FIFTY-FIKST ANNUAL REPORT. 147 



probably 40. Now, how many through tlio Federal Fruit Exchange? 

 A few here. Now, then I believe thoy arc all honest. Most farmers 

 are honest and I want to be absolutel}^ honest. How many of our Fenn- 

 ville growers who are present were satisfied with their sales this year? 

 Get your hands up if there were any. 



Member: We had to be satisfied. We were in it and could not get 

 out. 



Question: I noticed that your Fennville people say you were satisfied. 

 Why were you satisfied? Did you not get all that the market demanded, 

 all that it would stand? If you did you ought to be satisfied. 



Mr. Barron: Maybe I should not have said it in that way. I can't 

 understand what I am to talk about. We have some problems in rela- 

 tion to production. I don't know what he had in mind, the proposition 

 of each Exchange man starting out in the spring and advising fruit grow- 

 ers when to spray, how to spray and when to cultivate, etc. on down 

 through or whether he had in mind some other problems. Exchange 

 men can be of some help to growers occasionally when they get on to 

 something that is all right that we can pass out to them. Other times 

 we get on to something that is all wrong. To illustrate last season we 

 had a little trouble in getting lime for peach spray. I had an idea they 

 would ship better sprajdng with the mixture of glue and sulphur. It 

 looked all right and we could buy it. I sent out a circular letter and 

 got some formulae. It worked fine up to the point where they put 

 poison in it and did not put any lime in it. One of my growers came 

 to me and said that I had ruined his peach orchard and I had. Wc/know 

 that something is needed along that line. We believe we can make quite 

 an improvement. The freight charges are high and packages are higher 

 and they are going to stay higher than they were two years ago. The 

 money that fruit growers make is going to be made in the better grades. 

 It costs as much to deliver a poor grade as a good one. If we can get 

 on something that will raise our grading ten per cent it will pay well. 

 We have discussed this at different times and we came to the conclusion 

 that we could hire a field man to do this and could go out and advise the 

 growers. W^e put that proposition up to them and I believe that three 

 out of four of our growers voted "No." It seems like it was going to 

 be up to them to look around and hire a man to sell the low grades at 

 no one price. Now I am going to call on some of the Exchange members 

 that are from Fennville and ask them. I would like to ask Mr. Hamilton 

 if he knows of any way that the Manager could help him in raising 

 crops? 



Mr. Hamilton : I don't know. Probably he could if he was wide ■ 

 awake and was very interested in it and knew various new things that 

 come up and better qualified than the fruit growers in the Exchange, he 

 probably could. 



Mr. Barron: If he were better qualified but can he be? He has got 

 other problems to think about. I think the Manager has plenty of 

 problems in the Exchange to handle. It is doubtful if he would be of 

 much benefit in the raising of fruit. I think it is the business of the 

 farmer to look after the raising of the crop although the manager may 

 help at it sometimes. I think if the office is well equipped so that you 

 can get out circulars that we can be of some service to the growers. 

 We will be careful in the future in advising a man to use glue and there 



