STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 2^ 



hot weather causing fruit to land in poor condition, has made 

 net returns small on early shipments. With cooler weather and 

 apples arriving on the English markets in good condition, more 

 satisfactory returns are being realized. 



Our home markets have been dull and many of them over- 

 stocked with out-of-season varieties. I received a letter from 

 a Providence produce house, October 25, saying that the mar- 

 ket was overstocked with winter fruit, such as Ben Davis and 

 York Imperials, but was nearly bare of fruit fit for immediate 

 consumption. With our home markets overstocked and dull, 

 there comes a cry through the press and otherwise from the 

 consumer who is paying the same price per peck as last year 

 when apples were scarce and high. It must be apparent to every 

 interested fruit grower in ]^Iaine that our present system of 

 distribution is bad, and will continue to be so until the growers- 

 apply some remedy looking to a solution of this problem. 



Our greatest need at present would seem to be cooperation or 

 business organizations among the producers, not to fix prices or 

 control markets, but to erect warehouses and storage plants at 

 every shipping center throughout the fruit belt, which would 

 enable them to more economically and efficiently market their 

 fruit. 



The storage problem has been previously brought to the atten- 

 tion of this body and is an important one. I would recommend 

 that this Society, at the coming session of the Legislature, ask 

 for an appropriation sufficient to provide for an experimental 

 storage plant in connection with the state farm at Highmoor, 

 to demonstrate what sort of storage would best meet the needs 

 of this important industry, and that a committee be appointed 

 during this session, to be known as the storage committee, to 

 carry out these recommendations. 



While there have been laws enacted regulating the shipping 

 of nursery stock into our state, and rigid inspection provided 

 for, that no diseased stock shall be permitted to enter the state, 

 yet the fruit industry receives a tremendous blow every year, in 

 that an enormous per cent of the nursery stock shipped into 

 Maine does not prove true to name. This is a matter of vital 

 importance to every fruit grower and is worthy of careful con- 

 sideration looking to some remedy whereby the purchaser may 

 be able to secure stock with some assurance that it will prove 

 true to name. 



