Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-11-16


Then they insure that these grades
/ shall be lived upte, by putting the
4 packing OF tile fENit into the hands
of entirely disiiiterested Erpartlea
J. Every packing house is in Charge OF
II boss packer who is responsible, not
to the owners of the fruit, but to the
Union. And if the owner objects to
the way things are carried on, his re-
dress is through the Union. We all
know what this type of marketing has
done for them.
In order that the packing may be
satisfactory, the Union Is very carefui
who does 1t. No one is allowed to
pack who does not have a license from
the Union. and only those who have
proved that they are capable Will be
granted such license. III order to
keep up the supply of good packers,
they conduct each fall, at the begin
ming of the packing season, pack
| ing school," where every one may get
I two weeks of practice under expert
Supervision for SIS. At the end of that
time, any one of ordinary ability
should be reasonably expert If the
graduate" from this school packs for
members of the Union during the
whole season, he gets "a refund of his
SIS at the end of the season. Isn't
this packing school something which
we ought to take lp, whether we adopt
the box or continue to pack our apples
In barrels.
believe that the following is . fair,
and hope an impair tial presentation oil
the case of the Western apple sec
tons Their advantages as | see them
are:
CD That they can and do, as have
said. produce fruit Of the very greatest
beauty. more handsome than we do III
the East / know some of YOU will
want to object to that. and | know that
some of our finest fruit leaves little to
be desired from the standpoint OF
beauty, but !, for one, am willing to
admit that as class Western fruit is
prettier TO look at than Eastern.
certainly never saw anything quite 50
handsome as some of the BaldWins.
Rhode Island Greetings. York, Rome
Beauties. etc. which saw Oh exhibit
ton at Vancouver and Spokane last
year And since looks will always be
an important item in selling fruit, we
must eoncede that the Western grow
ers, as a class, have distinct ad-
vantage there.
CD Their trees bear earlier.
should say from two to three years
earlier on the average. This, | think.
is principally due to their very long
season, which really allows the tree to
do the same amount of growing, 70
reach the same amount of maturity.
say in four years that our Eastern
trees reach in six.
CD Their trees bear more heavily
and more regularly. | am not quite
sure how much of this may be due To
their better care, particularly in thin
ming, but | believe that it 10 IN some
part al least due to their long season.
as referred to in the last paragraph,
which allows the II anufacturing plant
Of the tree TO mature q big crop OF
fruit and still have enough surplus
plant food to develop a fine set of fruit
buds for the following year.
CD There is a more general interest
in the industry I have already dis
cussed this under my general impress
sions. but want to re-state il here, as
believe il is a great factor in their
success do not know how far 1t IS
possible or desirable to bring this about
in New England, but it seems to me
that such very promising sections as
Colrain and Ashtield, in Massachusetts
for example, might probably develop
the orchard business till they could
have warehouses ard all the convent
ences which go with well developed
industry.
60 They have fewer pests than we
have This of course will tend to
change as the orchard business de-
velops; in fact, many pests are already
naticeably on the increase. But with
their vigorous treatment of these pests
and with the dry growing season.
which is SO unfavorable to fungous
growths | do not believe they will ever
have the same trouble from the ordi
mary, orthodox orchard pests that we
do
50 Their virgin soils are better
supplied with all the constituents
needed by the tree for the production
of choice fruits. This of course would
not apply to orchards started OH new
lands here. but the great bulk of our
Orchards are not put OH such land. but
on fields which have been long i'll cult
VatioD
The other factors which certainly
contribute to the present lead of the
Western grower. but which we must
pass by with bare mention are:
% Their better laws. already dis
Ieussed. and which l doubt if we are
ever able to duplicate here because Of
lack of popular support.
tS) The tremendous development of
CO. operation, another thing which l
fear we can never hope to duplicate
here or at least not for many years.
(9) The fact that their trees are all
young. and are consequently bearing
their very best fruit at the present
time. This. of course. will mend it
Iself"
Turning now to the Eastern side of
the question, | am going to merely
state what it seems to me are our add
vantases because have spoken OF
them so often before
g..