At 
present if good sorters (men and women) 
could be hired I doubt if it would pay on 
an average Baldwin orchard, where the 
fruit was put into barrels. When extra 
nice fruit is grown and the grower has 
an established reputation, the-better the 
pack means increased prices. 
Apple Packing Laws.—I believe in 
honest packing. I believe dishonesty 
should be punished in any business. But 
I never believed a State could build up a 
reputation as an apple grower. But the 
growers of a State could for themselves, 
by forming associations, or by private 
pack. Some sections, as well as orchards, 
grow better fruit than other, and it is a 
fallacy to expect a whole State to estab¬ 
lish a grade of standard value, provided 
everyone was honest and thoroughly un¬ 
derstood the packing laws. Personally I 
never had any use for such laws, or 
packed on their marks, and believe I re¬ 
ceived more money than if I had marked 
A, B, etc. There has been lots of wasted 
energy and printer’s ink thrown away by 
apple growers which did not add one cent 
to their value. Massachusetts on an auto 
plate will pass a machine for a year; the 
fruit grower must put Massachusetts 
on a covered box of poor apples. Were I 
to go into the apple business it would be 
within trucking distance of Boston, using 
an open pack, and establish grades of my 
own making, and I am sure I would re¬ 
ceive better prices and a quicker sale by 
so doing, for in the future grading and 
packing will play a much larger part in 
the fruit business than in the past, both 
in profits and quick selling of the fruit. 
The up-to-date grower, instead of getting 
down to a State level and satisfied with 
that, should try to build up grades for 
himself. It matters little what marks 
are used provided the commission man or 
customer can know what is the package, 
and can depend upon it without further 
examination. There is plenty of room at 
the top in the fruit business to those who 
choose the right varieties to fit a good 
location to climb from. Were I young 
again, nothing would give me more pleas¬ 
ure than to try it over again. 
Read about Pyrox, the combined poison and fungicide, in the March 12th issue of this paper . 
H. O. MEAD. 
