STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 2"] 



MARKETING FRUIT 



' Is at least as important as producing it. From the standpoint 

 of the grower as a source of revenue it is of far more importance. 

 At the recent annual exhibition and convention of the New 

 Hampshire Horticultural Society, which I had the privilege of 

 attending, every speaker from the ranks of the growers dwelt 

 at length on the market end of his subject. One I recall declared 

 emphatically that "marketing was more than half the problem 

 of success in fruit growing." A careful weighing of the matter 

 in all its bearings will confirm the soundness of the claim set 

 forth by this New Hampshire fruit grower. This being the 

 case the apple growers especially of our State, and this society, 

 may well for a time direct our efforts to the market side of our 

 fruit industry. We have been dwelling on every feature of this 

 industry save this one, the most important of all. The Dominion 

 government, in an effort to increase certain lines of products on 

 the farms of its subjects, first of all went to work to provide 

 suitable market facilities for the same. To make it desirable to 

 produce these products they must be well disposed of, was the 

 sensible and reasonable argument. The California deciduous 

 fruit growers were driven to the wall till they organized facilities 

 for connecting the products of their orchards with the markets 

 of the East. Growers in the Erie grape belt were driven to the 

 necessity of systematizing the marketing of their grapes. Dela- 

 ware peach growers found their profits all in the coffers of the 

 commission men till they rose to the necessity of organizing a 

 different system of selling. Where were the fruit growers of 

 Maine in '96 with one of the finest and most beautiful crops of 

 apples ever picked from trees, and with no protection to the 

 market side of the situation? Where are we today but in the 

 hands of the commission men, save only that here and there a 

 man dares risk his crop shipped at a hazard on his own private 

 account? Certainly it is quite time that attention was given to 

 the market side of Maine fruit-growing. 



As now conducted, it is one great hustle of the shippers to get 

 growing, all the fruit possible afloat ahead of "the other feller," 

 without regard to conditions of the market, and just as though 

 the devil was sure to take the hindermost. 



