124 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



in the same way as that association did whose shipping station 

 I showed on the screen. 



I received letters from farmers all over New England, a 

 majority of whom have not time to make visits to the city, 

 thinking if they send a few apples to the commission men, 

 that he ought to sell them, find a good customer, collect the 

 money and return it to him, and take out a small charge and 

 give him the most of it. Now that does not happen. Under- 

 stand, this commission man is not going to work for your interest ■ 

 unless you make it an object for him to do it — unless you are 

 around to see what is going on. His interest is to make a living 

 and to make money for himself. He is either going to sell those 

 apples as quickly as he can on commission, or he is going to buy 

 them, or have some of his friends buy them and hold them. 

 Remember, at the time you are picking your apples and offering 

 them for sale, you are loading on the market twelve times as 

 much as the market will absorb. Somebody is going to buy 

 and put their money in them. A few years ago it was a great 

 gamble about apples. As they come to be graded more and 

 more the prices will be more or less established, considering 

 the available supply as it has been reported by the various crop 

 statistics. There is no reason why growers and buyers, if the 

 apples are well graded, if they cannot secure a proper price in 

 the fall, cannot ship those apples to cold storage centers, borrow 

 money on them, and hold them until it is time to put them 

 on the market. But to do that, the individual grower, unless he 

 understands the market, pays high for his experience. Ways 

 of living, as I have shown by these pictures, have changed. 

 People are not so interested in their food supply as one might 

 think. The majority is interested in having a good time, and 

 food is simply an incident to their living. Many are not inter- 

 ested necessarily in the cheapness with which they can get it. 

 It is the easiness with which they can get it. Somebody has 

 to perform the service. And the man who is down there 

 and understands the business can do it better than the man up 

 here who does not undersand it. 



PRODUCER TO CONSUMER. 



A great deal has been said about "from producer to con- 

 sumer." In the small places that is all right. In a large place, 



