The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-04-01

flee, and the editor of this department
had a long conversation with him. The
matter under consultation was the
new apple box AS stated in these
columns, there was a meeting OF ap-
pie shippers, commission men and ap-
pie growers in Washington, D. c., jan
uary 81, 1909, with a view, 1t was
claimed, to reach an agreement on he
size of the packages used in which to
ship fruits of various kinds, but espe-
cially apples. There was considerable
difference of opinion with reference to
the size of the apple box recommend
ed in the Porter Bill" then pending
in Congress. Prof. Dumas very prop
erly represented the apple growers of
Washington, for he had just been elect
ed President of the State Horticulture
al Society and was appointed to be our
representative at that conference.
The claim put forth by an apple deal
err in Chicago that he represented the
fruitgrowers of the Pacific Northwest
was an assumption without the shad-
ow of a foundation. When the fruit
growers of this great country want a
Chicago apple dealer to represent us
he will be duly notified, but it will be
a cold day when such a thing as that
is done. The only sense in which this
apple dealer represented the fruit
growers in the Northwest was to mis-
represent us SO far as the apple box
question is concerned.
There was a pretty warm time at
this conference according to Prof. Du-
mas report. I have the utmost con-
idence in Dumas and any report he
makes about this conference. l have
known him intimately for over twenty
years. We lived in Waitsburg, Wash
ington, for some three years, at the
same time. He was principal of the
city schools, while l was pastor of one
of the churches of the city. We have
often met since. He is a WideaWake,
thoroughly-posted man, and we could
not have had a better man in that
conference to stand up and represent
our interests.
It is not my purpose to report in full
what Dumas told me about that con-
ference, for it would more than fill the
space allotted me in one issue of The
Ranch. There was an evident purpose
to bull things through, regardless
of the wishes of the great Northwest.
There seems to be an impression
among the apple shippers in the states
east of the Rocky Mountains that the
growers out here are an ignorant set
of "hayseeds'' and don't understand
their own business. They never made
a worse mistake. Prof. Dumas is a
college graduate, is a keen, bright man
and could acceptably fill any position
in the gift of the people, whether Gov
ernor, Congressman or United States
Senator. l do not know that he as
pires to any of these honors, but do
know he is competent to fill any of
the positions named. Many f%ruitgrOw-
ers in the Northwest are retired law
yers, doctors, merchants, school teach
ers and ministers-a large proportion
of them being college graduates. A
brighter set of men l have I've
known.
The Northwest Fruit Growers AS
ISOLATION will meet in Tacoma next
September, when this question of the
proper size of the apple box will be
thoroughly threshed out. Let the men
who so ruthlessly ruled in this o n
ference held in Washington and did
not show respect enough to hear Col.
c.. B. Bracket, the head of the De-
partment of Pomlogg in the Depart
ment of Agriculture, Washington, d.
c., when he was called outlet them,
l repeat, come out to our conference,
and they will be treated ~courteously
and heard in all they want to say.
Then they can find out if these fruit
growers are a set of backwoods igno-
ramuse that have not yet let go Of