132 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MAEKETING OF FRUITS IN 1894. 



BY MR. GEORGE W. BARNETT OF CHICAGO. 



The subject assigned me is about twelve months long, covering the year, 

 but the main portion of this paper will refer especially to the time when 

 Michigan products were on sale in Chicago. 



It should be understood clearly that I never pretend to speak for any 

 other market than the Chicago market, and this should be carefully kept 

 in mind. The conditions that prevail in Chicago may be very different 

 than those of Detroit, Toledo, or Grand Rapids, and representatives of 

 each should speak for their own markets. 



The year 1894 opened with scant supplies of fruit. Apples were the 

 only offerings of nothern fruits, and these, mainly from New York, sold at 

 about $3.75 per barrel during January. This price gradually increased 

 until, early in May, $10 was occasionally paid; then $25, and in one case 

 (and only one) $50 was paid by L. G. Kunze (a dealer in fancy fruits) for 

 one barrel full of choice apples. Every apple was carefully selected, and 

 the price was paid to establish a " record." 



February brought a succession of storms, and March weather was not 

 much better, so that, aside from oranges and lemons, but little could be 

 sold. 



April brought some strawberries from Florida and a few from Mississippi 

 and Louisiana, but droughts and untimely frosts practically destroyed the 

 first bloom of the strawberry plants. The second blooming produced some 

 fruit in Mississippi and Tennessee, but the outcome was very unsatisfactory, 

 and not until southern Illinois sent her crop did the market present 

 anything like its normal appearance. 



Notwithstanding the poor quality of much of the fruit, being small, 

 inferior, and "buttony," the condition was excellent and the prices realized 

 fairly satisfactory for these times. 



The total output of fruit from the south to this market was quite small, 

 and when the raspberries and blackberries were due, and the cherry crop 

 from the south should have come, they were not forthcoming, which made 

 a good market for Michigan small fruits. 



I do not consider it within the province of this paper to treat the Michi- 

 gan crop, or causes for short or full supply — that is left for others, I pre- 

 sume — ^^but I name enough of the conditions to make clear my meanings. 

 With the close of the marketing of the strawberry crop, which was cut 

 somewhat short by the drought, came the great railroad strike that was 

 announced for June 26. As it did not affect the steamer traffic, the supply 

 of berries came forward with regularity, and, having little competition 

 from receipts by rail, the prices were on the whole satisfactory, although 

 the volume of business was too small to be profitable to either shipper or 

 receiver. 



The embargo on the railroads continued for about three weeks, and much 

 fruit was lost by its operations; but the "consequential damages " were 

 far in excess of nominal loss. It was not only the loss on the fruit that 

 actually decayed while in the hands of the railroad companies, but the 



