476 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



last fall. The Illinois Station has shown that a verv satisfactory 

 ice storage house of 2,000 barrels capacity- can be built for about 

 18,500 ($3,430.40). This building, in Southern Illinois, is reported 

 to have kept apples during the seven months' storage season at a 

 temperature of 33 degrees or slightl}' lower, at a cost of 19.1 cents 

 per barrel, including 10 cents interest charges per barrel. This 

 represents an annual saving of -$618 on 2,000 barrels ov-er ordinary 

 cit}' storage charges. It also often saves unnecessary freight and 

 cartage charges. And this house could have been put up last year 

 by the grower with 000 barrels of Gano had lie sold them at this 

 spring's prices instead of last fall's. This is not presented in any 

 sense as a criticism of the grower, but to illustrate the fact that in 

 this comparatively new business, growers are often confronting 

 problems of which they are not aware, and to show that it is poor 

 economy to delay adding an equipment that is really needed. 



Then there is the question of marketing. We often receive com- 

 plaints "that fruit wastes when there is a crop," "no buyers, and 

 prices so low that it won't pay to handle it." If the fruit has been 

 properly grown and is really good, there is absolutely no excuse for 

 such results, especially in such a year and state as this. To sell 

 apples regularly and profitably, three things are required. First. 

 the fruit should be really good, of proper size and color, and free 

 from blemishes b}- codling moth, scale or fungi. These can be pre- 

 vented by efficient spraying, and by that only, as I have reason to 

 know. I have seen an orchard this fall so free from codling moth 

 that, in spite of a heavy crop of fruit, I was unable, after considera- 

 ble search on trees and among wind-falls, to find a single apple that 

 had been injured by that insect. We did find some injury by the 

 lesser apple worm (Enarmonia prunivora), but no codling moth. Of 

 course there was codling injury there. but it was so scarce that one 

 had to hunt for it and hunt long. These apples would sell on any 

 market. Proper spraying is good business policy. 



The second requisite for profitable selling is that the fruit be 

 properly packed. I have seen carloads of apples this fall, selling at 

 40 cents per hundred, loose and mixed, when similar fruit in other 

 localities properly barreled, sorted and graded was bringing |3.00 

 per barrel. After allowing for the extra cost, this was an increase 

 of over 400 per cent, for the trouble of packing the fruit right. 

 That is an extreme case, but it shows how little attention is being 

 paid to some of the simplest business principles, and indicates why 

 some people fail in fruit growing. 



The third retiuisite is to let the location of good fruit be known; 

 in other words, when necessary, advertise. Ink is cheap, and its 

 use is understood in most other vocations better than in the fruit 

 business. This advertising need not be done in the papers. An 

 efficient method of disposing of fruit of all kinds, in moderate quan- 

 tities, which are in excess of the demands of local markets, is in 

 operation by a grower in Erie county. He gets Dunn's or Brad- 

 street's Business Guide and makes a list of all reliable fruit dealers 

 or grocers within convenient express distance from his station. He 

 then takes his hand press and sets up a form in type telling just 

 what fruit he will have for sale during the next two or three days, 

 and sets a price. This is run off on special souvenir post cards with 



