462 THE APPLE 



Provided competition is good and prices strong the fruit- 

 grower sells much of the fruit before harvesting, the sales being 

 based either on a packed barrel or on a barrel of tree-run fruit. 

 Under the first method the grower packs his own fruit ; under 

 the second, the grower picks the fruit and puts it on the sorting 

 table, but the buyer does the work of sorting and packing. This 

 last method has grown in favor during recent years. In some 

 sections fruit is still sold in bulk on the trees. Other growers 

 dispose of their apples at so much per hundred pounds. 



Buyers have been too plentiful and competition too keen to 

 stimulate any movement looking toward cooperation. As a result, 

 all kinds and grades of packing will be found. 



The Baldwin apple leads all others, with the Rhode Island 

 Greening ranking next. Probably these two varieties supply over 

 half the apples grown for market. The Northern Spy ranks 

 third, with King, Hubbardston, Esopus, Twenty Ounce, Duchess, 

 Wagener, and several others following, but probably not in the 

 order named. 



In recent years the desire to obtain quick returns from young 

 orchards has been of prime importance ; hence large numbers of 

 early-bearing varieties have been put out. The Duchess, Alexander, 

 Wagener, and Hubbardston have all been planted extensively, and 

 in some sections the Twenty Ounce has more than held its own. 

 The Rhode Island Greening has also been used largely, but com- 

 paratively few Kings have been set. The tendency is more and 

 more toward using these old-time, money- making varieties rather 

 than the newer, untried ones. The Baldwin is to-day being set 

 very extensively, and many of the Spy trees, originally set out with 

 the intention of top-working, will probably be left as they are, or 

 possibly grafted to Baldwin or King. Mcintosh is another apple 

 which is demanding considerable attention at the present time. 



The Ozark region. This is a much larger region than is ordi- 

 narily supposed, its approximate boundaries being the Missouri 

 and Osage rivers on the north and northwest, the St. Francis River 

 on the east, and the Arkansas on the south. It is then an irregular 

 oval running southwest from the center of Missouri, covering parts 

 of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, the whole area being prac- 

 tically equal to the state of Missouri. 



