34 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 



large his sphere of work, and cultivate fruits for the 

 various seasons of the year, thus giving employ- 

 ment to a regular force of hands, who, on account 

 of their proficiency, become indispensable on a fruit 

 farm. Crops should be anticipated, and markets 

 provided just as the manufacturer seeks and secures 

 sale for his goods." 



Is there over-production of fruit f All these re- 

 marks bring up the old question as to whether there 

 is an over-production of fruit. The probability is 

 that there is not an absolute over-production except 

 in special years ; that is, that there is not more 

 fruit grown than can be consumed in one way or 

 another. It is very likely, however, that there is 

 frequently a relative over-production, that there 

 is more fruit grown than can be consumed in the 

 markets which are ordinarily at the disposal of 

 the grower. The difficulty is probably rather more 

 one of unequal or imperfect distribution than of 

 absolute over-production of the commodity. The 

 tendency of the time is to remedy this defect through 

 more perfect means of dissemination, but it is too 

 much to hope for a perfectly equal distribution of 

 fruits, since the fruit areas are more or less limited 

 in their geographical distribution, whilst the fruit 

 consuming population is distributed far and wide,. 

 When there are heavy gluts in some markets and 

 fruit does not pay for the freight, there are very 

 often other places, a few hundred miles away, in 

 which the commodity is scarce. The recent intro- 

 duction of special fruit and refrigerator cars has 



