Judge La Rue thought that fruit growers were often at fault in the quality of fruit they ship, and recommended the division of all fruit into extra first class and second class, with the name of the grower upon each package.

Mr. Brooks said Western New York apples were superior to those grown in any southern locality, and it would pay us to make a selection of the very best and demand fancy prices for them. He did not believe in the present tendency of run-ning to Baldwins, Greenings, Twenty Ounce, apples and others that are not of the highest quality. We should encourage paying a higher price for Spitzenbergs and fancy apples. He thought second quality apples should be largely in demand for cooking purposes.

Mr. Hayward said packing apples was a very difficult process. He had taken great care in packing, and yet had not always succeeded in satisfying shippers. We had no encouragement in making extra first class apples. The dealers and consumers will not take them at a price that will pay for doing it.

Judge La Rue thought that fruit growers who had large quantities of apples should be their own shippers, the same as grape growers did. He frequently had orders for brands of grapes which consumers liked. The fruit interest in Western New York is increasing so that it will in a few years be greater than all other interests. When he first commenced raising grapes he could not get any market for a ton. Next year he sold at nine cents, and in two or three years the price went up to thirty cents a pound. Last year, owing to the increased production, he got only fifteen cents a pound; but he could grow them for two cents a pound. The cost of production was not more than one cent per pound.

Mr. Quimby thought that apples were often much injured by carelessness in picking. Mr. Robert Bell, on the Hudson, has the largest orchard of Newtown pippins in the State. The apples are picked with great care, and assorted carefully. His best apples are packed in small casks and shipped to England, where they sold at $8 and $10 per half barrel. The 2d quality were sold in New York. The refuse apples were made into cider and sold for $8 and $10 per barrel to champagne manufacturers.

What fruits shall we now plant extensively for profit ?

Mr. Moore said the Roxbury Russett was one of the most profitable varieties of apples.

Mr. Beadle said apples were most profitable. He thought there was more money in apples than in any other fruit.

Mr. Hoag thought that this Society should not confine itself to one single variety. He had grown all kinds of fruits with profit except the plum. There are very few varieties of apples, especially in old orchards, that are really profitable.

Mr. Wagner thought that apples and all kinds of fruits could be grown with profit, but with him grapes were most profitable. He sold at home from four to eleven cents per pound, and those he shipped, sold from eight to sixteen cents per pound. The yield averaged four tons per acre.

Mr. Quimby said he raised about 10,000 pounds of Isabella grapes from two acres which were not in full bearing, and he sold them in Rochester for $500, which he thought paid well enough.

Oliver Chapin only netted two cents per pound for grapes on the vines. This hardly paid expenses. His apple orchard had not paid very well. His apple trees planted thirteen years ago had never brought a crop worth picking. Baldwin trees twenty years old had only borne three good crops. He had forced the trees as fast as possible so as to get them out of the way of the borers and of mice. It cost about $1,000 an acre to cultivate an apple orchard twenty years without cropping. He hoped his apple orchard would pay some time, but it had not yet.

Mr. Chapin had made considerable profit from Bartlett pears - more than he could have made from ordinary farming or grapes. He only grew the Isabella; one-half the seasons he got a good crop. The profit had been good. This year, at two cents per pound, it paid as well as a wheat crop. The average price, until this year, was five cents per pound as they hung on the vines. The profit had been at least one hundred dollars an acre, which was better than any other crop.

Mr. Barry, of Rochester, thought much depended on the marketing of fruit. Grapes sold last fall at one and a-half or two cents per pound, while if they had been kept a month later they would have brought five or ten cents a pound. He thought Mr. Chapin's apple orchrad was exceptionally unprofitable. He averaged $9 a barrel for pears, which was very profitable. He sold two barrels of Lady apples at $15 each, and if he could have kept till Christmas, he could have got much more. He had sold Josephine De Malines pears in winter for as high as $25 a barrel.

Mr. Brooks thought the apple was worth all other fruits, but other fruits should not be neglected. Fruit growers should not be discouraged by a few failures.

Mr. Quimby said the demand for grapes at this season of the year was very great, and they would command an extra price. He wanted to know how they could be kept.

Mr. Babcock kept grapes for family use, but not for market. Some varieties would not keep well. The Delaware and Concord were of this class.

Isabellas, Catawbas, Ionas and Rogers' Hybrids are mostly good keepers. If packed in boxes they should be kept in a cold room - not freezing - and covered with something to absorb the moisture.

\ Mr. Jones, of Geneva, thought we should study the tendency of the market, so that we could forecast the probable demand. We are to compete with California fruits grown at low rates. Here we should turn our attention to long keepers. The perishable varieties of fruits have not been profitable. The Bartlett is so poor a keeper that it is very liable to over-production. We should rather select some varieties of pears that were better keepers.

Mr. Quimby said he had succeeded well in growing pears on sandy soil, with sandy sub-soil. When he bought the place, five years ago, the pears on the place were rapidly drying from blight. He checked the blight by applying one or two bushels of leached ashes around each tree. Others had received the same benefit from leached ashes.

Mr. Craine said that the pear blight had not been so destructive for two or three years.

Mr. Hooker thought fruit growers should be patient and wait. If Mr. Chapin had not kept his trees so thrifty he would have realized more profit from his apple orchard. The fruit crop was liable to glut, but the glut could never last long.

Charles Downing said if he could have but one pear it would be the Beurre Bosc. His second pear would be the Beurre D'Anjou. With him pears had succeeded better than apples. The Lawrence and Dana's Hovey were named as additional pears.

Mr. Barry, Jr., said the Josephine De Malines was a very profitable winter pear, and sells now in New York at $20 a barrel. The tree is a good grower and bearer. Its fine glossy skin makes it more valuable, though many other winter pears were nearly as good. He thought a committee should be appointed to test winter pears. Everybody was planting Bartlett pears, which came into market just at the same time with Southern peaches, and sold at a low price.

Mr. Moody, of Lockport, sold Beurre D'Anjou at home for the Boston market at $20 a barrel.

Mr. Beadle said these same pears sold in Boston at $34 per barrel. The tree is a moderate bearer, and succeeds best on the quince.

Mr. Yeomans said the Beurre D'Anjou did best on the quince. He sold his best at $20 a barrel.

Mr. Chapin sold all his Bartlett pears last year for $9 a barrel, for his entire crop. The Duchess D'Angouleme, carefully selected, sold at $20 a barrel. He thought the Bartlett pears were a profitable crop.

Mayor H. T. Brooks said that apples for marketing should be divided into at least three classes. Our northern species should sell for twice as much as some other varieties which are not bo good. Dealers should pay more for Fameuse and Spitizen-bergs than they do, and make them as profitatble as the Baldwins and Greenings. By throwing away all the poor apples, we could get twice or three times as much as we do now.

Mr. T. G. Yeomans, of Walworth, said, while buyers paid as as much for poor as for good, no one would take the trouble to sort them. A fruit grower must either cheat or suffer. He never had sold any apples in the local markets. The farmer who has his apples once opened in the village market can never after get a full price for them. He believed in mixing two qualities of apples. This year apples are so cheap it would hardly pay to sort them carefully, as the first quality paid a little more than the second quality. He shipped to New York, and got better prices for first-class apples there. Each producer should put his name on the barrels.

Express and railroad companies should be required by public opinion to handle choice fruits carefully. He had hired a through car to have grapes and pears carried to New York, but it was overhauled at Albany and the fruit seriously damaged.

Mr. Quimby said that the fruit growers' trials from express companies were such that he had almost despaired. He had to desist from sending grapes to New York city on this account. He hoped this Society would pass resolutions.

Mr. Moony - After we have packed fruit more carefully we should insist that it must be carried better. The trouble was in the method of packing, which was unfair and dishonest. When the Lake Ontario Shore road is put through, railroad agents will be more careful and accommodating.

Mr. Thomas suggested putting up fruit in smaller packages, and packing more carefully. He would pack in half barrels or even smaller measures. He thought that the discussion on apples was discouraging to those who proposed planting.