190 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



Methods of Selling the Fruit. Several methods of selling early 

 apples are practiced, Perhaps the most simple one is that employed 

 by the growers who are located within 15 to 20 miles of Philadelphia. 

 The fruit is packed in half-bushel baskets as above mentioned, loaded 

 on large wagons built for the purpose and hauled directly to the 

 commission houses or other markets. In some cases the grower runs 

 his own stand in the market, perhaps handling truck and other farm 

 produce at the same time. By either of these methods the packages 

 are returned to the grower. 



At the more important shipping centers the growers sell f. o. b. 

 as much as possible, thus avoiding all risk in transit and the possi- 

 bility of loss from poor market conditions. This method makes it 

 possible to ship in car lots, as the buyer fills his cars ordinarily with 

 fruit purchased of different growers. 



Markets and the Place Held by Summer Apples. Very natur- 

 ally, large and relatively near-by distributing centers receive large 

 quantities of summer apples. To a less extent, some of the more dis- 

 tant markets receive more or less fruit especially of certain varieties. 

 During the past few years, however, with better transportation and 

 storage facilities, new and more distant markets have been sought. 



Foreign markets offer an outlet for considerable quantities of 

 early apples, especially when the European crop is light. The results 

 of the experimental export shipments made by the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry indicate that for fruit of good grade properly handled and 

 when the markets are not overstocked with home-grown fruit, good 

 returns may be expected from London, Liverpool, and some of the 

 other leading foreign markets. 



As an important commercial product, summer apples are a com- 

 paratively new commodity in many markets and their use has been 

 limited. They have not filled a place comparable with that held by 

 peaches, winter apples, and some other fruits. Hence, in the past the 

 period of real demand for them has usually been during a scarcity 

 of other fruits. There is evidence, however, that a very large num- 

 ber of consumers have now come to think of summer apples as filling 

 a definite place in their food supply. While the demand is naturally 

 more or less influenced by the abundance of other fruit in the 

 markets during the summer-apple season, it is not so much depen- 

 dent upon the availability of other fruit as in the earlier years and 

 it is becoming more constant as the regularity and abundance of the 

 supply of early apples increases. 



The^Problem of Varieties. There are several fundamental fea- 

 tures which should always be considered in selecting the varieties of 

 any kind of fruit to be grown in a given region or under particular 

 conditions. The purpose for which it is to be grown, whether dessert 

 or ^cooking, home consumption or market, should be given due 

 weight. A variety may behave in a certain manner, ripen its fruit 

 during a particular period, and show other habitual characteristics 

 when growing under a certain combination of conditions of soil, cli- 

 mate, elevation, and cultural methods. When the variety is grown 

 under other combinations of conditions it may behave in a very dif- 



