FORTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT. 139 



living made easier aiid better, and onr lives lived as they are, close to 

 nature and nature's God, nobler and purer. 



Question: What advice do the Madison Cooper people give? 



Answer: I do not like to knock anybody at all, but I will say this, 

 that one of my friends, a former president of the Fruit Growers' Asso- 

 ciation, who installed that system, after using it for two years, took 

 it out and replaced it with another system. 



Chairman: I was particularly imjtressed with what was said about 

 the icing of cars. We are up against the same proposition in this State. 

 T liad to confess that I did not, and I do not believe one in tifty of 

 the fruit groAvers of this State knows wliat the laws are governing the 

 railroads in this State, and I would like to ask Mr. Bush if they are 

 any different than those that govern in New York? 



Answer: I do not know so much about the laws, but I know a little 

 about what you can do. In the first place, in regard to this ice — I 

 do know that if you have a cold storage plant that you can manufacture 

 that ice and sell it to your shippers for |2.50 per ton and make good 

 money on it, and I presume you are ])aying Armour considerable more 

 than that. 



A Member: Yes, a good deal more than that. And we find that 

 slack icing is one of the difliculties we have to contend with. 



Mr. Bush: That is so, and especially where tlie railroads have it 

 their own way and where no one gets after them. I got a Public Service 

 hearing in Rochester and we as farmers for the first time made it pretty 

 hot for the railroad company. I got into a row with the New York 

 Central R. R., and decided that I would get right after them, and we 

 did. Since that time we have had a much l)etter service. I do know 

 that in New York our laAV does protect us in this way, that if we order 

 an iced refrigerator from the railroad company,, we do so by filling out 

 written orders and then keep track of the hour, and if the R. R. Co. failed 

 to deliver to our station for our use such a car, we can pile our peaches 

 on the track, tender freight charges, and any loss the railroad company 

 Avill have to stand. We have found that the railroad company Avill 

 get the car there the day you have the fruit. I have had the New York 

 Central Company after dark send a special engine and train crew, 

 with three refrigerator cars from Rochester, 30 miles away, to Morton, 

 to take care of my stuff because they knew that as I had notified them, 

 they would have to buy these i)eaches at GOc a basket, and this, of 

 course, they did not want to do. There is another thing why they would 

 go to all that trouble — the fruit-growers and farmers have not known 

 what their rights were, but now they are finding out what they are, 

 and tliey can not be played as a lot of suckers as they have been. When 

 the railroads find out that you are on to your job, that you know your 

 rights, that you intend to insist upon them, you will find that- they 

 will come across and do pretty nearly the right thing. 



A Member: I would like to know your opinion on Question No. 11. 

 ''How snmll a cold storage is practical?" 



Answer: I would not build a cold storage plant with a capacity of 

 less than 50,000 bushels. There must be a chief engineer, two foremen, 

 and frequently a house foreman, receiving clerk, and for this you can 



