566 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



the labor j^-oblem very nicely. It is always hard to get one extra 

 Land just when we need him, but it easy to get 50 or 100. Thes6 

 laige gangs of inen and women wlio make a bnsiness of this work — 

 they Stan in Florida in mid-winter and work gradnally up the coast 

 as the season advances until late fall liuds tliem in northern New 

 York, Michigan or Canada. Now it would be impossible for one 

 man with a ten or twenty-acre orchard to secure the services of such 

 a gang, but if (here are fifteen or twenty orchards in a neighbor- 

 hood they can easily be divided up among them and the work be 

 properly and systematically done, then again one small grower could 

 not induce an expert packer to come to his i)lace for a week to pack 

 his crop but, a community can give him work for the packing season, 

 e\ en at the high wages the}^ demand because each one will only need 

 him for a few days. 



It is very important, when introducing our fiuit to the general 

 market, that we place the first lot of fine fruit in the right hands. 

 Just how this shall be done is a matter that each fruit district will 

 have to work out for itself, but no fruit should ever be shipped to a 

 dealer by any one either for himself or for his association until he 

 I'.as by careful inquiry assured himself that the dealer is responsible 

 and has established a reputation for fair dealing. 



REPORT OF THE GENERAL FRUIT COMMITTEE 



By JOHN D. HERR, Chairman, Lancasivr, Pa. 



The present report is the first to be comjfiled from the reports 

 of the county members of this committee who were appointed by 

 the President of the Association in conformity with the terms of 

 the new Constitution adopted at the Annual Meeting at Harrisburg 

 last year. While uone but persons intimately connected with the 

 horticultural interests of their respective counties are serving on 

 the committee, and their reports are accurate and complete, it would 

 add to the value of this paper if a few additional members were 

 added in each county, especially in the more important fruit grow- 

 ing sections. 



Reports Avere received by the chairman from sixty-four counties, 

 ahd these serve as the basis of the present paper. Much credit is 

 due the local members for their unselfish interest, and the pains- 

 taking care and fullness with which local fruit conditions are re- 

 ported. Without this interest on their part no State Report could 

 as a matter of course be made, and whatever merits this paper may 

 possess is largely due to this disinterested co-operation. 



The general yield of fruit in Pennsylvania in 1911 v^-as above the 

 average, both in quantity and quality. Of some fruits it was specially 

 large, winter apples averaging for the entire State 120 per cent, of 

 an average ciop and 150 per cent, of last year's crop, vrhile fall apples 



