8 



fruits possible. The growth of the cold storage ware- 

 house is making the season of fresh fruits the year 

 round. It is distributing them more unftformly throiigh- 

 out the season thereby causing a more steady market. 



So instead of an incidental feature of the farm, the 

 apple is now the princip^r nrop in ?&-ge sections of the 

 country and its production, handling and marketing of 

 the crop are becoming highly specialized forms of agri- 

 culture. In many of the large fruit growing sections 

 the handling of the crop and the marketing of it are con- 

 trolled by organizations or by fruit merchants. These 

 organizations or merchants "buy the fruit in the orchard 

 and who, through the special deTelopment of fruit and 

 market statistics, are better able to handle them than 

 the grower. However, apple storage is not always prof- 

 itable. It prevents the premature deterioration of the 

 fruit, but when the picking season is imusually hot and 

 there are delays in getting the fruit into storage, the 

 losses are sometimes hea^vy. This may be caused by the 

 fall being cool and large quantities of fruit can be 

 kept in common storage. The markets are well supplied 

 with this fruit and the cold storage fruit will have to 

 be held over until in the spring and all be rushed on 

 the market at once, in order to be ahead of the early 

 southern fruits. But on the whole the development of 



