72 
AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
mission man my partner or servant, just as I do tile horse or mule that works 
the cultivator among the trees. We are all necessary to one another, and 
must treat one another honestly if we are going to reap our just rewards. 
Mr. Kellogg: Mr. Morrill, whose peaches are on exhibition here in the 
hall, furnishes a worthy example of marketing on his own reputation con- 
tinuously through one commission man, by selling over 4,000 bushels of 
peaches at an average price of from seven to eight dollars per bushel. This 
fruit evidently brings him at least two dollars a bushel above the regular 
market price, on account of his general reputation and known trade mark, 
among those from whom he seeks customers. He has marketed through 
this one commission house since the beginning of his business. He grows 
strictly fancy fruit and has a regular line of customers through this house, 
which fact enables him to fix the price at which his commodities shall sell. 
In this way he will be able to raise the total sales from a fifty-acre orchard 
to the enormous sum of $35,000. His other produce always brings fancy 
prices and is operated on the same general principle in marketing. 
Mr. P. Pedersen, Pennsylvania : I can corroborate, from my own experi- 
ence, what Mr. Hale has said in regard to acting honestly and sticking to tlie^ 
same commission man. At the start I commenced to deal with different 
people. Later I gave the preference to the man whom I found to be honest; 
and, year after year, by honest packing, we have got better prices; everything 
we sell being sold under our mark. We guarantee every barrel or basket 
turned out by us to run the same way all through. As a consequence I may 
mention that in 1897, when there was a large crop of Smith’s Cider and the 
common price was from $1.25 to $1.50, we did not sell a single barrel for less, 
than $4 and we got as high as $5. When we send our wagon out, no matter 
how crowded the market is it is rarely a half hour after we have got unloaded 
before everything is sold, a fact to which every man who works with us can 
testify. 
Prof. Wm. B. Alwood, of Virginia, addressed the Society upon The Com- 
mercial Apple Districts of Virginia, illustrating the geographical points in 
his talk by frequent reference to a large map of the state on which the dis- 
tricts were shown. 
THE COMMERCIAL APPLE DISTRICTS OF VIRGINIA. 
BY PROF. WM. B. ALWOOD, VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, BLACKS- 
BURG, VIRGINIA. 
The Stale of Virginia presents marked physical and climatic features which 
have a very decided effect upon fruit growing in the state. This is markedly 
true of the culture of the apple. 
The state lies between parallels 36° 33/ and 39° 27', north latitude and 
between the meridians of longitude 75° 13' to 81° 37' west of Greenwich. 
Its shape is that of an irregular triangle with apex at Harper’s Ferry and 
measured in a direct line it is about two hundred miles from this point to 
the North Carolina line near Danville. The base of this triangle is the south- 
ern border of the state and is four hundred and forty miles long. There 
are about one hundred and twenty-five miles of sea front; about six hundred 
miles of inland navigable waters and fifteen hundred miles of shore line 
touching upon these waters. This latter line is measured along the convolu- 
