THE NINETEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 127 



whether it is a system we want. I do not assume that we do, necessarily. 

 Could not the fruit, at such sales, be easily sorted, as boat companies sort 

 it, each kind of fruit by itself? 



Mr. Burnett: In my opinion, that is a very feasible business proposi- 

 tion. It is a matter of agreement among consignors — the auction matter 

 — if the growers agree in requiring the fruit to be so sold. 



Various brief remarks were made, none of a nature complimentary to 

 the commission merchant; whereupon, said 



Mr. Burnett: You need not mince matters on my account; and I wish 

 to say something in return upon the character of the ordinary shipper. I 

 receive a consignment from a man, treat him fairly, and he agrees to con- 

 tinue with me; but next day a solicitor is listened to and the fruit sent to 

 some other merchant, and thereby I am disappointed and my business 

 deranged. Honest and well-meaning growers often lose money by such 

 changes. I once received a consignment of peaches in half bushels, from 

 a grower in Hart. They did not "show up" well and so I opened a basket 

 to show to a customer. They proved to be fine and he took the lot at $2 

 each. That consumer came daily but found no more such fruit. If that 

 shipper had continued sending he would have gotten more than the market 

 price. He should have done so if he had any more. Commission men — 

 good ones — try to please good consignors, those whose fruit sells high; for 

 if it sells at $2 the commission is twenty cents, while if it sells at twenty 

 cents the commission is two cents (and the good fruit sells the easier) yet 

 the cost of handling is the same. 



Jas. F. Taylor: What is meant in this discussion by the "average fruit- 

 grower"? 



Mr. Morrill: We all know him and no definition is necessary. He is 

 a man who deliberately sorts and "faces up" to swindle; and three fourths 

 on the lake shore are of this kind. They are better in the interior. 



Mr. Burnett: I am shy of agreeing to this, but I will not dispute it. I 

 gave up soliciting fruit for another reason; I could never know what or 

 how much I would receive from day to day. 



Mr. Morrill: I have bought peaches in Chicago for my own use, and 

 in ten years I have not got more than five baskets that were straight 

 packed. The best fruit goes out of the market at once, and after nine or 

 ten o'clock there is no 'straight' fruit on the street, though plenty of the 

 other kind. 



J. M. Haight of Shelby: 'What average advance will an honest packer 

 get, year by year, over the shyster? 



Mr. Burnett: He gets more than the market rate, right along. Mr. 

 Morrill's melons bring twenty-five cents more per case than others just as 

 good, because they have an established reputation. The loss on bad goods 

 is pretty evenly distributed between the grower, commission merchant, and 

 buyer. 



Mr. Burnett spoke in favor of large baskets for peaches of evary grade 

 but fancy fruit. There is an increasing demand and preference for the 

 bushel basket. 



Much talk ensued, each speaker commending honest packing, and it was 

 urged that even the poorer qualities should be uniform in size throughout. 

 Mr. Burnett explained the various evil results of "stuffing," among others 

 the loss to the merchant who, on the basis of two or three shipments, 

 guarantees the quality of the next, only to find it proves to be "tailings." 



