124 THE PLUM S OF NEW YORK. 



ties can now be selected for long keeping and that there is a fine oppor- 

 tunity for breeding sorts that will keep even longer than any we now have. 



Marketing, the actual selling, is a business quite by itself, and since 

 it is one which has changed greatly in the past few years and is destined 

 to change even more in the near future, a few observations on the subject 

 are worth putting on record. A well developed local market is undoubtedly 

 the best selling place for the plum producer, as in it the sales are directly 

 to the consumer, eliminating expensive middlemen. The westward spread 

 of manufacturing industries, the workers in which use up the western- 

 grown fruit, is making better local markets for eastern plums, a point 

 worth noting, for many New York plum-growers have ceased planting, 

 indeed have been removing trees, fearing western competition. 



By far the greater part of the plum crop now finds its way to consu- 

 mers through the following costly distributive system: ist. Local buyers 

 who ship to centers of consumption. 2nd. Transportation companies. 

 3rd. Commission companies who collect and distribute the crop in con- 

 suming centers. 4th. Retailers who parcel out the quantities and the 

 qualities demanded by the consumer. The great defect in handling the 

 crop is, that there are too many men and too much machinery to do the 

 work cheaply moreover, the risks of depreciation are great, and the 

 fruit is not handled on a large scale chiefly because of a lack of capital 

 by the grower or local buyer. These defects in the present distribution 

 of plums in New York make the price received by the grower about half 

 that paid by the consumer and the selling of the crop a more or less specu- 

 lative business. The plum industry, as is the case with all fruits, is greatly 

 hampered by the present marketing systems. 



Unfortunately there is yet but a small outlet for surplus plums as 

 manufactured products. As a rule the commercial outlook is best for 

 those fruits of which the surplus can be turned into by-products. The 

 only outlet for the plum in the East is in canning, as this region is unable 

 to compete with the West in the making of prunes ' and as the several 



1 A prune is a dried plum. The requisite for a prune-making plum is that it have a large pro- 

 portion of solids, particularly sugar. Comparatively few varieties of plums bear sufficient amounts 

 of solids so that they may be successfully cured into a firm, long-keeping product. Only varieties 

 of the Domesticas are used in making prunes, though possibly some of the Insititias might be so 

 used. Prunes are chiefly used in cookery though some of the finer grades from France are sold 

 as confections. 



Prunes are either dried in the sun as in California; partially cooked in ovens and the curing 

 completed indoors, as in European countries; or wholly dried in evaporators, as in the Pacific 



