CHAPTER XXV 



MARKETING 



General conditions. During the year 191 2 probably 40,000,000 

 barrels of apples were ready for market. It seemed that every apple- 

 producing section in the United States had an exceptionally large 

 crop. This was a condition that does not frequently occur. A great 

 many of these sections grow ordinary varieties of apples, generally 

 of poor to fair grade both as to edibility and keeping quality ; such 

 fruit will sell for enough at home to justify harvesting, but will not 

 bring enough to pay for harvesting, grading, packing, and freight- 

 ing, and leave a profit to the orchardist. Some of these districts 

 would, therefore, in years of large yields cause low prices to prevail, 

 and for a certain time would not offer a profitable market for high- 

 grade goods. If any of these districts should produce a light crop 

 of poor-quality apples, the surrounding sections would afford a 

 market for apples of good quality at prices high enough not only 

 to justify the expense of growing and marketing the crop but to 

 yield a good profit. In seasons when certain localities produce short 

 crops of apples, the waste in sections producing heavy crops is 

 greater than usual because much of the fruit is too poor to justify 

 shipment. Therefore, correspondingly better prices prevail. 



Very little effort to further the sale of apples has been made by 

 growers. The West until recently had only light crops, and gener- 

 ally shipped all its product to a few large cities, such as Chicago, 

 New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, which offered satisfactory 

 prices. The crop of 191 2 was the largest yet harvested, and as 

 new markets were not looked up, shipments to the large cities were 

 in excess of the demand, with the result that the apple market was 

 depressed and prices were very low. All the surrounding towns 

 followed the lead of the large cities, and it was impossible anywhere 

 to receive good prices for the apples. A little planning in regard 

 to wider distribution miirht have averted this slutting of the market. 



