Wi7itcr Meeting. 201 



ful study and the closest observation. The mistakes and the suc- 

 cesses, the fortunes and the misfortunes of others should help the 

 planters of the future to come pretty close to the truth. Though 

 this question of varieties is of primary interest to me in an official 

 capacity, as my work is studying the adaptability of varieties to 

 conditions, further consideration at this time must give way to an- 

 other feature which is of importance to those who already have 

 bearing orchards. 



Some of you, perhaps, are saying "my difficulty is not to grow 

 the fruit; it is to dispose of it satisfactorily after I have got it." 

 I do not know that I can help you, but possibly some suggestions 

 vdll "furnish food for thought," and if you really get to thinking, 

 something will come of it sooner or later. 



In the Mississippi Valley there are some tremendously large 

 orchards. Some of the largest, and I suppose the very largest in 

 the country, are in this area. In a large measure the growers are 

 dependent upon the buyers — those who come to the orchards some 

 time prior to picking time — for the disposal of their fruit. When 

 the buyers come and offer a price, there is scarcely any alternative 

 but to accept it, and this year it was ruinously low in most cases. 

 But the growers were, as a rule, at the mercy of the buyers. It was 

 their price or none. 



In some sections, for instance, in Western New York, many 

 of the growers barrel their own fruit, without reference to buy- 

 ers, and if they cannot sell at a satisfactory price, they are able to 

 command storage facilities and hold their fruit until it is wanted 

 at better terms. One of the extensive growers in Western New 

 York, who had a fine crop the past season, had, so I am informed, 

 an interesting experience which illustrates the point I am trying 

 to make. His crop amounted to several thousand barrels of strictly 

 No. 1 fruit. It was very fine. He packed it himself, and during 

 the time required for this he was besieged by buyers — sometimes 

 a half dozen a day. He had placed his own price upon his fruit 

 and was in a position to put it in storage if he wanted to do so. 

 Hence, he told the buyers that when they came to his terms he was 

 ready to talk business, and not before, and finally one of them 

 bowed to the grower and bought the fruit. Wouldn't you like to be 

 able to dictate terms to the buyers? But I cannot forbear to say 

 that only the very best fruit of desirable varieties — strictly No. 1 

 to fancy — will create much of a competition among buyers, and it 

 is only such fruit, and then only when it is properly handled and 



