12fi TRAN'SACTIONS (tF TlfE ll.MNOrS 



REPORT UPON UTILIZING AND MARKETING FRUITS. 



AV. H. Schuyler, of Chicago, presented and read the following 

 essay : 



The fruit grower, probably, experiences greater loss in money value 

 through negligent, ignorant and fraudulent maketing of fruit, than through 

 want of knowledge of the laws that govern its culture. This fact has been 

 forcibly impressed upon me for the last two or three years by daily per- 

 sonal observation of the Chicago markets. Even in this last year of 

 universal fruit scarcity, South Water and Jackson streets have been glutted 

 with poor, unripe fruits, which, in their green state, should never have 

 been marketed at all. These unsatisfactory products have materially 

 depreciated the price of good fruit without realizing any profit, or scarcely 

 any, to the shipper. To-day the apple market in Chicago is slow and 

 dull, not because there is so large a supply on hand, but because in the 

 early part or the season the market was stocked with poor, inferior quali- 

 ties, which lowered the price of good fruits this year beyond recovery. 

 Generally, too much green fruit is marketed ; too little pains taken to insure 

 what is marketed to be sent packed in an attractive, conscientious, hon- 

 est manner. We soundly abuse the commission men for alleged want of 

 honesty and care in the sale of fruits consigned them, and in too large 

 a number of cases these complaints are just; yet there are faithful, trust- 

 worthy, competent commission men, who are no less anxious than the 

 growers themselves that the fruits consigned shall be advantageously sold, 

 and who return promptly and honestly all moneys received for their sales, 

 save their commission. The unvarnished fact is, that while fruit growers, 

 as a class, are heaping wholesale condemnation upon faulty commission 

 men, they are themselves, by their methods of packing fruit, setting a fatal 

 example either of dishonesty, or scarcely less criminal, carelessness. It 

 has become a rare circumstance to find a basket or barrel packed all the 

 way through with an even quality of fruit — with the middle and bottom 

 layers just as good as the tempting top round. Perhaps I ought not to 

 say that such a consignment is rare, for, as there are honest commission 

 men, so I know there are many conscientious fruit growers who would 

 scorn to stoop to fraud in the sale of their fruits, but I must candidly say 

 that a large portion of the fruit received in our Chicago markets is not 

 honestly packed, much to the disgust of the consumers. 



The indignation and disappointment consequent upon the delivery 

 of such fraudulent packages have lessened, in no inconsiderable degree, 

 the quantity of fruit bought and consumed by the general public ; and 

 the burden of loss comes back with double force upon the original fruit 

 shippers. Fruit of all kinds should be strictly graded in packing, and 

 if inferior fruit be sold in the green state at all, it should be sold on its 

 merits solely, as second or third grade fruit. Usually, the inferior 

 grades can be much more profitably utilized by drying, or preserving. 

 In the long run, it would be better for the fruit grower to let his poor 

 fruit rot in iiis orcliard, than to depreciate his good by sending the whole 



