36 statb; pomologicaIv society. 



chusetts is a great consuming state. This condition which no 

 one foresaw till it was upon us has given an opening for a vast 

 amount of our choice Maine fruit at extremely liberal prices, 

 and has put many hundred thousand dollars into the hands of 

 our growers that otherwise they never would have realized. 

 And the end is not yet — it has cleared the way of a glut of per- 

 ishable fruit, leaving the trade in the later keeping sorts open to 

 a healthy traffic. 



All of us have known of the great "Ozark apple region" in 

 Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas — the land of the 

 "Great Red Apples," where orchards have been planted in 

 thousand-acre multiples, and fortunes made in the millions. 

 This year the crop is comparatively light in that important sec- 

 tion. The vast stores of York Imperials, Ben Davis, and Johna- 

 thans, formerly drawn from that fruitful locality to fill the store- 

 houses of the great cities of the Mississippi valley are not forth- 

 coming. This is another factor serving to stiffen the trade, over 

 which, up to the present time, dealers have not seen it for their 

 interest to public gossip. 



Again, there can be no question but there is a general shortage 

 of fruit in European countries where so much of our fruit finds 

 a market. Never in the history of the trade has there been so 

 clean a market abroad at fairly paying prices for such quantities 

 of our surplus as thus far this season. 



Further, and the last that space and time will allow of men- 

 tion the shortage of packages has held the trade at bay. The 

 market could not be choked for the reason there were no more 

 barrels to put them in. 



These are the principal factors, that with an immense crop of 

 fruit on hand seeking a market, and the growers crazy to sell, 

 have served to hold an open market free and clear of panic 

 prices, and now quite likely to continue so long as these forces 

 hold control. Better far medium prices and a steady demand 

 than premium prices followed by panic and losses. 



Thus it is seen that the distribution of fruit is the greater prob- 

 lem before growers at the present time, and it may well receive 

 chief deliberation at your hands. The production of fruit has 

 but just begun — in fact is in its infancy. So, too, the consump- 

 tion of fruit is enormous. Where the fruit shall come from and 

 how it shall be placed before consumers, and the producers 



