Fruit Production in New York 1351 



duco over one-half the peaches in tho State. One-fifth of the 

 plums and prunes are grown in ISTiagara county, and Columbia 

 county is the leading cherry-growing county of tho State. The 

 counties of the Hudson valley produce about one-fifth the entire 

 fruit crop of the State. 



Fruit grown in the State of Xew York is of the very highest 

 quality. The market or commercial essentials of fruit are ship- 

 ping and keeping properties. For this purpose fruit must be of 

 sufiicientlv finn texture to bear with as little injury as possible 

 the packing and handling incident to transporting to market and 

 distribution to consumers. Commercial fruit growers must there- 

 fore grow such varieties of a given kind of fruit as will meet tho 

 mentioned requirements, but they will at the same time choose 

 types having as bright color, uniform size, attractive appearance 

 and good eating quality as the necessity of conforming to market- 

 ing and handling requirements will permit. It is, however, a 

 fact that most consumers of fruit rarely taste or even know 

 that certain very sweet, rich and delicious fruit can not be found 

 in the general markets. Peaches, plums, grapes and strawberries 

 reach their highest state of excellence only when fully ripened on 

 tho trees or vines and when in this condition they are too tender 

 to pack and ship. 



There are scores of varieties of nearly all kinds of fruit pos- 

 sessing superior (luality that can not be sent to a distant market, 

 yet they are highly appreciated if grown in the home grounds 

 for table use or nearby consumption. Growers are willing to 

 send better fruits to the markets and much improvement in this 

 direction has been shown in the past few years. Better methods 

 of packing in improved crates, boxes and baskets, better fruit to 

 pack and better rapid transportation and refrigeration are the 

 order of the day. Fruit growers of the State of Xew York in 

 many ways hold the key to the situation. They are within a 

 day's trip by freight or a night's by express to over one-half of 

 the population of the United States, thus giving them access to 

 the largest and richest ultimate consumers in the world. They 

 have an advantage in freight rates alone of nearly one dollar a 

 box over their Pacific coast competitors who have possessed tho 

 eastern markets with their attractively packed apples, pears, 



