RECEIPTS AND PRICES OF APPLES IN NEW YORK 



CITY AND EXPORTS OF APPLES FROM 



UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



II. B. 



Assistant Extension Professor of Pomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Much attention is now being given to the marketing of farm 

 products. It is well known that methods of selling and distribu- 

 tion have not kept pace with improvements in methods of pro- 

 duction of such products. In no branch of the farming industry 

 is this more true than in the culture of fruit in eastern United 

 States. The problem is more serious, perhaps, to the fruit grower 

 than to the grower of wheat, corn, hay, etc., because of the more 

 perishable nature of this product and because fruit is not re- 

 garded as one of the staples necessary to existence, and is therefore 

 subject to a fluctuating demand on the part of the public. 



The fact that methods of marketing fruit in New York do not 

 compare favorably with the methods pursued in Canada and the 

 Pacific Northwest is no reflection on the New York grower. He 

 was among the first to offer fruit for sale ; his maTkets were at his 

 doors and were ample to care for all that he could produce. It 

 was natural that he should devote his attention to the growing 

 rather than to the selling of his fruit. The industry in other 

 sections is younger. It developed at a time when markets must 

 be discovered and created there were none waiting with open 

 arms to receive the offering from these sections. It is also natural, 

 then, that Canada and the West should have placed special em- 

 phasis upon the marketing side of fruit growing, for upon the 

 opening of new channels for disposal of their products depended 

 primarily the salvation of their industry. 



The time has now come when New York must look to these same 

 things if she is to maintain a position of prominence in the 

 culture of deciduous fruits. If her growers sell their fruit at 

 a profit in the future, it will not be because the consumer must 

 have it, but because it compares favorably in all respects with 

 the product of other sections. Fruit must no longer be picked 



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