THIRTY-THIRD BIENNIAL, SESSION 
239 
For these reasons the prosperity of the fruit industry in localities 
where climatic and soil conditions are most favorable is dependent upon 
ability to distribute and market the crop over a wide area. While some 
varieties, such as citrus fruits and apples, may be kept for a considerable 
time without deterioration, other varieties, such as peaches and berries, 
must be handled very promptly if they are to reach the consumer in good con- 
dition. The distribution problem is one to which railway managers, as 
well as fruit growers and handlers, have given attention with the result 
that, except as to the most perishable varieties, the fruits produced in any 
locality in the United States can be marketed in any other locality in the 
country where there is an effective demand for them, and the area over 
which perishable fruits can be distributed, while not nation-wide, is very 
extensive, as may be illustrated by the marketing of Georgia peaches all 
over the Eastern, Northern, and Middle Western States,, and even in Canada. 
With the practicability of wide distribution thus established, the prob- 
lem of successful marketing is largely one of efficient marketing methods. 
I may illustrate this by pointing out that the most effective facilities for the 
transportation of fruit will be of little benefit to the producer if an un- 
duly large proportion of a fruit crop of any kind shall be shipped to a 
single market so that the supply is in excess of the effective demand and 
prices are reduced below a remunerative level. Two essential elements 
in the most successful marketing of a fruit crop are a wide demand and a 
system of marketing which will result in the distribution of the available 
supply so that the quantity shipped to each market shall be in proportion 
to its relative consuming power. This kind of distribution is advantageous 
to the great body of consumers, as well as to producers, because, while 
under a system of concentration on a single market, consumers in that 
locality would pay relatively low prices, the short supplies in other markets 
would result in prices that would be prohibitive to a great part of the pop- 
ulation. 
If fruits are to be widely and evenly distributed it is essential that 
shippers shall be advised as to* the relation of supply and demand in each 
market so that the glutting of particular markets, while others are left un- 
supplied, may be avoided. Unless a man is engaged in business very ex- 
tensively it is manifestly impracticable for a single fruit grower to keep 
advised as to general market conditions, and experience has demonstrated 
that best results can be obtained by the growers in each locality organ- 
izing co-operative marketing associations with such co-operation among local 
associations as may be necessary to effect a wide and even distribution 
of the entire crop. 
The organization of co-operative marketing associations does not neces- 
sarily mean the elimination of the middleman. Direct marketing from the 
producer to the consumer is practicable where the fruit grower hauls his 
products to a nearby town and peddles them about the streets, and indi- 
vidual producers here and there may be able to work up a special market- 
ing system whereby they ship direct to consumers. I have in mind, for 
instance, an apple grower, who, by an extensive advertising campaign, has 
built up a considerable business in shipping apples direct to the consumer. 
I very much doubt, however, whether it will ever be practicable to extend 
