FRUIT MARKETS 165 
to drop. If the quality is good the price will go up, 
and if poor, the opposite. General prosperity of the 
country affects the price in the same way as it does the 
demand, for as the demand increases the price usually 
goes up. Attractiveness of the fruit has a very material 
effect upon the price asked. It is a well-known fact 
that the majority of the consumers in the cities buy on 
looks rather than upon knowledge of the fruit itself. 
Hence the package in which fruit is placed has become 
recognized as a part of the real value of the contents. 
This is true to such an extent that in fruit shows the 
judges and the management of those shows attribute 
approximately a third of the value on the market to the 
attractive manner in which the fruit is put up. 
The conditions of the market are important because 
the things which affect the market will also affect the 
price. Markets have their good days and their bad days. 
Saturday or Friday afternoon are usually recognized as 
good days for markets because of the stocking-up of the 
household for the big Sunday dinner. Correspondingly, 
Monday is usually a bad day. There are fewer calls 
for fruit than on other days in the week. Markets 
gradually increase in their condition up until Friday 
and Saturday and then fall again early Monday morn- 
ing. 
Days just before legal holidays are always good market 
days. The week preceding Thanksgiving or Christmas 
or New Year’s are correspondingly good in influencing 
the market. The days following legal holidays are cor- 
respondingly poor. Weeks of rainy weather, effects of 
frost injury and conditions of the country materially 
influence the price. Instances in which grapes of the 
