190 State Horticultural Society. 



agent in the developing of the country ; greater than armies and navies, 

 perhaps, even than our universities. With most of the great railway 

 corporations their interest in horticulture is more than a passive one. 

 Many railroads are paying trained horticultural experts to develop the 

 fruit and truck raising along their lines. Only this summer I lost a 

 valuable assistant because the railroad could afford to pay him more for 

 horticultural work than the State could. They are doubtless looking 

 after their own interests, but they pay men to help the grower to help 

 himself. It is very easy for the grower to throw the blame for his 

 lack of success on the railroads or on the commission men. Undoubt- 

 edly the railroad people and the commission men are not all good, as are 

 the growers not all good, but at any rate, I believe they are human. 



Some growers and packers of fruit are really very unfortunate, for 

 nature herself seems to be against them. On some farms the laws of 

 gravitation seem to be reversed and the large, fine apples gravitate to 

 the ends of the barrel and the little, gnarly ones gravitate to the middle. 

 Sometimes old boots and pumpkins gravitate to the same place. Such 

 men are unfortunate, for it is of them that the Scripture says : "They 

 are like the chaff that the wind driveth away." But there are many 

 honest growers who take good care of their orchards and spray well and 

 pack honestly, that are unsuccessful because they do not know the market 

 and its requirements. 



OUR MARKET PROBLEMS. 



Let US look at some of the market problems. First in importance 

 is what market to send to, when to send to it and what to send to it. 

 Some markets will take a product that others will not have. For example. 

 Porter apples will sell well in Boston, but are not wanted in New York. 

 Talman Sweets bring good prices in Philadelphia, but could scarcely 

 be given away in Rochester. Some people think brown eggs are richer 

 than white eggs, while other people are willing to pay more per dozen 

 for white eggs for the same reason. Some markets will buy only white- 

 skinned poultry, while others want only the yellow-skinned. Some con- 

 sumers believe red apples are of higher quality than those of other colors. 

 A grocer in a certain city told me4hat that was a black-tea town, and that 

 one could not get the people there to use Japan tea if one gave it to them. 

 He was a wise merchant, and kept only black tea, and did not try to make 

 his customers take what they did not want. It is hard to educate public 

 taste. It pays the fruit-grower to study the demands of the market and 

 to give people the kind of fruit they want. 



When to send to a certain market is a still more difficult question 



