30 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 



4. Season. — There is an urgent demand for limited 

 quantities of certain fruits out of their normal season. 

 Hothouse strawberries and tomatoes usually bring dis- 

 proportionately high prices. For the most part, how- 

 ever, the greatest volume of demand coincides with the 

 market season of each fruit. Fameuse apples are 

 wanted in November and December, and Northern Spy 

 in February and March. Strawberries are wanted in 

 strawberry season, while a month later most people 

 prefer raspberries. The demand for certain fruits at 

 certain seasons, however, is sometimes due to more 

 recondite causes. Thus there is, in the eastern states, 

 a demand for early plums and for late plums, while 

 mid-season varieties are apt to go begging. This is 

 because the few early plums are wanted for eating 

 fresh, while the late ones are used for canning. Dur- 

 ing August the housewives are either at the seashore 

 or on the back porch trying to keep cool. Nobody 

 wants to stand over a hot stove canning plums during 

 dog days. But when vacation is over and the days 

 are cooler the housewives' thoughts begin to turn to 

 the winter supply of canned fruits, and then the late- 

 ripening Green Gages, Italian prunes, and Damsons 

 come into strong demand. 



5. Supply 0/ other fruits. — When bananas are ex- 

 cessively plenty and cheap, fruit eaters hesitate to pay 

 large prices for apples. When peaches are low in price 

 they are canned in preference to high-priced plums. 

 The price of plums, in fact, is apt to be determined by 

 the supply of peaches. Thus the supply of one fruit 

 affects the demand for others throughout the list. 



