128 An American Fruit-Farm 



is incalculable. Of course the fruit-growers must 

 look out for their own interests, but the large fact 

 remains that they have interests worth consider- 

 ing. The railroad is competitor for the profits 

 of fruit-growing, — ^and in a peculiar sense a 

 favored competitor. Fruit must be moved when 

 ready for market, if to be sold fresh. The canning 

 of fruit prevents railroad monopoly of profits in 

 fruit-raising, but seldom does a fruit-grower can 

 his crop. His business is to sell directly from the 

 tree and quickly. Some years ago, at the opening 

 of the century, the necessity for spraying fruit was 

 apparent in the Lake Shore Valley. But spraying 

 seemed a formidable, not to say an unprofitable 

 undertaking. The fruit-growers turned to the 

 State Legislature for help. Influence was desir- 

 able and the Pennsylvania Railroad was appealed 

 to. The head of the freight department promptly 

 expressed his willingness to cooperate, "because 

 increased crops mean more stuff for the road to 

 haul.'* Trolley-lines, railroads, steamboats, ever 

 stand ready to **haul** for a consideration. All 

 middlemen, all manufacturers of packages, crates, 

 boxes, and baskets ; all manufacturers of wire, nails, 

 labels, string, stamps, inks, hooks, staples, and of 

 chemicals for spraying; all dealers in horses, mules, 

 wagons, tools, and harness, and so on through a long 

 list, have a fellow feeling with the railroads, — if a 

 railroad can be said to have feeling. If we pursue 

 the list of interested parties to the end it will be 

 found to include the laborer also, — ^indeed more, — 



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