22 AGRICUI,TL'RE OF MAINE. 



barrels. The total yield of the United States in 1909 was 

 25,415,000 barrels; in 1910, 24,225,000 barrels, and in 191 1, 

 30,065,000 barrels. 



These figures do not show an increase of apples that is 

 anywhere near the increase in population. 



The prices for apples for the past few years have been too 

 high for their free consumption by the masses of consumers. 

 The wholesale prices in Boston in the autumn of 1909 ranged 

 from $3 to $6 per barrel; in 1910 from $4 to $6; and in 191 1 

 from $2 to $4 per barrel. 



The retail prices are much higher than the wholesale, and 

 many consumers have had to turn to cheaper foreign fruits as 

 they could not pay the high cost for apples. 



At many of the retail stores good apples are sold for $1 to 

 $1.50 a dozen, while at the hotels one baked apple costs twenty 

 cents, which costs the consumer at the rate of $60 a barrel. 



The retailers and the hotel proprietors claim that to get the 

 fine quality of apples such as their best customers demand, they 

 have to assort often from three barrels to obtain one bushel of 

 really fine apples. 



This is why the small orchard for most growers is more 

 desirable, that they may give them better care and produce 

 more of the higher quality that is demanded. For the past 

 sixty days the markets in all of our cities have been over 

 supplied with a large quantity of inferior apples — poor, wormy, 

 undesirable fruit which in some instances has not brought the 

 cost of freight and barrels, while strictly fine apples have been 

 in demand at good prices, from $3 to $5 per barrel. 



These are some of the lessons of the present year, and they 

 are so full of instruction that if heeded they should be of value 

 in the years that are to come, and if they are, the future will 

 have good things in store for those fruit growers who continue 

 to plant trees and properly care for them. 



