364 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



at a time when a good many other early varieties are on the mar- 

 ket, and as it has to compete with them in prices the profit is ma- 

 terially reduced. 



Marketing is an important item in the commercial orchard. 

 The apples should be put up carefully in an attractive manner. 

 Select and handsome fruit may be put up in bushel packages and 

 usually sold at from $1.00 to $1.50 a package. Windfalls can 

 usually be sold at prices ranging from 15c to 50c a bushel. We 

 usually hand-pick our fruit, pack it carefully and seldom get less 

 than $3.00 a barrel for this class of apples. Some complain be- 

 cause they can't sell their fruit. Have they properly tried? The 

 markets won't come to them ; they must go to the markets. It 

 won't do to wait until the fruit is ripe and then begin to wonder 

 what is to be done with it. Find out early in the season. There 

 are people who want it and commission men who can sell it if 

 unable to do so yourself. Don't condemn the orchard because 

 you have failed to sell the fruit but condemn yourself. The orchard 

 occupies a peculiar place in ethics. If it don't bear, it is condemned ; 

 if it does bear, it is condemned. If the orchard could talk and tell 

 the customer how to market its fruit and tell him also that good 

 care is necessary in order to secure continued good results and 

 that in spite of neglect it had done well and more than it agreed 

 to do, we think he would learn some valuable lessons. 



This talk about over-production is like poor fruit — mostly "rot." 

 i\Ir. Hughes, of Le Sueur, who has charge of four canning 

 factories in this state, was asked by me why he did not put up a 

 canning factory for the purpose of canning apples. He replied, 

 "There is not a locality in the state that can guarantee fruit enough 

 to warrant the investment required for a canning factory of this 

 kind." He also stated that he could afford tO' pay from 25c to 

 50c a bushel for low grade apples for canning purposes. 



Minnesota is importing thousands of barrels every year. It 

 will be a long time before the home market is satisfied and many 

 years before Minnesota will be an exporter. Until that time comes 

 we need not worry about over-production of the right kind of 

 apples. Ten years ago the United States exported one and one- 

 half million dollars worth of apples, and in 1903 exported nearly 

 eight million dollars worth. The markets of the world are but 

 just beginning to be developed; home consumption is increasing 

 very rapidly ; the supply is not outstripping the demand. The value 

 of apple orchards in the United States alone is estimated at nearly 

 eighty-four million dollars — a great industry. 



