PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 47 



The president announced the following committees: 



Fniif — Evart H. Scott of Ann Arbor, S. M. Pearsall of Grand Eapids, 

 Miss Mary Allis of Adrian. 



Floiros (Old Forcsf}-u — Prof. L. R. Taft of Michigan Agricultural 

 College. Mrs. Edwy C. Eeid, of Allegan, Mrs. Adolph Wheeler of Adrian. 



Resolutions — C- A. Sessions of Mears, Prof. L. R. Taft, N. J. Strong of 

 Fairfield. 



Presdient Lyon read the appended paper upon the 



GROWTH OF THE FRUIT TRADE. 



"Quite within the recollection of many of us, the consumer, to secure a 

 supply of fruit, was obliged to seek out the grower and obtain what he 

 might need at first hands. The commission system, as today applied to 

 the handling and disposing of fruits, is of comparatively recent origin; 

 except perhaps as applied to the larger and less perishable fruits, in the 

 larger towns and cities. Much of this more modern development is doubt- 

 less due to the increased consumption of the smaller and more perishable 

 fruits, and the consequent need of rapid transit and prompt sales. That 

 the rapiditj' of railroad transit together with the telegraph and telephone, 

 have been important aids in this respect, is also doubtless true. 



" With the increased interest in fruit-culture at the north, the abolition 

 of slavery has had the effect to direct attention strongly to the extreme 

 south, and especially to California and to the i3eninsula of Florida, and to 

 the development of their capacity for the growth of sub-tropical and even 

 tropical fruits; while, at the same time, improvements in ocean transpor- 

 tation have opened to the people of the north a large and growing trade in 

 many of the previously too perishable fruits of the AYest Indies and trop- 

 ical America. 



" So rapidly has this trade developed that already our inland cities and 

 even ^'illages and country towns are supplied, not merely with oranges and 

 lemons, but with cocoanuts, pineapples, and bananas as well; and this, too, 

 at prices so moderate as to bring them within the reach of persons of very 

 moderate means. 



"The increased consumjDtion of southern fruits is the natural and inevit- 

 able consequence of this state of affairs, with the result that they come 

 more or less directly into competition with those indigenous in our climate. 



"This result has alread}- become so unmistakable that, in certain quar- 

 ters, a tariff has been suggested for the protection of growers of our northei-u 

 fruits. We strongly suspect, however, that the increased consumption of 

 these, to us, foreign fruits, is due rather to an increased use of fruits gen- 

 erally, and that the extent to which they really take the place of our 

 home-grown fruits ma}^ be comparatively slight. Be this as it may, it is 

 well to look the whole subject fairly in the face before asking even an 

 administration of protective proclivities to interpose in our favor. 



"The growth of sub-tropical and even tropical fruits, including the 

 banana, pineapple, and even the cocoanut, guava, and various others, has 

 been already undertaken in Florida, as well as in southern California and 

 Arizona, and that, too, with apparent prospect of success. A tariff, there- 

 fore, while it might be high enough to exclude the foreign product, must 

 necessarily have the secondary, and, to us, the even more injurious effect, 

 to render the home production more decidedly profitable, and thus event- 



