52 THE CONXECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



for their apples. That does not seem to me to be enou.e^h. 

 I am not satisfied with that price for first-class fruit. The 

 result of a calculation which I made, for which seemed to 

 me successful fruit growing, perhaps will answer the ques- 

 tion which Mr. Hale asked me some time ago, about what 

 w^e were going to do with the quantity of fruit we w^ere rais- 

 ing. To my mind, the solution of the problem of successful 

 horticultural work in the future lies in putting your fruit in 

 the hands of the consumer in a package so that that fruit will 

 not be handled in transit any more than oatmeal and corn- 

 starch are handled in transit. I do not see why it is necessary 

 for you people to pack your fruit in a way which makes it 

 necessary for the groceryman to unpack before he can put it 

 in the hands of his customers. I can not understand it, 

 although you do it. 



Now I w'ould like to have you pay close attention to these 

 figures, and, if I am wrong, correct me. If the grower is to 

 net a dollar for his apples, let us see what they should cost 

 the retailer when he gets that fruit in his store, ready for dis- 

 tribution. We will take New York as a basis, because all 

 our fruit goes to New York. Suppose the fruit did net the 

 grower a dollar a barrel. Now the barrel costs 35 cents, the 

 packing, loading and hauling 12 cents, freight from \Mn- 

 chester to New York 24 cents, cartage 10 cents, storage 25 

 cents. Perhaps some gentleman here will object to that and 

 say it ought to be 50 cents. I put that in as an estimate, 

 because all apples do not go into cold storage. It seems to 

 me that on the average it would cost at least 25 cents. Com- 

 mission 20 cents. Making in all $2.25 per barrel as the cost 

 to the retailer of the fruit laid down in his store. That is, 

 it costs the merchant on the street that amount for the fruit in 

 his store. Now, he adds 25 cents, so that that makes the price 

 to the retailer, in round numbers, $2.50 per barrel. Now I have 

 tried to make a summary and to compare the price obtained one 

 year with another, and have carried that on for some 13 or 

 14 years, and the result of my observations has been 

 to show that the retailer realizes about $4.80 per bar- 

 rel, leaving a profit to him of $2.30, or more than twice 

 as much as the grower got for the fruit. Now it seems to me 



