MASSACHUSETTS 



1339 



The temperature is subject to extreme 

 fluctuations from very warm in summer 

 to very cold in winter, althougli near tiie 

 ocean this is modified to considerable 

 degree. The average rainfall for the 

 state is about 48 inches. 



The soil in the eastern and southeastern 

 portions is sandy and requires consider- 

 able fertilization to make it productive. 



The apple forms about nine-tenths of 

 all the fruit products, and according to 

 the census of 1910 the report of trees of 

 bearing age was as follows: Apples, 

 1,367,397; peaches and nectarines, 154,- 

 592; pears, 113,365; plums and prunes, 

 41,345; cherries, 13,396; apricots, 654; 

 quinces, 7,484; grapes (vines), 58,277. 



Except cranberries and strawberries, 

 the small fruits are unimportant. In 

 1910 there were reported of cranberries, 

 6,577 acres, and strawberries, 2,015 acres. 



There were 6,720 acres of nuts, mostly 

 black walnuts, butternuts and hickory 

 nuts about equally proportioned. 



The largest area of fertile land in 

 Massachusetts is in the Connecticut val- 

 ley, but besides this there are several 

 small areas of rich soils where all the 

 hardier fruits could be grown for the 

 home markets. The counties having the 

 largest number of bearing apple trees are 

 Worcester, 331,460, and Middlesex, 

 293,812. 



Yarieties of Apples for Massaclinsetts 

 Orchards 



Arranged in approximately the or- 

 der of their ripening, the list which I 

 propose to discuss is as follows, arranged 

 as nearly as may be in the order of their 

 commercial value: Baldwin, Mcintosh, 

 Rhode Island Greening, Wealthy, Hub- 

 bardston, Williams, Oldenburg, Roxbury, 

 Red Astrachan, Sutton, Gravenstein, Fall 

 Pippin, Westfield, Spy, Yellow Transpar- 

 ent, Blue Pearmain. 



As a general principle, we may 

 say that markets are of two types, and 

 that a very different list of varieties 

 would be selected for these two types. 



There is first the general or wholesale 

 market, where the apples are handled in 

 large quantities, and where the producer 

 never comes in touch with the consumer. 

 The orchardist growing for this market 



perhaps sells his fruit to a buyer in the 

 orchard, or loaded on the car, or he may 

 ship it to a commission man. In any 

 case, it is very much to his advantage 

 to have a large quantity of fruit of each 

 variety. If he has 500 barrels of Bald- 

 wins, buyers are going to hunt him up 

 and bid for his fruit; whereas, if his 500 

 barrels are distributed among the 16 sorts 

 mentioned above, there would not be 

 enough of any one kind to interest the 

 buyer. And this same general considera- 

 tion would hold in any type of general 

 market. If he is shipping to a commis- 

 sion man, 100 barrels each of five sorts 

 will sell for more than five barrels each 

 of 100 sorts. As a rule, a man chooses 

 this type of market if he is some distance 

 from his market. If he is going to plant 

 an orchard to cater to such a trade, he 

 ought, in my opinion, to select not over 

 five, and preferably about three, varieties. 

 A less number than this does not provide 

 for cross-pollination, and does not allow 

 for the years when certain of his varie- 

 ties will not bear. 



The second type of market is the spe- 

 cial or personal market. Here the 

 producer comes in direct or nearly direct 

 communication with the consumer — that 

 is, he either peddles his fruit or at most 

 sells it to the man who sells it direct to 

 the consumer. The grower perhaps runs 

 a wagon of his own, or, if he does not 

 do this, he sells to a grocery or fruit 

 store which sells to the consumer. In 

 either case he is so near the consumer 

 that he gets the benefit of the good qual- 

 ity of his fruit or the blame for its bad 

 quality. He gets personal customers who 

 may say: "Yes, Mr. Jones, those apples 

 we got last week were fine. I want some 

 more like them." Or, if the grocer, 

 "When are you going to have some more 

 of Mr. Jones's apples?" In either case, 

 .Tones wants to be in a position to supply 

 the demand; in other words, he does not 

 want to work up a market for his Yellow 

 Transparents and then drop it when Will- 

 iams Early are in season and allow his 

 customers to forget all about Jones before 

 his Mclntoshes come on. 



But whichever market one is working 

 for there are certain characters in fruit 



