68 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



and after a few days the commission man sent the owner back 

 a bill for balance due on the commission, and the owner was 

 complaining because he got nothing for his fruit. The 

 commission man sent him back a statement showing that it 

 cost 17 cents more to sell those apples than they sold for. 

 Now there was onlv one of two things at fault in that man's 

 case. He either packed those applies in such a poor condi- 

 tion, or in such a careless way, that they wouldn't bring any- 

 thing in the market, or else the conmiission man was a thief. 

 I do not believe that the conditions last fall were such that a 

 barrel of apples that were packed in a proper manner would 

 not sell for less than the cost of transportation and the com- 

 mission added. I told him so, and he said that the fault must 

 have been with the commission man. A great many apple 

 growers have established customers of their own, so that they 

 can dispense with the commission man, but there are a great 

 many growers who, of course, have not done that, and fror" 

 their situation can not do it. ' With them the commission man 

 occupies just as necessary a place in the selling of fruit as the 

 producer does himself. It would be absolutely impossible 

 for a small grower to reach the consumers in a city market. 

 Here in Connecticut you are more favorably situated than 

 we are in New York State, or than they are in Western New 

 York, or in the far West, for the reason that you have a great 

 many large cities, containing a large number of inhabitants, 

 and the people are constantly employed in the mills and fac- 

 tories, and getting good wages. That is what makes a good 

 market. Good prices prevail. If you will use proper means 

 to develop your markets that are near at hand to you, you 

 ought to be able to sell an immense quantity of first-class 

 fruit. You have your home market at your very doors, and 

 you ought to be able to get good prices for your fruit, and you 

 can get good prices for it if you are only careful to raise good 

 fruit and put it on the market in first-rate condition. It doesn't 

 pay to send fruit to market with a few good apples on top of 

 the barrel and a lot of nubbins underneath. The man that 

 buys that kind of trash of you once is not coming back for a 

 second order. 



