204 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ALTON- SOUTHERN 



plant new ones. A few, however, have faith in peaches, and are 

 planting right along, hoping for the good time to come when the 

 winters shall be milder and spring frosts avoid us. 



SMALL FRUITS. 



Mr. Jackson said he finds the Taylor blackberry does not set so 

 much fruit after the first yearns fruiting, and likes it all the better 

 for it. 



Should growers ship their own fruit or sell to dealers at home? 



Mr. Davis believes the dealers made too great a profit on the 

 fruit they handled, that they wanted and took the lion's share, and, 

 for that reason, would not sell to dealers. 



Geo. S. Hill said he had always found it more profitable to ship 

 and sell his own fruit, as what he grew was fancy, and he could get 

 as much, or more, for it as any dealer could, and of course the dealer 

 wanted to make a profit. 



Mr. Jackson believed he could get as much for his fruit as any 

 dealer could, and he thought himself entitled to all the profit there 

 was in it, so he shipped on his own account. 



President Pearson said that some persons looked upon the mid- 

 dle man as a sponge, who absorbs a part of their earnings, for which 

 he performed no adequate service, and which the grower could just 

 as well save by shipping his own fruit. At first sight, this looks 

 very plausible, but, in fact, it is not true. The dealer is right at the 

 shipping point, has full control of mail and telegraph, which the 

 grower on the farms, busy picking and packing his fruit, has not. 

 He can receive an order, five or ten minutes before train time, and 

 fill it, this the grower cannot do. He can also travel over the vari- 

 ous railroad lines, see the dealers in the smaller towns and make 

 arrangements to supply them with such amounts of fruit as they 

 may need; this the fruit grower cannot do himself. In short, he be- 

 lieved a good honest wide-awake dealer was a great benefit to the 

 grower. 



Mr. Riehl — There are two sides to this question. Large grow- 

 ers, who produce fancy fruit and establish a reputation, can get as 

 much, or more, for the fruit than the dealer, and they will do better 

 to ship, but there are times when even these growers can get as much 



