1202 THE FEUIT INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK STATE 



nurserymen have offered to growers new sorts which are recom- 

 mended for keeping a long time after picking. This leads to the 

 belief that there is an opportunity for the breeding of late keep- 

 ing varieties. 



PROBLEMS OF MARKETING 



Marketing plums like the marketing of all other commodities 

 is beset with perplexities. It is a business quite by itself and 

 it is difficult to recommend any set rules. A business man en- 

 deavors to follow the lines of least competition; the same is true 

 of the plum grower. A good local market without doubt offers 

 the producer the best means of disposing of his fruit, since the 

 fruit reaches the consumer direct and eliminates the middlemen. 

 With plums, as with all fruits, improper distribution is the 

 greatest barrier against good prices. Not until the middlemen 

 are eliminated and the grower can deal directly with the con- 

 sumer, either through cooperative associations or similar or- 

 ganizations, will fruit distribution be controlled and satisfactory 

 prices established. The chief drawback in handling the plum 

 crop at the present time is that there are too many men and too 

 much machinery involved to do the work cheaply. Seldom, too, 

 can the fruit be handled on a large enough scale to be profitabh 

 due to a lack of capital by the grower or local buyer. Mai 

 growers, fearing western competition, have ceased planting plm 

 orchards in fact have been removing their trees. It woul 

 sometimes seem that such fears are groundless, for, with pro] 

 facilities and methods of marketing, eastern-grown fruit ought 

 take foremost rank and bring the best returns. Many westei 

 growers are at present turning to manufactured products as 

 outlet for their plums. Here in New York, however, there 

 but little outlook at present for the turning of the surplus ci 

 into by-products. Practically the sole outlet for the plum in t] 

 east is in selling for canning, since this region cannot compc 

 with the west in the making of prunes, and European by-produ( 

 are not in demand in America. There are a number of products, 

 such as preserves, jellies, plum butter, marmalades, and the like, 

 which could undoubtedly be profitably marketed, thus offering a 

 means of utilizing the surplus fruit. 



