CO-OPERATIVE MARKETING OF PEACHES. 



TO know when and how to pick, pack 

 and market requires watchful care 

 and good judgment. The grower 

 must have all things ready, the 

 wagons in order, the packages on hand, 

 the labor employed, the packing house 

 ready and market provided. It is bet- 

 ter to have too much help than to per 

 mit fruit to get too ripe for want of 

 labor to care for it at the proper time. 

 Where the grower is obliged to call to 

 his aid that necessary evil, the commis- 

 sion man, it is well to have him ready 

 also. Select one firm in the town where 

 . you expect to market your fruit, of 

 known good reputation. Ship to one 

 firm only. If you use the commission 

 man right, and do your part of the work 

 as it should be done, you will not often 

 have cause to complain. 



In my locality the growers have or- 

 ganized shipping associations at several 

 stations from which fruit is shipped, 

 each with a manager whose sole busi- 

 ness is to look after the grading, pack- 

 ing and marketing. The members 



simply gather the fruit and take it to 

 the packing house at the station. Here 

 it is graded, and each grower given 

 credit for the number of bushels of each 

 grade he has brought. The individual 

 is known no further. The fruit goes to 

 the company's stock and is sold by the 

 grade. At the end of each week, an 

 average is made of the prices obtained 

 during the week for each grade, and 

 each grower is given credit for his share 

 in the proceeds. This method of 

 marketing has proved very satisfactory 

 to the members of these associations. 

 It gives them time to devote all their 

 energies to the proper management of 

 their orchards and careful handling of 

 the fruit. One member complains that 

 the individuality of the grower is lost. 

 That he can acquire no reputation for 

 himself nor for his own fruit. But this 

 is an age when combines and corpora- 

 tions swallow up the individual, and the 

 fruit-grower must take his chances with 

 the rest. 



PRUNING PEACH TREES. 



EACH growers are gradually 

 learning that the peach tree will 

 not only stand very severe prun- 

 ing, but that it does best under 

 such treatment. Where this is not prac- 

 ticed, long, slender branches form, and 

 these produce fruit mainly at their outer 

 extremities. This overloads the branches 

 and causes them to break down even 

 when the tree is producing no more fruit 

 than it could easily carry if properly dis- 

 tributed. If the branches were cut back 

 to within two feet of the trunk they would 

 throw out numerous fruit spurs and pro- 



355 



duce fruit close to the trunk and main 

 branches where it could easily be sup- 

 ported. Trees handled in this way will 

 also produce more perfect fruit. Such 

 severe cutting back may be done with- 

 out any injury whatever if performed 

 while the tree is dormant. Although 

 peaches are reckoned an uncertain crop, 

 it is still one of the most profitable fruits 

 that can be grown in localities adapted 

 to it. Select the finest varieties and 

 give high culture and it will require but 

 little fruit to give you a good money re- 

 turn. — American Farm News. 



