352 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



market, selling your berries to your neighbors, and selling them around 

 to the people in towns. That is a very good way and a very profitable 

 way, and you can generally get a good price for them in this way. You 

 have to take into consideration that you are using your time to pick and 

 dispose of theso berries, but for a man that doesn't raise many berries 

 this is an excellent way. If you will give good satisfaction and your cus- 

 tomers good berries you will get along nicely. 



The second way is to dispose of your berries to a commission mer- 

 chant in some large city. This is the easiest way to get rid of berries 

 that I know of. All you have to do is to get them ready for market and 

 take them to the express office, and wait for your returns. The waiting 

 for the returns is the worst part of it, for sometimes you are disap- 

 pointed in your returns. If all commission merchants were honest and 

 all berry growers were honest there would not be half so much anxiety 

 in waiting for our returns, but there are honest commission mei,'chauts 

 and there are dishonest fruit growers, and I believe if there were as many 

 honest fruit growers as there are dishonest commission merchants wo 

 would not have so much trouble and would get better prices. 



I suppose the greatest market is at Chicago on South Water Street. 

 All kinds of stuff raised by farmers are sent there. It is quite a sight 

 thex'e, and any man in the berry business or vegetable business ought to 

 visit this place and see the conglomeration of stuff sent there for dis- 

 posal by the commission merchants. It would make a man dishonest if 

 he went there with honest intentions to treat the customers correctly. 

 From twenty to thirty thousand crates of berries came to Chicago in a 

 day from Michigan. If half of these berries were dropped into Lake 

 Michigan the commission merchants would have been better off, the 

 growers better off, and the general trade would have been better off. The 

 trouble is they put everything in that grows on the vines no matter wliat 

 their condition. If you would see them you would wonder how the com- 

 mission merchants can be as patient as they are. Less quantities and 

 better berries should be put on the market. They would get a better 

 price then, for the supply would demand it. The quotation of South 

 Water Street this year was from 60 to 90 cents a crate from the 10th of 

 June to the 25th of July. AVho can afford to raise berries for 60 cents a 

 crate. It costs you 60 cents for every crate you put on the market; you 

 can't put a crate on for less than 60 I believe. Count this up. Land at 

 $5, preparing land $5, cost of plants $20, tending the plants $20, fertiliz- 

 ing the plants $50, crates at $50, and picking at $75, and that makes it 

 pretty close to $200, and this ought to produce at the least calculation 

 four hundred sixteen-quart crates in a season. That would cost you 60 

 cents per crate. I believe that the man that can get a dollar or more for 

 his berries is doing well. People can't afford to pay too much for them. 

 If they retail at 10 cents a quart that is almost enough. 



The last way is to sell to a groceryman. I believe the groceryman 1& 



