TRANSPORTATION AND STORAGE FACILITIES 583 



the greatest fruit market in the world, and that oranges and lemons 

 at that time constituted almost their sole stock in trade, aside from 

 home-grown fruits in their season. Yet this is asserted by one of the 

 veteran dealers of the city to have been the case when he began busi- 

 ness in that year. 



Soil and climatic conditions were the same then as now, and 

 regions in the Old World to which the more important fruits were 

 adapted were fairly well denned; choice varieties had been developed 

 also, including many of those that are now the leaders in our markets. 

 The one thing lacking was rapid and regular transportation. As 

 steam was applied to navigation and to railroading during the second 

 third of the century, orchards and vineyards expanded. Under the 

 influence of improved shipping facilities on both sea and land, the 

 market broadened rapidly and the fruit trade gradually took on 

 definite form, and was recognized as a legitimate branch of commerce. 



As railroads penetrated the interior of America and Australia, new 

 and fertile regions, blessed with a genial climate, became accessible, 

 and the areas devoted to fruit culture rapidly increased. The story 

 of its development in California, after American occupation, is too 

 familiar to need repetition, and is perhaps the most conspicuous 

 example of the rapid development of a horticultural industry in the 

 history of the world. 



This activity, though more noticeable in the newer continents, 

 was by no means confined to them, marked development of orchard 

 interests having occurred during the same period in England, and in 

 France, Spain, Italy, and other Mediterranean countries. More 

 recently this development extended to Tasmania, New Zealand, and 

 South Africa. 



The stimulus to planting afforded by the improved facilities for 

 transportation, however, soon resulted in disastrous effects of over- 

 production in some sections. Large orchards, vineyards, and small- 

 fruit plantations were planted farther from their prospective markets 

 than their products could be transported. This was notably true in 

 the Southern United States, where the added incentive of high prices 

 for early fruits in markets farther north caused large plantings of the 

 more perishable fruits, such as strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, 

 peaches, and plums. The planters demonstrated that they could 

 produce these fruits in large quantity and of high quality at a rela- 

 tively low price, but the product could not, with the then existing 

 facilities, be delivered to the distant consumer, for whom it was 



