572 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doo. 



hold speculators in check. As it is now, there is much manipulation, 

 engineered by some of the larger concerns identified with evapora- 

 ting plants and the few firms engaged in the export trade. The 

 opinion has been expressed that if the number of small evaporators 

 is materially increased, this very fact will tend to take control of the 

 business from a few hands, and put it into many, thus helping the 

 industry in a large way. 



An evaporator with a capacity of lOU bushels of apples a day costs 

 somewhat less than |1,0UU, and should turn off 500 to 600 pounds 

 evaporated apples from 100 bushels of green stock, together with 

 200 pounds of skins and cores. 



The federal pure food law which has just gone into effect is 

 puzzling dealers somewhat, owing to the fact that evaporated apples 

 are treated with sulphur fumes in order to bleach them, and there 

 is much interest over the question of ruling which may be made; 

 yet no doubt the matter will be amicably adjusted. The business 

 in evaporated apples, in a word, is not overdone, nor does it seem 

 probable it will be in the immediate years to come, and wisely 

 handled ought to be the means of disposing of an increasing pro- 

 portion of our annual apple supply. 



No business will run itself, a co-operative fruit selling organiza- 

 tion any more than a woolen mill or a trunk line railroad. Many 

 co-operative enterprises, at one time prosperous and full of con- 

 tinued promise, have fallen by the wayside through bad manage- 

 ment. This may include lack of a strong man at the head of the 

 business in distributing and selling products, and lack of a thorough 

 understanding of market conditions in the big trade centei-s, and 

 ometimes a lack of firmness in maintaining a high standard of ex- 



a 



*» " "^&J 



cellence in quality of fruit and in packing. Long credits proved, 

 amang other things, the death of one very successful co-operative 

 fruit shipping association located in New Jersey. Summing up the 

 situation, the problem before every fruit grower, as each season 

 rolls around, is to sell his produce in the most advantageous man- 

 ner, either single handed or co-operative. 



Some of the thoughts outlined in this paper may be summarized^ 

 with deductions therefrom, embodied in a couple of concluding para- 

 graphs. 



If a number of growers in one town would work together in some 

 such way, as the thoughts in this paper suggest, they might combine 

 in shipping, and thus give co-operative marketing a practical test 

 right here in Pennsylvania. Study thoroughly the co-operative move- 

 ment as it has been developed, and reasonably perfected in other 

 sections. See what can be done, or what application can be made of 

 these various successes to condition's in your own locality. 



A great essential right here is a thorough knowledge on the part 

 of producers of market conditions; not only at your own town and 

 shii)ping station, but in the big distributing centers at home and 

 abroad, something of the export trade, something of domestic re- 

 quirements in various cities, something of the temper of dealers 

 who buy in the autumn for later markets, etc. One thing necessary 

 is to know the market to which you ship, when, and how to ship. 

 One large commercial center will take with avidity certain apples 

 or certain peaches which would meet slow sale in another big dis- 



