104 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



field of beans growing for seed. In the forenoon he used the cultivator as 

 his employer had set it for him, the front teeth cutting the deeper and 

 turning furrows toward the plants; but in the afternoon, thinking he knew 

 more than the employer, he changed the cultivator so that the side teeth 

 cut the deeper, cutting off toots and turning the earth away from the 

 plants. The difference was manifest when I saw the field some time later; 

 but, until discovery of the change of the cultivator, the owner could not 

 understand what had caused it. The yield was If bushels per acre more 

 on the portion which had been properly cultivated in the forenoon. In 

 preparing soil for crops, it is best to cultivate, then plow, then cultivate 

 again. Whatever deep cultivation is done should be when the roots are 

 yet short, so that they may not be cut off. Yet what Prof. Taft has said 

 about frequent cultivation is true, because but a shallow stirring of the 

 soil is intended. The old-style shovel and double-shovel plows are doing 

 more damage in this country than any Democratic administration ever did! 

 [Laughter.] 



teansportation of fruits. 



BY MR. J. A. PEARCE OF GRAND RAPIDS. 



This question, the transportation of our fruits, is of so much magnitude 

 that it may well merit our earnest consideration. The great mass of our 

 growers have never given this subject more than a passing thought. They 

 do not realize how much there is in it, nor how much the success of their 

 business depends on it. Before I proceed, let me give you a few figures. 

 Our peach crop in the vicinity of Grand Rapids was estimated at 300,000 

 bushels. When the season was over it was conceded that it had gone 

 above the estimate. A saving of ten cents per bushel on that amount to 

 the growers, is $30,000. If we estimate five cents per bushel saved by 

 the half rate, on covered baskets, which we got the railways to make, we 

 find that it is a saving to our growers of $15,000, and I am sure it went 

 far above that. On the last car of peaches we shipped, the half-rate 

 amounted to $44. This half-rate is taken off from Buffalo to the Missis- 

 sippi and from the Ohio to the north. So you can make your own esti- 

 mate as to the amount of saving it is to the growers living in that vast 

 region. This just concession was gotten from the transportation com- 

 panies through the combined efforts of the kindred fruit associations of the 

 Grand River valley. 



This is only one small item of the benefits that have come to the grow- 

 ers through these organizations, and yet some of the growers turn over 

 their dollars and hesitate and wonder if they are going to receive the worth 

 of their money. 



