112 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



best anything that is not No. 1; in this way he would get just returns 

 for the different grades of fruit as such — and would not be the menace 

 that he is to the market for others; the dishonorable packing of one 

 grower can neutralize the influence of ten honest ones. 



The buying and consuming public when once "taken in" on a pur- 

 chase, become sceptical and resort to bartering and beating down the 

 price, fearing that in any event they will be beaten in the quality — 

 no matter what price is paid. 



Let me tell you of some observations along this line: 



In the early part of last August I was in Chicago, and wishing to 

 know something of the fruit situation, I went over onto South Water 

 Street; in passing one of the numerous commission houses, my eyes 

 were attracted by an open bushel basket of Elberta peaches that stood 

 in the doorway; as there were still three weeks before Michigan peaches 

 were ripe, I stopped to examine the fruit and found the "early" Elbertas 

 rotten with the yellows; I asked the price, and on being told that they 

 were |1.25 per bushel, I remonstrated with the salesman, "Those peaches 

 have the yellows" — and asked him where they came from; his reply, in 

 a most disgusted tone of voice was "Michigan"— I lamented the fact 

 that anyone would send such fruit to the market; when the salesman dis- 

 covered what state I was from, he proceeded to dress down the Michigan 

 fruit growers from one end of the state to the other, declaring that there 

 were no honest men on this side of the lake; of course, I took issue with 

 him, but as our commission friend was so badly upset (just about at 

 this season Duchess apples were such a drug on the market) that he 

 was unreasonable, I waited for him to exhaust his bad feelings before 

 I told him that we had tried to have passed, at the last session of 

 the legislature, a law requiring every shipper to put his name on his 

 packages. He went up in the air again about this, and when I asked 

 his objection, he said repeatedly, "we don't want your name on the 

 package," and when I insisted upon the reason for this, he said again, 

 "we don't want your name on your package — we don't want to adver- 

 tise your fruit/' to which I replied "I thought as much." We must 

 work out our own salvation independent of the commission merchants. 



Another observation : A buyer told me that he bought a car of Bart- 

 lett pears and consigned them to Milwaukee; the conmiission house 

 there reported that so far as the pears had been examined, only 10 

 barrels had been found that did not have apples packed in the middle. 

 Would such be the case, do you think, if barrels were labeled with the 

 name of the shipper? 



During our pear-packing season this fall, a man worked for me who 

 had previously helped a neighbor north of my farm. When he saw 

 that we culled out the small and indifferent ones, he remonstrated with 

 me, "Mr. So and So put in all such; he faced up the barrel very nicely, 

 put in a basket of good fruit, and then filled up with the rest." Now 

 Mr. So and So is a large grower of pears, and being able to furnish the 

 buyers with large orders for filling their cars, his pears were in demand, 

 and I discovered that his fruit brought a better price than my own 

 smaller shipments; but I also learned that the party at the other end 

 of the line said he would gladly spend the price of the car load to lo- 

 cate the man that had packed the fruit that way. If Mr. So and So's 

 name had been on the barrel, he would have been held responsible for 



