FRUIT MARKETS 165 



to drop. If the quality is good the price will go up, 

 and if poor, the opposite. General prosperity of the 

 country affects the price in the same way as it does the 

 demand, for as the demand increases the price usually 

 goes up. Attractiveness of the fruit has a very material 

 effect upon the price asked. It is a well-known fact 

 that the majority of the consumers in the cities buy on 

 looks rather than upon knowledge of the fruit itself. 

 Hence the package in which fruit is placed has become 

 recognized as a part of the real value of the contents. 

 This is true to such an extent that in fruit shows the 

 judges and the management of those shows attribute 

 approximately a third of the value on the market to the 

 attractive manner in which the fruit is put up. 



The conditions of the market are important because 

 the things which affect the market will also affect the 

 price. Markets have their good days and their bad days. 

 Saturday or Friday afternoon are usually recognized as 

 good days for markets because of the stocking-up of the 

 household for the big Sunday dinner. Correspondingly, 

 Monday is usually a bad day. There are fewer calls 

 for fruit than on other days in the week. Markets 

 gradually increase in their condition up until Friday 

 and Saturday and then fall again early Monday morn- 

 ing. 



Days just before legal holidays are always good market 

 days. The week preceding Thanksgiving or Christmas 

 or New Year's are correspondingly good in influencing 

 the market. The days following legal holidays are cor- 

 respondingly poor. Weeks of rainy weather, effects of 

 frost injury and conditions of the country materially 

 influence the price. Instances in which grapes of the 



