n
sack. Sew a leather strap six inches long and four inches wide to a
bottom corner of the sack. On the loose end of this strap fasten a
strong metallic hook. To the upper corner on same side of sack fasten a
strong metallic ring or link. Opposite this ring fasten with rivets a
piece of iron six or eight inches long and about half an inch wide and
one-eighth an inch thick, rounded, across the sack mouth at the edge to
hold the sack open. This sack is worn under the left arm, the strap
going over the right shoulder and hooking in front. We use ladders from
twelve to sixteen feet long. The top of the ladder is made narrow so it
can be put between the limbs, being just wide enough at top to set one
foot on at a time. The apples are picked and put in bushel boxes on a
platform on a wagon. The boxes are sixteen inches wide, twenty-four
inches long, and eight inches deep, holding about a bushel, sixteen to a
wagon.

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 cos