Dairy products . . . 

 Hothouse and hotbed 

 Greenhouse products 

 Nursery products . . 



4 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 



industry is oftenest confined to a comparatively small 

 locality or a single neighborhood, the statistics of 

 smaller territories would be more instructive than the 

 statistics of an entire state. Take, for example, the 

 statistics of Plymouth County, Mass., drawn from 

 the same source as the figures compiled above: 



VALUE OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS IN PLYMOUTH COUNTY, 

 MASS. COMPARISON OF 1885 WITH 1895 



/^T .of.TT..^. «..»., Total value Total value 



CLASSIFICATION „„ o increase 



1885 1805 , 



■' ^■' or decrease 



Total products .... $2,343,878 $3,241,023 + 38.28 



585,017 731,869 + 20.09 



1,805 1,877 + 3-99 



8,833 28,845 +226.56 



9,358 21,696 + 131.84 



Fruits, berries, and nuts 172,144 694,984 +303.72 



Cereals 51,820 20,887 — 59-69 



Hay, straw, and fodder 506,775 626,762 + 22.68 



I. THE TWO MARKETS 



The fruit markets of the United States may be 

 divided rather sharply into two classes. The first of 

 these may be called the indirect, general, or wholesale 

 market. The second may be distinguished as the 

 direct, special, or retail market. The two are very 

 different in almost all their characteristics, and these 

 differences are of inevitable weight to the fruit 

 grower. Wherefore it will be profitable here to set 

 forth these distinctions with the strongest and most 

 convenient antithesis. The two markets differ, then, 

 in the following particulars : 



I. Quantity. — The general market handles fruits 



