If these same people would go to work and cut out the blackberry patches, grub out the sassafras and other sprouts, break up the sod and get the ground down in good shape and keep it that way, spray thoroughly and trim out from one-fourth to one-half of the top, they would soon have fruit that the buyers want, and the result would be competition, and a better price per barrel, in addition to the increase in the number of barrels of packing grades, and pleasure of having something to sell that .brings the top price without having to scheme or have trouble in settlement.

Apples off of good healthy trees are worth more money to both grower and buyer than those from an ill-kept, diseased tree, and the picking, grading and packing would become a very small matter to the buyer if the grower would see that his orchard has up-to-date attention.

STORING AND MARKETING APPLES.

BY JAS. L. KEACH, INDIANAPOLIS.

The apple, from the Garden of Eden to the present time, has been known as the King of Fruits. The market for apples has been enlarged by the increased demand in Europe for both fresh and dried fruit, and the home market has grown through the advanced method of handling the crop, including the manufactured product. Enough has been said on the staple standing of the crop in the commercial column. Suffice it to say that commission merchants will readily make liberal cash advances on a prospective crop and banks will advance three-fourths the market value on the warehouse receipts for apples stored in public warehouses. The method of evaporating apples has done much to develop the trade, as our evaporated apples find their way into the markets of the world, and with the cold storage facilities, evaporated apples may be carried for several years with slight deterioration. All parts of the apple have a commercial value. The skins and cores are evaporated and find a market at home and abroad to makers of jellies, as it is possible today to make a superior quality of any flavored jelly from the peels and cores of the apple, and the bulk of the cheaper grades of manufactured jellies and fruit butters are today made from the peels and cores of apples. Cider manufacturers have made rapid strides in the manufacture and preservation of cider and a large quantity of the inferior or lower grades of apples are thus consumed. The canning indus, try has grown to be an important factor in the market, and they are heavy buyers, with a large home and foreign demand, Cold storage for

the packing and preservation of the fresh fruit enables the packing and holding of the surplus crop and an equal distribution throughout the season, thereby avoiding gluts.

In the large apple producing sections, cold storage plants have been erected for the purpose of further facilitating the storing and marketing of the crop and obviating the heavy losses formerly sustained by shipping in the fall to distant points, as well as delays in securing cars, and also railroad blockades. The successful storing and marketing of apples largely depends on the careful handling in picking and packing. To be stored successfully, they must be perfect, as the expense is too great to justify the consideration of storing poor stuff, or stuff that has been poorly handled. The secret to cold storage is to delay decomposition. This is done by a steady low temperature of dry air, which is acquired by artificial means. The ammonia system most largely in use has given satisfactory results. The temperature most common and the one agreed on by most practical authorities is thirty-one degrees Fahrenheit. You will note this is one degree below freezing, but apples stand the temperature, the skin acting as an overcoat and, of course, the closer fruit is kept to freezing and yet not frozen, the better you retain the flavor and retard decay. This industry to-day, although but a few years in existence, makes it possible to transport the apples from the western coast of California across the continent, thence in turn across the ocean and deliver in London or Liverpool in perfect condition, thereby opening the markets of Europe, to which points, in our heaviest export years, we have sent over a million barrels in one season. Railroad companies have in use today over 60,000 refrigerator cars and all modern constructed sea-going vessels are being equipped with cold storage apartments and refrigerating machinery. You will thus see that former risks have been removed. So complete is this work that strawberries are shipped from Florida to New York and arrive in good condition. The principle of the refrigerator car is on the same line as the cold storage, and when goods as delicate as strawberries stand these long journeys, you can readily see what can be done with apples. Cold storage is utilized for the surplus crop, or what formerly went to waste. The more southern the crop, the greater per cent. there is for storage, as in the Northern climate the apples hold until March in common storage, while in cold storage Indiana apples keep until the middle of May. The consumption of the apple increases yearly.

There remains but little to be said with reference to the marketing of the crop, and you can perhaps draw some idea of the magnitude of the trade when I say to you that at the convention of apple shippers, held at Rochester, N. Y., on the 7th, 8th and 9th of August, there was an attendance of fully 200 heavy operators that represent an unlimited capital.

And of such commercial value is the American crop that this meeting attracted a number of foreign representatives, two firms from London and Liverpool being represented in person at the meeting.

You will excuse my presumption, I am sure, when I depart from my subject to say to you that a lifetime's experience leads me to say I am positive that Indiana is geographically located to market a crop of apples to a better advantage than any other State in the Union, except direct seaboard points on the east coast, and she has a climate superior for the culture, and a soil as well (for native varieties), than most States that now produce commercial apples. I am, furthermore, positive that notwithstanding the fact that Missouri stands at the head of the list in the number of bearing apple trees, a properly cared for orchard in Indiana can take from her the boast that she is the home of the big, red apple. It remains for your association to consider and it is for you to say as to whether we are to become a factor in the market and also. build up a paying industry for posterity, or not. If Indiana is going to become a factor in the storing and marketing of fruit, you must take up the work through your colleges and through your Farmer's Institute meetings. The State should be interested in this work, as it will increase the wealth of the State, and many acres of what is now looked upon as worthless hills can be utilized to a profit in this industry. Our government at Washington will gladly give you the benefit of their experiments, and if you think this amounts to nothing I would suggest that you pay a visit to the orchards of States that think different, and see the contrast. It has been shown that with proper care apple trees in other States bear a fair crop every year, and I believe they will do so in Indiana. But you must be practical to raise fruit. You must first raise the tree and then it must be cared for. If such subjects as spraying, cover crops, proper pruning and intelligent cultivation are to be set aside as the hobby and theory of the college dude and denounced as impractical, without consideration, we are going to make slow progress.

Let us ascertain what other States do for the advancement of this work, and I am sure our State will do as much. There is today many young apple trees coming on and it is the duty of this Society to see that the owners of these trees have the latest and most scientific knowledge on the culture of same. Our State should look to Purdue University for an active interest in this subject. Other States are carefully teaching agriculture and horticulture. What study can be more healthy, more elevating and more practical? What study today presents to the youth a more independent future than advanced and scientific farming? Cities build for future generations and it is the duty we owe to the youth to see that this work is carried forward in an aggressive and advanced

manner. Governor Mount advocated the teaching of agriculture in our public schools and many scoffed at the idea, and yet I had the pleasure about that time of reading an article in one of our leading commercial papers, stating that the Czar of Russia had made it one of the leading studies in his public schools.

I will conclude my remarks by saying I travel all apple growing districts, and have endeavored to confine my remarks to personal observations.

STORING AND MARKETING APPLES.

BY H. H. SWAIM, SOUTH BEND.

For the commercial orchardist the problem of storing and marketing fruit has been very much simplified by the advent of the cold storage system, by which apples can be kept the year around, thus equalizing prices and giving a much longer time in which to dispose of them. But for the man with a small orchard who sells in his local market this is hardly practicable; he must store his fruit upon the farm or sell at picking time, which is the season of the lowest prices.

Perfect cold storage is the ideal method of keeping apples and the nearer we can approach it in a farm storage the better. I have found a cave built in the side hill, arched over with brick and covered with dirt and sodded, very satisfactory, but we do not all have side hills, and for those who are so unfortunate I would recommend a building double walled with air spaces between and lined throughout with building paper. I have seen such buildings that gave very good satisfaction. But after all, very much depends upon the quality of the fruit. There is no system of storage that will make first class apples out of culls, and it will never pay to try to keep any but the best, and they must be handled with the greatest care and should be stored as soon as possible after picking.

Marketing apples has been a very simple matter for the past few years. You only have to make it known that you have them and you will have plenty of buyers. If you are near enough to a good local market to be your commission man, and have the apples, the rest is easy.

W. D. Thomas: I am glad to be present and hear the subject that has just been read. Mr. Keach has not only touched upon the subject assigned to him, but he has touched generally upon the possibilities of apple growing in Indiana. Now, I know nothing about cold storage, and the management of the fruit after it is ripened. I have made some observations that might be profitable to the people in this audience. I have just recently, within the last twelve or fifteen years, entered into the

growing of fruit. I was raised on a farm, when farmers grew fruit a good deal like the majority of people grow it today. The growing and gathering of apples is a thing that is very much neglected with the common farmer. My opinion is that apples should be gathered when they are ripe, not too ripe. They should be picked carefully, selected possibly while picking, and carry them immediately to its storage, if possible to a good cool cellar, where it is put into a box, perhaps a bushel and a half box, put the top on it, make it almost airtight. My method is to put them in boxes and pile the boxes one upon the other until I pile it full to the ceiling. Along in the middle of December, I go into my cellar and take down a box--I have two-one sitting to one side of me and one on the other side. I sort them over. Every one that is perfect I put into one box, and every one that is imperfect I put into another. I mark the perfect apples, and market them. I have been able to keep the Grimes Golden by this process until the middle of May in the cellar. I have been able to keep the Winesap until the middle of June in perfect condition. First simply sort them and put away the perfect ones. All the imperfect ones I consume or sell.

A great many things could be said that are interesting and profitable to the general farmer, but there are more that wish to talk a little upon this subject, therefore I will defer any further remarks.

MAINTENANCE OF SOIL FERTILITY.

BY E. M. C. HOBBS, SALEM.

At this hour, after the most thorough consideration of the apple from the start to the finish, from the "cradle to the grave," it would seem that all has been said, unless in keeping with the year, and hour as well, we should discuss the taste or appetite, and the control of the same in a year like this, when many of us are most likely to go longing about for a red apple, that will be a rare luxury with many of our people this coming winter. But to fulfill the letter of the program, even if the spirit of the meeting has gone after the red apple, or more correctly, after dinner, I will review a few thoughts concerning the fertility of the soil and how the fertility may be maintained. It seems to be an undisputed proposition that the orchard of fifty or sixty years ago bore well and the trees grew vigorously. Let other things be as they may the soil was then all right-all sufficient for a good crop. Whether the soil was loam, clay or sand; carboniferous, subcarboniferous or drift; low or high, the testimony of our parents is one of harmony-that Rambo, the Bellflower, and Milum, etc., were loaded with fruit year after year. And, oh! how luscious they were-and how well they kept!