100 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



industry by itself, will be the local canning and preserving 

 establishment. Already New York growers are realizing 

 the great value of such places and are establishing them in 

 sections where large quantities of fruit are grown. These 

 factories have proved of great value to the farmer and are 

 also safe business ventures. In ISTew York, where many 

 acres of currants are grown, the factories take all the product 

 at 5 cents j^er pound, thus netting the growers about 5 cents 

 per quart, which is a far better price than 8 cents per quart 

 when the fruit is placed on the market, for the factory re- 

 quires no special package, there are no commissions or ex- 

 press charges to pay, and the whole matter is in the growers' 

 control. In England, where more small fruits per capita are 

 grown than anywhere else in the world, the growers very 

 often own or control the packing houses, and as we come to 

 make more of a business of this sort of thing such results 

 are sure to come here. 



We have got to make people understand, educate them to 

 see, that quality, which means, largely, freshness and the 

 right state of ripeness, is of primary importance, and there- 

 fore if fruit can be bought near at home it is more likely to 

 have quality and to be cleaner and freer from dangerous 

 germs than that same fruit carted over dusty roads to a city 

 market and brought out again to the country on the rail- 

 roads ; and what is true of fruit which is to be used fresh 

 is also true of that which is to be preserved. 



IMake-ttp of the Group. 

 The group of fruits commonly known as small fruits con- 

 sists of the strawberry, gooseberry, raspberry, blackberry and 

 currant, while some fruits of lesser importance are some- 

 times listed in this group, namely, the wineberry, blueberry 

 and Logan berry, but their cultivation is as yet so limited 

 that it is not well to discuss them in a paper of this kind ; 

 however, we hope to see the day when many of our now wild 

 fruits will be improved and cultivated and added to the 

 2:roup. Certainly the day is not far distant when we shall 

 see the blueberry in common cultivation ; indeed, the govern- 

 ment has considered this berry important enough to publish 



