FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT. 47 



posed to stop at Sodus. We arranged with the railroad to have our car 

 taken out, and got the railroad officials to give us power to hold that 

 train there certain times to 5 :30, and on certain special occasions we 

 can hold that train until six o'clock, but it is given us to understand 

 the limit ordinarily is 5 :80. Our car is put on that train and taken 

 through to WatertoAvn. We have electricity in our packing house, and 

 we cool the cars with electric fans. We open both ventilators and start 

 a fan going, and always leave that fan in the car while the fruit is 

 loading-. Now that car is in Watertown at four o'clock the next morn- 

 ing. Immediately upon the car leaving our station, when we know what 

 is in it, we call these men on the telephone and tell them what is in the 

 car so that they know before the car arrives just what is in it. They 

 sell it in Watertown, or they are in time to get out by express from 

 Watertown to the smaller towns. That is the plan that we have handled 

 a large part of that trade with, and we have had to fight for it. This 

 market is right near us and we propose to hold it. I don't like to be too 

 personal about this, but I take pride in telling you a few things I picked 

 up. The same Presbyterian minister who told the story of the foxes' 

 tails is around our warehouse more or less. He has a sister living at 

 Mannsville, near Watertown, and during the peach season he goes down 

 to visit his sister at Mannsville and once he was in Watertown visiting 

 and saw in front of the fruit store a whole sidewalk full of peaches, with 

 many of our peaches among them with our label on them. Knowing us, 

 he is interested. There is a man there buying peaches, and the dealer 

 asks him |1.15 per basket for our No. 1 peaches. There is another basket 

 of peaches there that looks just as good as ours ; he asks 90 cents for it, but 

 the man buys our peaches. The minister thought that w^as funny as the 

 other basket of peaches looked just as good as ours, and he says to the 

 buyer, ''I am interested in your buying those peaches. I am wondering 

 why you bought that basket at |1.15 when you could buy these for 90 

 cents." The man says 'That basket is Case & Company's peaches; they 

 are all alike through the basket. I have bought them for years." When 

 that came back to me, showing that the people were appreciating honest 

 packing it was a great satisfaction to one. Moody & Stewart asked us 

 to give them the control of our peaches in Northern New York and said, 

 *'We can get you 25 cents more per crate for anything you can put in 

 here." Now we are up against the point where the fruit has increased so 

 that this section cannot handle all our fruit. Understand, we dictate the 

 price that Moody & Stewart gets for our fruit, we dictate the price, and 

 if we cannot get it they can't have the stnff. We expect to be reasonable 

 and fair and every time give the man his money's worth. We pack our 

 peaches in three grades; that will take care of anything that is market- 

 able. We will not allow any stuffing of baskets. It is an old saying in 

 our packing house about Case & Co.'s reputation. I go in there and say 

 "Girls, our reputation is in your hands. Don't you put anything in 

 those baskets that you would not like someone else to put in for you 

 if you had to buy them, and don't you let me catch you stuffing these 

 baskets or putting better fruit on top than you put right down through 

 them." That is the way we have built our reputation, but now we are 

 up against the bigger markets in New York. We have tried for two or 

 three years to get in New York right, but have failed. We cannot get 

 in there with the price we should get for the quality we have grown. At 

 last I think we have found a way to get better results. I think it was 



