36 American HortlcuUiiral >Soc{efy. 



ular quality and serious imperfections of a majority of the fruits sent to 

 market. Botli the dealers and consumerh soon get disgusted when they find 

 half the pearhes in a basket, or half the apples in a barrel, wormy: and in 

 the case of tho peaches find all of them green, hard and inedible below the 

 top layer; and even the top course seeming ripeand well colored only when 

 seen through the delusive tarlatjin which is bound tightly over them. A 

 basket of green peaches with a goodly suj)ply of worms, and with sizable 

 specimens jjlaced on top, and then all covered tightly and beyond examina- 

 tion by a colored netting which makes them all appear blushing with ripe- 

 ness, is a cheat and a fraud so contemptible and disgusting that it should 

 consign the perpetrator of such a swindle to the tender couch of the county 

 jail. It is only equaled by a barrel of apples that is faced up handsomely at 

 both ends and is tilled with scubbj' and wormy scrubs through the middle. 

 I regret to say that such baskets of peaches and such barrels of apples are 

 forced oti upon an innocent buying public by hundreds of thousands every 

 year. I think and hope that the most abused fruit market in the world in 

 this resi)ect is that best of all the fruit markets of the world, the city of Chi- 

 cago. 1 will venture the guess here that, of all the millions of people that have 

 this year bought peaches coming through the Chicago market, not one in four 

 has had occasion to bless the grower of the fruit; and in most cases he has 

 been objurgated, if not cursed. I dwell particularly upon this kind of fruit 

 and this kind of package because it is the most notable example of a wide- 

 spread attempt to deceive the buyer to be found in all our fruit marketing 

 history. It will not be a good excuse to say that red tarlatan is necessary to 

 hold the fruit in place in the baskets, because vhite netting with a very open 

 mesh will serve that purpose equally well and will not obscure the real color 

 And no well-colored peach can be made more beautiful by any kind of cover- 

 ing. Is it any wonder that re8i)ectable grocers dislike to trade in our fresh 

 fruits, and that the people get sick and weary of buying them, when the open- 

 ing of every new package is the unveiling of a new deception ? 



AN EARNEST PROTEST. 



I am a fruit-grower, a fruit-packer, and a fruit-buyer, and I sljuid here 

 in all three capacities to protest, in all the earnestness of my soul, against all 

 kinds of deception in fruit-packing. It is impolitic in the highest degree, 

 and it is unworthy of all decent men. A large dealer not long since said to 

 me that the whole business of fruit-packing, east and west, north and south, 

 with now and then an exception, is worm eaten, and rotten with dishonesty. 

 My friends, I hope his denunciation wa.s unjust, and I believe it is far too 

 sweeping, but severe criticism is called for. 



Let us away with all stuHings and facings, with all deceptive coverings, 

 with all undersized packages, with the ]iacking of all green, half-grown, 

 gnarly and worm-eaten fruit in any kind of packages. If we must pack 

 poor fruit, put it on top where it will tell its own story. Let us do this, and 



