22 SUMMER APPLES IN THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES. 



bility of loss from poor market conditions. This method makes it 

 possible to ship in car lots, as the buyer fills his cars ordinarily with 

 fruit purchased of different growers. 



MARKETS AND THE PLACE HELD BY SUMMER APPLES. 



Very naturally, large and relatively near-by distributing centers, such 

 as Philadelphia and New York, receive large quantities of summer 

 apples from this region. To a less extent, some of the New England 

 markets, principally Providence, R. I., and Boston, Mass., receive more 

 or less fruit, especially of certain varieties. During the past few years, 

 however, new and more distant markets have been sought. As a 

 result, considerable quantities of fruit from the Chesapeake peninsula 

 section are shipped to such points as Pittsburg, Pa. ; Cincinnati, Ohio; 

 Detroit, Mich.; Chicago, 111.; and to even other more distant western 

 and northwestern points. 



Foreign markets also offer an outlet for considerable quantities of 

 early apples, especially when the European crop is light. The results 

 of the experimental export shipments made by the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry indicate that for fruit of good grade properly handled and 

 when the markets are not overstocked with home-grown fruit, good 

 returns may be expected from London, Liverpool, and some of the 

 other leading foreign markets. 



As an important commercial product, summer apples are a com- 

 paratively new commodity in many markets and their use has been 

 limited. They have not filled a place comparable with that held by 

 peaches, winter apples, and some other fruits. Hence, in the past the 

 period of real demand for them has usually been during a scarcity of 

 other fruits. There is evidence, however, that a very large number 

 of consumers have now come to think of summer apples as filling a 

 definite place in their food supply. While the demand is naturally 

 more or less influenced by the abundance of other fruit in the markets 

 during the summer-apple season, it is not so much dependent upon 

 the availability of other fruit as in the earlier years and it is becoming 

 more constant as the regularity and abundance of the supply of early 

 apples increases. 



THE PROBLEM OF VARIETIES. 

 CONSIDERATIONS GOVERNING SELECTION. 



There are several fundamental features which should always be 

 considered in selecting the varieties of any kind of fruit to be grown in 

 a given region or under particular conditions. The purpose for which 

 it is to be grown, whether dessert or cooking, home consumption or 

 market, should be given due weight. A variety may behave in a 

 certain manner, ripen its fruit during a particular period, and show 



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