Market Fruits of Kansas City. 157 



Tliird Oa>— Tlimrsday. 



Evening Session. 



The Society was called to order by President Earle at 7:45. 



The following paper was read by Mr. L. A. Goodman, of Missouri : 



MARKET FRUITS OF KANSAS CITY. 



BY L. A. GOODMAN, OF MISSOURI. 



The idea of this subject, I suppose, is to find out what are the best fruits 

 for the markets of the West in comparison with those of the East; to find if 

 the same class or quality of fruits have as good a market here as there, and 

 to find the differences, if there are any, and what those are. 



I take it also that this subject does not limit itself to simply what sell the 

 best, but that we are to take into consideration the hardiness and produc- 

 tiveness of all these fruits as well as just the selling qualities; for we all know 

 that the yellow Belltiower, for instance, will always bring high i^rices, but, as 

 well we know, that it is unprofitable. We will then take our best fruits in 

 the reverse order of ripening, and give a few reasons why we claim them as 

 our best market fruits, then some of the market fruits of other countries, 

 as they are seen in every large city. 



I take it that a market fruit or the best market fruits of any city are those 

 which bring the most money; but some good market fruits will be noticed 

 besides those for money alone; for it is believed by all fruit growers that the 

 time Will come when quality will be of very prominent consideration in our 

 market fruits, as now beauty and size is the most prominent feature. How 

 long it will be before people's tastes will be educated up to this idea it is im- 

 possible to state, many believing that it is the duty of the liorticulturist to 

 grow only the besi fruits, and educate the masses up to the standard, while 

 others think we should supply what the market demands without reference 

 to any of our concern what they want. 



I suppose our market here at Kansas City is rather peculiar, not for a 

 Western city, but would be in comparison with an Eastern city. Here we 

 have buyers coming from the whole Western country, the Southwestern 

 country, the Southern country and the Northwestern country. 



Last fall, before we gathered our apples, I received numerous letters from 

 Nebraska and Iowa of the North, from Colorado and the mountains of the 

 West, and Kansas and Texas of the Southwest, all wishing to know where 

 they could get good large red apples. This is a type of what the market of 

 Kansas City is expected to be. Many of these parties I saw later, and it was 

 impossible to make them believe that they should take some of the other 

 poorly colored fruits with the bright colored ones. Yet we in every instance 

 found it impossible to convmce them that a Janet, a White Winter Pearmain 



