98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



of supplying the home table. Our experiment stations and 

 various agricultural and horticultural societies have devoted 

 their energies for many years to the subject of increasing pro- 

 duction, but old methods of marketing and distributing crops 

 have gone on undisturbed. In what way is the farmer bene- 

 fited by large crops if they are allowed to rot on the ground for 

 the want of a distributing and selling system that will turn 

 back to the grower a fair profit after transportation and sell- 

 ing charges have been deducted? 



If our farmers were thoroughly organized they could by ad- 

 vertising relieve a congested market by informing the public of 

 the facts, urging them to buy, and recommending ways of cook- 

 ing and using the surplus crop as a substitute for higher priced 

 commodities, and the advantage of home canning to hold for 

 future use. 



During the past season New Jersey fruit growers were buried 

 with an enormous crop of peaches, and prices promised to be 

 below cost of picking and marketing. The horticultural so- 

 cieties caused to have posted on farmers' wagons and in other 

 conspicuous places colored posters, urging the public to buy 

 and use peaches on account of the low prices at which they 

 could be bought. By those in a position to know, it was 

 claimed that this work played a very important part in mov- 

 ing, at a fair price, the surplus crop of peaches. 



The home hamper as a means of the grower's supplying the 

 consumer direct is a method of interest only to the small 

 grower, and does not promise to become a matter of general 

 importance in affecting this question. 



When located near a large city the grower often finds it to his 

 advantage to hold his surplus produce in cold storage, but 

 when located some distance from a market he will usually find 

 the commercial cannery, in case one is located near him, his 

 best buyer. The particular objections to artificial refrigeration 

 are storage charges, shrinkage and cost of handling. These 

 charges combined often run so high as to make the venture 

 an unprofitable one. 



Very few preserving establishments are found in New Eng- 

 land, the principal ones being the corn canneries in Maine. 

 Such establishments could doubtless be induced to locate in 



