THE CHERRIES OF NEW YORK 87 



the package filled, stem down, with the best fruits. In fancy grades all 

 of the fruit in the box is layered. The demands of the m.arket, of course, 

 determine the package and the manner of packing. Cherries are seldom 

 stored longer than a few days at most in common storage and a week or 

 two weeks in cold storage. 



There is a marked difference in the shipping and keeping qualities 

 of varieties of cherries, the sorts that keep longest and ship best, quite 

 at the expense of quality, having the call of the markets. Undoubtedly 

 this must remain so, though it is to be desired that local markets, at least, 

 be supplied with the best, irrespective of handling qualities. A further 

 factor that prevents the placing of choicely good cherries in distant 

 markets at all times is brown-rot, to be discussed later, which more often 

 attacks the juicy and usually the best-flavored varieties, oftentimes ruining 

 the pack on the way to market — one of the most discoiaraging events 

 incidental to cherry-growing. 



Marketing machinery for cherries is at present very costly, inadequate 

 and frequently sadly out of gear. The fruit passes first from the grower 

 to a local buyer who ships to a center of consumption, transportation 

 companies taking heavy toll on the way. Jobbers or commission com- 

 panies, who in some cases receive the fruit direct from the grower, then 

 distribute the crop to retailers in the consuming centers. Lastly, the 

 retailer parcels out the quantities and the qualities demanded by the 

 housewife. The whole business of selling the crop is speculative and the 

 grower is fortunate to receive half of what the consumer pays and not 

 infrequently has all of his pains for nothing or may even be forced to 

 dip into his pocket for transportation. The perishableness of the product 

 and the present defects of distribution go far to make the crop the hazard- 

 ous one it is but all look forward to better times coming under an unproved 

 system of marketing. 



Up to the present, it must be said, but little effort has been made 

 in New York to ship far and to develop a trade in cherries other than at 

 the canneries. The canners have until the last year or two taken the 

 cream of the crop but with recent greatly increased plantings are now 

 over- supplied. The average grower, possessing a mixture of mental inertia 

 and business caution, has not sought other soixrces for the surplus fruit. 

 Bolder and more energetic spirits are now developing new markets and 

 opening up those to which other tree-fruits more generally go so that the 

 present over-production may prove a blessing in disguise. The greatly 



