The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1908-09-15
Edited by r. Walden

he uSSI luS I0luSSu " SuuOAo DC tAO
bill as at present drafted, but de-
cided to refer the matter to standing
committee"
This is a move in the right direc-
ton, but let it go on till not only the
apple growers in the great Mississippi
Valley are enlisted and have their say
in what the law should be but let
the Pacific Coast be consulted as well,
and our approval be secured. 1t should
be sufficient obje ction to the bill that
the Pacific Coast has not yet been con-
suited and our Congressman should
hold it up till this part of our great
country is heard from. No legisla-
ton affecting the whole country
should ever be railroaded through
Congress till the whole country is
heard from. The Pacific Coast has
been as completely ignored in this
matter as if we lived on the other
side of the globe in foreign coun-
try
Our objections to the bill are likely
to differ from those in other sections,
but that is no reason we should not
be heard. The standard for first class
fruit is far too low to suit us, but
the chief objection from the Pacific
Coast is that a new standard for the
cubic contents of bushel is pro-
posed and this for apples alone. If
this bill passes in it's present form
there will be two standards for the
cubic contents of bushel, one con-
tanning 2150.4 cubic inches, which is
the only one now recognized by the
government of the United States, and
one containing 1858 cubic inches for
for this change is that it is customary
in measuring apples in open packages
to heap up the measure some what.
But we do not sell our apples in open
but in closed packages. Then let us
use the legal bushel of the United
States. And we make further plea
that the people who use the apple
box and it alone in selling their apples
are the ones to be consulted about its
contents. Our box is an honest one and
meets the demands of the United
States government in the cubic con-
tents of the bushel when closed pack
ages are used, but this bill requires
new standard for the cubic contents
of the buShel and one never known as
the legal contents of a bushel in any
country on the face of the earth. We
believe that we are right in urging
our contention and claim that it will
be glazing injustice to force such
law on us. We, therefore, urge all
our Congressman from the Pacific
Coast to stand as one man against
any such change till we can be fully
heard.
The editor of this department has
just returned from a ten-dayS' So
journ on his fruit ranch in the Yaki-
ma Valley. We were harvesting our
Elberta peaches and had about twenty
hands at this work. There was "hur-
rying to and fro" during these busy
times. We had picked, packed and
hauled to the station from seven hun
dred to eight hundred boxes per day.
Every imperfect peach was thrown
out, for we were determined to pack
only clean fruit. Besides there are
always some peaches coming in from
the field too ripe to be packed I'M
less it is during the first picking.
The over-ripe and imperfect peaches
were placed among the culls and were
sold to the people in the valley for
immediate use. We sold them at 1
cent pound. Many people came
from the Yakima Indian Reservation
and from Horse Heaven" where no
peaches are grown, and also from
some sections where the peaches were
killed by the frost. Some days we
took in something like $25 for these
Gull peaches.
During my stay on the ranch we
were honored by two prominent fruit