240 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



harm to emphasize the point that in fruit, as in other things, there 

 is always a place and a market for goods of superior quality. So 

 first see to it that your fruit is the very best that can be produced in 

 your locality. If, by any chance, your fruit is not as good or a 

 little better than that of your neighbors, it might be a real ad- 

 vantage to confine your eff'orts to the improvement of quality until 

 you have conquered it. 



I am of the opinion that women can grow fruit of a little higher 

 quality than men can, if they will put the same painstaking care 

 upon it that they do upon a piece of hand embroidery. 



In putting your fruit, of whatever variety, upon the market 

 begin by establishing a reputation for excellence. Never send out a 

 package that you would not be proud to own in the best society. 

 Last fall (1912) I paid fifteen cents per dozen for No. 1 (not fancy) 

 apples in St. Louis, and at the same time could have bought a whole 

 barrel of the general run that was upon the market for $1.35 to 

 $1.50 per barrel, and yet I saw whole orchards of apples unpicked 

 not fifty miles from St. Joseph when I passed that way the latter 

 part of November. The ground, in some instances, was literally cov- 

 ered with fine fruit that the hogs would not eat, because there 

 were so many apples — or so few hogs — and I had been unable to 

 buy them in larger quantities than by the dozen. Later in the same 

 month, in Texas, apples and oranges were selling at the same price 

 per dozen, with oranges in the lead on account of the greater bulk. 



A good object lesson for any woman who expects to market 

 fruit is to visit any large city grocery and see the great amount of 

 common, poor and cull fruit that is ofl'ered for sale. It is worse 

 than useless to place this poor fruit upon the market, especially 

 when a profitable trade can be built up by working the inferior 

 grades into other forms of desirable products. It is, perhaps, these 

 other ways that will appeal to the largest number of women. There 

 is scarcely a housewife who does not excel in some one or more lines 

 of preserving fruit in various forms, such as jellies, marmalade, 

 jams or other conserves — toothsome dainties that might be turned 

 into real coin — if she would specialize and give some time to the 

 building up of a permanent trade. In Illinois there is a woman, for 

 instance, who is famed for her sun-cured strawberry preserves — 

 which is good for the lady and for Illinois. Her fame has already 

 crossed the river and Missourians buy all of her product that they 

 can get. Yet Missouri has the berries, the sun, and, I warrant, the 

 woman, who might just as well be selling her own product to the 

 best people of a great city as the Illinois lady. 



