STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 35 



efforts to be put forth in working up the market side of our fruit 

 incUistr}-. Knowledge has given us such control that production, 

 great as it now is, has but just begun. The people want fruit. 

 How shall we get it to them so that the cost to them will not be 

 greater than the demand can bear, and at the same time the com- 

 pensation to the grower be such as to stimulate production? 

 These — not production — are the great problems of our fruit 

 industry at the present time calling for attention. 



It has generally been accepted that the value of our leading 

 commercial fruits was chiefly controlled by the prices our sur- 

 plus would sell for in foreign markets. ' Two years ago this 

 society took measures to keep its members and growers in gen- 

 eral posted on the extent and condition of the crop in our 

 country at large, that from such knowledge they might draw 

 conclusions to aid them in deciding upon the best time to dis- 

 pose of their crop. The present season, without official sanction, 

 your president determined to leave no opportunity unimproved 

 to study the market outlets and the crop of fruit with the view 

 to learning how closely demand and supply control the market 

 prices, and also along with this study the best time for Maine 

 growers to sell. 



In the pursuance of this study I have gone far enough to be 

 read}- to say that it is a great subject and involves many factors. 

 No man, grower or buyer, single or in association, is big enough 

 to grasp all these factors in this broad fruit-growing country of 

 ours, and determine their full bearing, as affecting the prices 

 fruit ought to sell for. With all the organization that can be 

 effected I question whether it is possible to get any nearer a solu- 

 tion of the problem than we are at the present time. 



The people of this country are using up enormous quantities 

 of fruit. It would be rare indeed if a year should ever occur 

 when there is an equally full crop in every locality. There will 

 be some section, some nook or corner where the crop is a failure. 

 Yet those people will not go without fruit. Hence there will be 

 an unlooked for draft from an unexpected quarter to fill that 

 vacuum. These vacancies cannot always be foreseen was their 

 demand measured in extent. An apt illustration, and on a broad 

 scale, is met this year : the crop of fruit in the near-by states of 

 Massachusetts and New Hampshire this year was light. Massa- 



