464 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 
be the best market for the following year. The 
market details should be followed up with the same 
thoroughness which the grower gives to the new 
development in varieties, and in means of contend-. 
ing with fungi and insects. 
The selection of the middleman, through whom 
the fruits are to be sold, is one of the most im- 
portant features in the whole range of fruit market- 
ing. The first requisite is that this man should be 
honest and capable. Then the grower should place 
great confidence in his judgment, for, as he is 
nearer the point of consumption, his advice should 
be worth much more than the judgment of one 
who is far away. Too many growers are guided 
in their selection of a merchant by high quotations 
and flattering letters which are sent out at the be- 
ginning of the fruit season, but it is often true 
that the man who at the beginning of the season 
makes the most moderate and conservative quota- 
tions, is the one who secures the most profit for 
the grower in the end.* 
If one is to reach special and personal markets, 
the small package is nearly always advisable; but 
in the wholesale and impersonal methods of market- 
ing, the large package will no doubt prove to be 
the most economical, not only because it costs less 
for a certain quantity of fruit, but because the ex- 
pense of packing is less. In the early days of 
commercial fruit shipping in this country, the large 
*For a sketch of the rise of the auction system of selling fruits in this 
country, see Annals of Horticulture for 1892, p. 40. 
