98 Stale Horticultural Society. 



can profitably have the large plantations of strawberries so numerous 

 as they are at present. This matter of over-production will adjust itself 

 when these others are settled properly. There is no doubt but that 

 there were too many berries on the market in some of our markets at one 

 time this year to pay the grower anything. Sixty car loads from one 

 point in one day will soon fill every market in the west to overflowing. 

 In this great rush for the business by these commission men we find so 

 many unprincipled men who lie so easily and so well, that they get the 

 cars often Avhen they know their houses can not handle them, and at the 

 same time there are hundreds of small towns where there are none. 

 Six cars secured by the solicitors of one house in Minneapolis in one day 

 was a slaughter of the prices, it could be nothing else. Car loads art- 

 all right but if the grower gets nothing, the business soon stops. Ship- 

 ments to our smaller towns must be made to help us out of this trouble. 



If the express companies will take upon themselves this question of 

 distribution and good markets and good dealers, then they will not only 

 help the grower out of their trouble but make money for themselves. 

 The companies have all the agents and means at their disposal for its 

 solution and they must take hold of it in earnest. This, and the other 

 fact that all these goods should be sold at the point of shipment, which 

 should be put into practice, will soon settle this serious question. It is 

 much better, in case of a glut, to sell crates of berries for twenty-five 

 cents per crate at the station, than it is to sell in Omaha or Miimeapolis or 

 Detroit, is it not? But this question will come up in its proper place, 

 for presentation and discussion, and I trust we will take hold of it and 

 help to settle it. 



THE NURSERY MENS' ASSOCIATION. 



The Kursery Mens' Association meets in Chicago next week and, 

 in this serious time with our nursery trees, we should have some of ouij 

 members attend. The trouble and damage to our nurseries should be 

 well known for we will all be wanting trees for the next few years, if ever. 

 ]t will take three years' planting and replanting to replace all the trees 

 that are dead and will yet die from the eifects of the severe cold. 



