Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-02-06
LOCAL man Makes
GOOD SUGGESTION
Discusses Opportunities for
Maine in Developing Maine
Products

During Maine Publicity week it Is
our evident duty to brush back our
ha1r and put eur best foot forrad,"
TO clean ~up the front yard and hide
the empty tins in the back.
A ShreWd rural banker in a west
ern community established a record
over period Of years Of making no
poor loans-his system when ap-
praising the property in question was
to glance at the house and barns,
glance at the crops and soil and then
look carefully over the back yard and
If he found empty milk and vegetable
tins In any quantity he Immediately
lost not only his interest in the pro-
perty but the farmers interest on the
notes, but he didn't lose the banks
money.
Now canned milk is not a menace
to Names property simply because it
is canned-if this was not the clean
and the convenient and economical
method of purchasing milk SO many
would not be doing it that way. 1t is
only when we examine the labels
that we see the real danger. About
eleven million empty milk cans We're
tossed into Names back yards and
dumps last year, more than a million
dollars worth-ard at the same time
our wholesale milk producers We're
honestly bemoaning their fate and be-
wailing the lack Of market for their
product.
The Pacific Coast producers of
canned milk who sold us the bulk of
our IL million cans advertise their
products as coming from contented
cows-they do not state If the far
mers are contented or not. but prob
ah1S fhav In hn
they did not have milk factory
available where they could dispose of
their product So as an experiment,
why not build ourselves one here in
Maine and keep our cows contented
and our farmers contented also?
We hear a lot about Maine apples
and we have a right to be justly
proud of our ability to grow a fine
tasting and attractive apple. To
prove to the world how proud of
them We are, when we ship them to
market in other states or abroad we
toss them into a barrel and take a
screw jack and squeeze on the head.
Then few weeks later we go around
cheering each other up by telling how
it doesn't pay to pick them off the
ground because the prices paid at the
market hardly equal the cost of the
barrel ana the labor and the freight.
Why not wake up to the fact that
people purchase apples as they do
oranges or other fruit. If they like
them individually wrapped in boxes
why should the growers Of Maine be
stand ofIish" as it were? Don't we
have the apples, and the trees to
make the boxes and the paper mills
to make the wrappers and the
presses to make the labels right here
at hand?
If we cannot overcome this natural
prejudice of ours towards packing
them as people want them AMI If we
can't arrange to land them in Boston
or New York at a price that will be
equal or be less than Oregon fruit
then let US squeeze them up into jelly.
because that Is one of the things that
cannot be done with irrigation grown
fruit. They just naturally are not good
jelly makers. But next to barber
in the House of David Colony the
hardest thing to find in Maine
grocery store is Maine made apple
jelly or bottled sweet apple cider
all kinds of it on hand there bearing
the labels of Massachusetts and New
York packers, but we don't seem to
be able to put it up here. e
And now while we are still on the
subject of apples let us see if you can
find the worm in this one. The ap-
pies sold on the Maine Central trains
and newsstands are not Maine grown
apples, and this is not the fault of
the Maine Central officials or of the
Chisholm News Co.
That takes us off onto railroads
AMI will not attempt at this time to
tell the Maine Central what they
might do for Maine-nor Maine what
it might do for the Maine Central
but for now it is sufficient to the needs
of this article if We say in answer to
the freight rate critic, that if you
cannot land your product in the Bos-
ton or the New York market via rail
from the farm in Maine as chcaply as
they can from the Pacific Coast. then
put them in truck and ship them
by the way of the Portland Pier. as
since the advent of the automobile
nobody has a corner on transporta-
ton, and if in passing through or
near Augusta with your car or truck
you should happen to need the SER
vices of skilled and capable me-
chanics on the magnetic, battery or
generator, ask the way to Webber's
Auto Electric Service. 10 Dickman
ST., where they have electrical parts
for all cars and where they specialize
in this work and also repair speed
ometerS and timing chains.
! thank you,
GEO. r. WEBER.
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