66 SUCCESSFUL FRUIT CULTURE 



for our people do not have all the fruit they should 

 have for health and comfort, and the fruit can be 

 delivered to the home market at a very little cost for 

 transportation and package. There would be also a 

 large saving in that the money now spent for foreign 

 fruit would be kept at home. But this economy may 

 not be needful, as the majority of our people are able to 

 use large quantities of both home and imported fruit; 

 the more fruit our people consume the better health 

 they will possess. For the home market, the same 

 conditions hold as to quality and packing as for foreign 

 markets, but perhaps more emphasis should be placed 

 upon quality, for our people can afford to pay as higli 

 prices as any people in the world, and the rule which 

 governs the sale and price of other fruit commodities 

 affects more or less the apple crop also, i. e., that the 

 more good fruit a market has the more it will take at 

 reasonable prices and the tendency will be to an upward 

 price, unless there is an overproduction, and the over- 

 supply must be prevented by finding a market for the 

 surplus in other countries. 



Facilities are now such that we can send any prod- 

 uct to the remotest part of our country, and the home 

 markets should be investigated before any attempt to 

 supply foreign markets is made. The weather and crop 

 reports made by the government and published in the 

 agricultural papers, are generally accurate and will help 

 the fruit groAver to decide where to send his fruit — 

 whether to hold, or to sell from the orchard. Where 

 a fair price is offered, it is generally best to sell directly 

 from the orchard, unless one has good facilities for stor- 

 ing, for there will always be a great deal of waste from 

 keeping and the extra cost of handling is an item that 

 must be carefully considered. 



In most sections of the country the apple crop is 

 bought up by dealers and it is important that the 



