CHAPTER IX. 



HARVESTING, MARKETING AND STORING FRUIT. 



While good, sound business judgment is necessary through- 

 out the whole round of successful fruit growing, it is especially 

 important when the grower comes to picking and marketing. 

 The successful fruit grower must not only study how to raise 

 fruit and what kinds are needed in the markets of the world 

 but he must learn the best way to market it so as to bring 

 him the largest possible returns. Markets may easily be di- 

 vided into small, local and large, and the methods of selling 

 may vary greatly in different sections. The ways of doing busi- 

 ness are much more uniform in the large markets, but there 

 is much difference in this respect in different sections and the 

 grower should study carefully the peculiarities of his markets. 



Fruit growers may also be divided into classes, according 

 as they retail or wholesale their products. Large fruit growers 

 must be wholesalers, while many small growers can often, to 

 advantage, work up a retail business. The methods of dis- 

 tributing fruit have become very much improved in recent years 

 so that the prices are more uniform than formerly. This, to 

 be sure, interferes with the high prices that occasionally pre- 

 vailed in local markets under the old methods. On the other 

 hand it makes less liable the glutting of the local market and 

 the resultant low prices that were so troublesome formerly, 

 so that the present conditions are probably better than the old 

 for both the producer and the consumer. 



Picking. The marketing of fruit begins with the picking 

 for it is the first step in selling it. No matter how carefully 

 other details are attended to, the picking must be done right 

 or the fruit will be of little value. Fruit allowed to become 

 too ripe before picking, or roughly handled in picking, may be 

 rendered unsalable. For best results, fruit to be marketed iu 

 fresh condition must be picked by hand. 



The exact time to pick fruit can only be determined by 



