444 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



to co-operate and establish modern, tirst-class storage facilities. 

 By your co-operation yon can have the advantage here of a storage, 

 instead of paying the higher price that you will pay if you send your 

 fruit to Philadelphia, Baltimore or Washington. You have a bet- 

 ter advantage in the disposition of fruit. One of the most important 

 troubles in attempting to store fruit in our distant cities, is in the un- 

 certainty of getting it there in time. Many of our large buyers 

 make great mistakes and have met with heavy losses because of 

 having fruit picked too early. They have been mistaken in sup- 

 posing that fruit would keep better, picked early. The tendency 

 of the York Imperial has been to scald, much of the fruit having 

 been picked too soon, while those that have been left longer on the 

 trees until fully mature have kept perfectly. When we left the 

 fruit, till it came up to this higher degree of maturity, we learned 

 that it M'ill keep better on the tree than off, that is, after we pick 

 the fruit it begins the ripening process. We can keep our fruit on 

 the tree better than olf, and after it is picked it is better to get it 

 into cold storage at once. We are finding great difficulty and per- 

 plexity in getting cars promptly to load when we want them. We 

 have ordered cars two or three weeks in advance, and yet in spite 

 of the early filling of the order, have had to wait eight or ten days 

 and after we got the fruit into the car, it was two weeks before we 

 could get it into the storage in New York. Because of delay in get 

 ting cars and further delay in the railroad the fruit is exposed to 

 very great risk before being put in cold storage. I have had fruit so 

 delayed by railroads in attempting to get it into storage that it had 

 to be sold immediately on delivery because it would not hold. So 

 that the grower runs more or less risk when he attempts to store 

 in our large cities. There would be a large advantage in having the 

 local storage. There is a considerable and growing interest in this 

 plan. It would insure not only success in storing fruit, but it gives 

 an advantage on the other hand in the labor problem. It is abou* 

 all we can do to get our fruit gathered promptly and get it into 

 storage. If you had the local storage you could put all your effort 

 in getting the fruit gathered and put away,, then after the crops are 

 harvested and you are more at liberty, you can take it out, sort and 

 pack it. In the winter when it becomes cold, we can deliver the 

 fruit in refrigerator cars in good condition. Now those are some 

 of the favorable conditions that are attached to handling fruit for 

 cold storage, and I think in a co-operative way it will be practicable 

 for fruit growers in general to store their fruit. The liome demand 

 is growing greater each year, and the foreign markets are also 

 growing in their demand for our fruit. Improvements are also made 

 upon our ocean steamers, the capacity has become so extensive 

 and the facilities for refrigeration so admirable that it is going to 

 be possible to put our fruit in any part of the world where it is de- 

 sired. But when we attempt these shipments from different parts 

 of the United States, we- must have our fruits cooled in some way 

 that they can be delivered to the most distant markets and here 

 comes in to advantage the local storage and the refrigerator car. 



We have got to study so much about our business and one of 

 the most interesting features of it is we are always learning. While 

 we have had a large experience in the handling of fruit, I feel that 



