A DISCUSSION ON PACKAGES.
Edwin Snyder, Jefferson county: I want to say something about marking packages. I had a nice crop of Jonathan apples; expert men barreled them for me, and put my address on the end of the barrel, outside. The commission man just took his little knife and raked it [the address] off. It is policy to put your name on [packages] if going to a wholesaler, but not to a commission house. I know economy pays in handling fruits, from packing to marketing. I should think boxes better [than barrels]. We have had trouble with barrel hoops breaking. I do not believe it best to sort too closely. If you put first-class apples on top, and second-class on the bottom, your customers expect to find the best on top and worst on bottom.
B. F. Smith: I have been in Kansas City, and never saw a name scratched off a barrel yet. In grading strawberries, give each picker six boxes in a tray; have them fill three with large berries and three with medium size [impracticable]; allow no inferior or small ones put in.
A Member: About fifty per cent. of our fruit, especially apples, is not readily marketed. Can we possibly handle this fifty per cent. so as to make it pay the expense of handling the better part of the fruit?
Edwin Taylor: If the culls are fifty per cent. of the crop, it is not difficult to make them pay for handling the entire crop. This year the culls would readily sell at fifteen cents in the orchard. Last year there was no trouble to sell "down apples" for ten cents in the orchard. The cost of packing is slightly more or less than fifteen cents a barrel. If your apples are scattered, more; if near together, less.
Dr. G. Bohrer: Would it not pay better to work them [the culls] into cider and vinegar?
Edwin Taylor: No, sir. I had rather they would rot on the ground than be made into cider.
A Member: Our second grade brought forty cents a crate; the best, sixty cents. It pays me best to mix them. I ship to Kansas City, and they handle my fruit with success.
H. L. Ferris: This year I sent a Minnesota man a car load of very small Winesap and Missouri Pippin apples, such as we use for making cider, in exchange for potatoes. I sold part of the potatoes at seventy-five cents and eighty cents, and some are in the cellar.
Geo. Van Houten: In our state [Iowa] we are most successful in handling apples in barrels. For a small trade, bushel boxes made of light material may serve better. Many car-loads are sent out in eight-pound baskets.