140 BIGGIE ORCHARD BOOK 



grading and packing, and deliver the fruit at the 

 nearest railway station or steamship wharf. 



Wilmer Atkinson's method is to store the fruit 

 until winter or later, and then gradually sort, pack 

 and market it during the leisure months. 



"Central Packing Houses," " Fruit -Growers* 

 Exchanges, " " Co-operative Marketing Associations, " 

 etc. , have been more or less successfully operated in 

 California, Michigan, Wisconsin, Cobden, 111., 

 Springfield, Mo., Maryland, Georgia, etc. These 

 concerns are usually incorporated, and the surround- 

 ing fruit-growers own stock and control the manage- 

 ment. Such mutual associations, when rightly officered 

 and conducted, are often a great blessing to a fruit- 

 growing community. Instead of, say, one hundred 

 different brands in one locality all different and all 

 competing against each other in open market there 

 is (where a central packing and selling concern exists) 

 just one brand. And this one brand, being all graded 

 and packed uniformly and in very large lots, can be 

 sold to better advantage than a diversified product. 



Well, Harriet hints that it is time for me to stop, 

 that this book is already too long. So, while she 

 looks over my shoulder and nods her head encourag- 

 ingly, I believe that I had better say : ' * Good-night. ' ' 



