504 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



a better outlook for the thorough down-to-date grower. Just now the 

 grower and the packer are at outs, and neither of them is getting any- 

 where, but it is not within my province in this outlook to discuss this 

 phase of the subject, except to urge better marketing conditions. 



We are told that supply and demand regulate market conditions 

 entirely. Generally they do, but when the dried peach crop is sold to 

 the jobber before the blossom is entirely gone, it is a debatable question 

 as to what effect supply and demand really have. 



The citrus men have made good on the market end, and the raisin 

 men are now making good, so there is a ray of hope for the peach men. 



I have already stated that the total production of the State is around 

 330.000 tons of green fruit. This, we find, comes from approximately 

 70,000 acres, thus giving nearly an average yield of five tons to the acre. 

 This means the yield will vary from two to ten tons to the acre. Under 

 present conditions, the below-the-average-yield man will soon be elim- 

 inated. 



I may be challenged in the statement, but nevertheless, I am inclined 

 to believe that even now, the above-the-average-yield man is breaking 

 even. Just now, the man behind the gun is much in the public eye. 

 The man behind the peach orchard is going to improve the peach out- 

 look. 



Fertilizing must come; better cultural methods are being discussed; 

 more and more attention is being given to the control of fungous dis- 

 eases and insect pests; and by thinning and more care in cutting, sid- 

 phuring and drying, both yield and quality will be brought up to a 

 higher standard. 



The peach grower of the future will have to be a horticulturist in the 

 full sense of the term. The time has passed when haphazard and slip- 

 shod methods can compete successfully with science and skill either in 

 the business world or in the peach orchard. 



Quality is dinned into the grower from every angle, and yet, what 

 encouragement does he receive ? One man fertilizes, cultivates, prunes, 

 sprays, thins and puts into the sweat-box fruit that Mali grade eighty per 

 cent or better extra and fancy, and receives the same price as another 

 man who does nothing but irrigate and cultivate a little, and whose 

 fruit will grade ten per cent or worse, extra and fancy. 



Butter used to be butter, wheat used to be wheat, but now there are 

 well established grades for these products. Why not for dried peaches? 

 Why not standardize dried fruit as well as green ? Also, might it not 

 pay to cater a little more to the consumer by using more skill and com- 

 monsense in sulphuring? 



Not a word have I said on overproduction. Undoubtedly, we have it 

 to a greater or lesser extent. Yet, what about under-consumption ? 

 Some say that you can not have too much of a good thing — not alto- 

 gether true in some cases. By producing only fniit of high quality, 

 both overproduction and under-consumption w^ill be limited to such an 

 extent as to entirely disappear; the grower, packer, and consumer will 

 dwell together in peace and harmony, and no one will be called upon to 

 discuss the peach outlook. 



