112 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



are many fashions and fancies. The average grower seeks the line of 

 least resistance and that is the line in which he has the least labor 

 ahead of him. As a rule the man who sells his apples "in a lump" on 

 the trees gets the least money out of his crop. No buyer will assume 

 in a strange community the burden of harvesting a crop of apples unless 

 he can see a big profit in so doing. Oftentimes the grower imagines 

 he is getting a big price when in reality he is not. For example, in 

 1902 I was part owner and manager of a crop of ai)ples or 350 acres of 

 orchard. At that time fl.OO per barrel for the fruit picked down was 

 considered a good price for the fruit where buyer furnished the barrels 

 and packed his own apples, the grower picked and delivered to sorting 

 table. That year I estimated my apples to bring me |1.25, per barrel 

 handled in this way and sold the whole crop in the lump on that 

 basis. That is, I sfigured in my mind that the sale would net me at 

 the rate of |1.25 per barrel. A neighbor grower also sold to this same 

 buyer the apples on his own orchard saying to a mutual friend that T 

 had sold too cheap. When the apples in both orchards were packed 

 this neighbor's apples netted 65c per barrel and my crop brought |1.22 

 per barrel. In other words, this neighbor was ottered fl.OO per barrel 

 for the fruit and chose to sell in the lump at 35c per barrel loss of 

 14,500.00 on his crop. 



There is the system of selling on the trees "in the lump" where buyer 

 takes full charge of harvesting the crop at his own expense. 



Then others sell "in the lump" and the groAver does the picking, the 

 hauling of empty barrels to the orchard and the full barrels to the 

 cars. Here the buyer packs and furnishes the barrel. This is better 

 then the first method for in this the owner of the orchard can protect 

 his trees from the carelessness of the man with the ladder. 



Then again there are those who sell at so much per barrel flat price 

 for ones and twos, the grower picking and the buyer packing. Another 

 method is so much per barrel for ones and a different price for twos. 

 This is a hard matter to get the buyer to accord the grower fair treat- 

 ment in grading as it is for the grower to do the fair thing to the buyer. 

 If the price goes up the buyer wants all he bought and the grower 

 tries to force upon him a lower grade of stock. On the other hand if 

 price goes down the buyer tries to get out of his contract and the 

 grower then tries to make him take more than he bought. 



It is always best whatever way he sells for the grower to be prepared 

 to harvest, barrel and store his stock. In other words contract for 

 your barrels and your storage. Have the latter optional to as late 

 a date as possible and then you will be in position if you make a sale 

 to have the buyer take your barrel contract off of your hands and 

 possibly also your storage contract, especially if the latter is near the 

 orchards or in a favorable locality. 



Should you store your own stock, ha\e in mind where you are likely 

 to sell and store there. If your storage is near the orchard you have 

 the advantage of not having to pay freight. 



Co-operation in packing is usually economy and secures you in your 

 grades. Buyers are then more easily satisfied as to the grade of your 

 fruit. Community selling will be desirable one of these days and is 



