464 The Principles of Fruit -growing. 



be the best market for the following year. The 

 market details should be followed up with the same 

 thoroughness which the grower gives to the new 

 development in varieties, and in means of contend- 

 ing with fungi and insects. 



The selection of the middleman, through whom 

 the fruits are to be sold, is one of the most im- 

 portant features in the whole range of fruit market- 

 ing. The first requisite is that this man should be 

 honest and capable. Then the grower should place 

 great confidence in his judgment, for, as he is 

 nearer the point of consumption, his advice should 

 be worth much more than the judgment of one 

 who is far away. Too many growers are guided 

 m their selection of a merchant by high quotations 

 and flattering letters which are sent out at the be- 

 ginning of the fruit season, but it is often true 

 that the man who at the beginning of the season 

 makes the most moderate and conservative quota- 

 tions, is the one who secures the most profit for 

 the grower in the end.* 



If one is to reach special and personal markets, 

 the small package is nearly always advisable ; but 

 in the wholesale and impersonal methods of market- 

 ing, the large package will no doubt prove to be 

 the most economical, not only because it costs less 

 for a certain quantity of fruit, but because the ex- 

 pense of packing is less. In the early days of 

 commercial fruit shipping in this country, the large 



*Por a sketch of the rise of the auction system of selling fruits in this 

 nountrj, see Annals of Horticulture for 1892, p. 43. 



