HORTICULTURE BY IRRIGATION. 



^*^^Y 



UNSOLVED PROBLEMS IN TSE FRUIT 

 INDUSTRY. 



BY W. C. FITZSIMMONS. 



"T^HE growing of fruits of every kind, suitable to the 



1 climate and soil of the United States, is rapidly 

 increasing. In nearly every nook and corner of the 

 country the fruit interest is becoming more or less 

 prominent; and in many places where the industry 

 was merely incidental a few years ago, it has now be- 

 come a leading pursuit. The enormous consumption 

 of wholesome fruits, in largely increasing volume 

 from year to year, is the surest indication that the 

 American people have gained some knowledge of 

 dietetics and will never again be content with a 

 coarse diet of pork and hominy and all that such a 

 fare implies. 



But, of course, there must be a limit to fruit-grow- 

 ing, no matter how great the facilities may be for 

 merely producing even the choicest fruits. That limit 

 is most nearly fixed by the cost at which the product 

 may be placed upon the tables of consumers. With 

 a proper standard of living for American citizens, 

 either proprietors and employes or laborers for hire, 

 the final cost of producing most varieties of fruit in 

 the United States cannot and should not be very 

 greatly reduced. In some cases the large proprietor, 

 by operating in a wholesale way in all things and cul- 

 tivating a large acreage, may produce fruit at a lesser 

 cost per ton than the small orchardist whose system 

 of management must be different. But the great or- 

 chardist should not exist. The best interest of the 

 country demands that the farms and orchards be 

 small, and that the owners and their families perform 

 most of the labor required. Nothing approaching 

 peon labor should be permitted, if possible to prevent 

 it, among fruit-growing communities. 



The successful fruit-grower must read. He must 

 not be of the non-progressive element of our rural 

 population who decry "book farming" and ridicule 

 the farmer who reads farm journals. The farmer or 

 fruit-grower who insists on learning everything about 

 his business through his own experience will never 

 know much. 



One of the unsolved problems in fruit growing is 

 that of placing the product in the hands of consumers 

 at prices within their reach, while at the same time 

 leaving a living margin in the hands of the grower. 

 This is not merely a question of freight rates on the 

 railways, and of commission men, as so many fruit- 

 82 



growers believe. The question is a very much broader 

 one, though it includes the two elements named. 

 Primarily, the solution of this gravest question before 

 fruit-growers must depend upon the producer him- 

 self. He must produce good fruit; he must so sys- 

 tematize his business that he can produce it at a mod- 

 erate cost, and know what that cost is. It is probably 

 true that not one fruit-grower in fifty knows what it 

 costs him to produce a pound of any variety of fruit. 

 If this be true, he should naturally have but little 

 voice in fixing a price for his product, for he has lit- 

 tle knowledge of its proper value, based upon the 

 cost of production. 



At this point, therefore, permanent cooperative or- 

 ganizations are essential. It has come about that 

 single-handed and unaided efforts along nearly all 

 lines of human endeavor are largely nullified through 

 misdirection. A thousand men cannot move a ton's 

 weight by each one exerting his own strength sepa- 

 rately. With the united and simultaneous exertions 

 of ten men the weight is easily moved. 



The same principle holds good among fruit-grow- 

 ers. What ten thousand of them, acting as individ- 

 uals, cannot hope to accomplish, may be easily 

 brought about by a few compact units made up of 

 the isolated individuals comprising the mass of men 

 engaged in the business. Cooperation, then, is the 

 first necessity in the direction of business-like and 

 profitable marketing of a fruit crop. Indiscriminate 

 consignments of perishable products to unknown 

 commission houses is absolutely fatal to the business, 

 of production, and in the present condition of civiliz- 

 ation and business morals must remain so. 



This is not always the fault of the much-abused 

 commission man. Ordinarily he has his full share of 

 sins to answer for, but the fact that a shipper does 

 not always realize his expectations from consign- 

 ments is not conclusive evidence of dishonesty or in- 

 competency on the part of the selling agency. Some- 

 times the shipper himself is to blame. His fruit is 

 badly packed or graded and has been known to have 

 the best specimens on top of the package. In fact, 

 many who have given unprejudiced study to the 

 question assert that " honors are easy" between the 

 average consignor and the average consignee, so far 

 as commercial integrity is concerned. The pleasure 

 of denouncing the seller as a scoundrel has been so 

 long enjoyed by the average shipper that it cannot be 

 expected, perhaps, that he will without objection hold 



