THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 1 63 



where grown, often the variety, always the grade and usually advertise 

 the whole farm and its product. Some growers have their labels registered 

 in the United States Patent Office. 



New York peach-growers profit more and more from cold-storage. 

 Peaches can be kept for a few weeks in storage at the freezing point or just 

 above but they soon lose texture and flavor on coming out and cannot com- 

 pete with fresh peaches which reach the markets every day from some 

 sotirce from May until November. Precooling before shipment, now but 

 coming into practice, is of inestimable value in the heat of the summer. 

 The fruit is quickly packed and then cooled to 40° F. in a central station or 

 by forcing cold air through loaded cars, and then goes under refrigeration 

 to destination. In eastern New York peaches go mostly to New York 

 City by night-boat but refrigerator service is an absolute necessity for 

 western New York and has been very generally installed by the railroads 

 of the region. The precooling station is to be the next step in advance. 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE NEW YORK PEACH-CROP 



In the past the great problems of peach-growers, as of those who 

 grow other agricultural products, have been cultural in their essential 

 character. Attention to problems of distribution have had to do with 

 the opening up of new regions of production — the expansion of the agri- 

 cultural domain ; with developing means of transportation — railroad lines, 

 steamboat service, canals; and in developing centers of consumption in 

 the cities and towns which have been springing up everywhere in the 

 habitable parts of America. Until recent years, little has been done in 

 studying the commercial disposition of agricultural products. Now, how- 

 ever, studies are being made everjrwhere of the distributive systems by 

 which products get to market and to determine what share of the con- 

 sumer's price should go to the producer and what to the distributor. 

 Everywhere the importance of these economic studies is recognized and 

 no producer sees more clearly than the New York peach-grower the need 

 of improvement in handling products to distribute risks, reduce risks, 

 decrease the numbers in the vast armies of middlemen and in every way 

 improve defective distribution. But these questions belong to specialists — 

 economists. We wish here only to furnish a few fimdamental data which 

 may be of use to all concerned in the distribution of the peach-crop. 



In the economic study of the peach-industry in the State it is essential 

 to know the volume of the product in the State; what proportion of the 



