19 



pay freight, and other incidental expenses. I consider the 

 most satisfactory way for the producer is to sell at home 

 either in bulk, in orchard or by the barrel, packed and 

 settled for on the spot." 



Right here comes in the absolute necessity of fruit 

 growers keeping posted on crop prospects, and on market 

 conditions, in order that they may sell the fruit intelligently 

 and get for it all the market will stand. Growers who are 

 not in favor of consigning, claim that the man who consigns 

 his fruit is practically obliged to hold the bag all the time ; 

 he takes all the risk and worry and also stands the cost of 

 growing, picking, packing and shipping, with the result 

 that if anybody gets hurt in the deal, it is in this instance 

 the producer. | 



One difficulty always experienced in marketing apples 

 from small orchards, and any other than great orchard sec- 

 tions, is in attracting buyers in sufficient numbers to secure 

 brisk competition in bidding for the fruit. This is the gen- 

 eral experience among Massachusetts apple growers. Fruit 

 growing sections are isolated ; a fair showing of apples 

 around Fitchburg, for example ; again, in the Worcester ter- 

 ritory; another apple pocket in Greenfield and Shelburne 

 Falls; a group of sizable orchards in the Northampton terri- 

 tory, and scattered commercial orchards in the section north 

 and east of Boston. While Slassachusetts in a favorable 

 year turns off a good many apples, the fruit is not massed in 

 such a way as to attract a small army of buyers from the big 

 wholesale markets east and west, as is the case, for example, 

 in western New York. In a recent September I visited the 

 commercial orchard belt of Niagara county, and the apple 

 towns were full of buyers, not only from the east, but from 

 Michigan, Chicago and the southwest. I saw entire or- 

 chards of only one variety, the Baldwin, crops sold on the 

 trees at a straight price, and buyers bidding against one 

 another because they could secure just what they wanted in 

 variety and quality. 



Co-operate marketing of fruit was regarded a very live 

 topic at the February meeting of the New York state Fruit 

 Growers' association at Poughkeepsie. The point was there 

 emphasized that too little care is taken, especially by grow- 

 ers of small fruits, in grading and packing, and a co-opera- 

 tive packing house was advocated to put them on a par with 

 the larger growers. The orchardist as a rule, according to 

 the sentiment there expressed, is too much at the mercy of 



