166 State Horticultural Society. 



son, and seed down to some cover crop after the middle of the summer. 

 I want culture every year, just when, how and how long may be a local 

 question; but in heaven's name if you want success in the long future, 

 don't let your orchards go to grass. 



THE COST OF MARKETING— THE GAP BETWEEN THE 



GROWER AND CONSUMER. 



(G. T, Tippin, Nichols, Missouri.) 



The subject for this paper is a question of importance to the fruit 

 growers of the country. As the object of papers of this kind is to bring 

 the subject before you for discussion, and in order to be brief as pos- 

 sible, we have gone into detail on the marketing of the apple only. What 

 is true in this case applies in marketing all our fruit crops and to a 

 marked degree to all farm products. Within the past five years the cost 

 of marketing a barrel of apples has increased in freights, labor and pack- 

 age, about twenty-five cents per barrel, amounting to ten million dollars 

 on an average crop of forty million barrels annually. In discussing a 

 subject of this character we should keep in mind two conditions : 



First, that the selling price at the orchard to which all intervening 

 expenses can be added without putting the price to the consumer beyond 

 the reach of the masses may necessarily be so low as not to be profitable. 



Second, the selling price of the fruit per barrel at the orchat'd neces- 

 sary to insure a profit in production to which all intervening expenses 

 being added would make the price to the consumer above the reach of 

 the masses, thereby destroying distribution, and would be equally as dis- 

 astrous to the business as selling at a loss in the first instance. Starting 

 with one dollar per barrel at the orchard for number one fruit means 

 three dollars and fifteen cents to the consumer on all apples stored. Over 

 one dollar per bushel for the fruit and only allowing twenty five cents 

 per barrel profit tO' the men who buy and pack our apples. Cost of apples 

 $100.00, labor and incidental expenses buying and packing, 25 cents; 

 average freight per barrel to different markets, 50 cents ; storage, 50 

 cents; shrinkage, 10 per cent., 25 cents ; cost of barrel, 40 cents (and they 

 cost 50 and 60 cents in many instances, this season) 25 cents per barrel 

 profit. This puts the price to consumer beyond the reach of the ma- 

 jority of the people who consume our products. 



The producer should and must receive a price that will give him a 

 profit. The consumer must be able to buy within his reach or our market 

 is gone. In view of the rapid changes of condition, we have every reason 



