PROCEEDINGS OP THE WINTER MEETING. 15 



We are now on the threshold of meteorology, and with the proper collec- 

 tion of these data there can be no doubt of the value that can be derived 

 from the proper application of the information. First and foremost we 

 must have the statistics, and with them we can work out the problem 

 which will bring us many returns for the money expended in gathering 

 the information. 



Mr. L. D. Watkins of Manchester said he was one of the eighty 

 observers scattered over the state who make reports to Sergt. Conger, 

 doing the work without compensation. The record is made twice each 

 day — at seven or eight o'clock, morning and evening. There are noted the 

 standing of both barometer and thermometer; the state of the weather, 

 whether fair, clear, or rainy ; the degree of cloudiness, and many other such 

 items, involving considerable work, all of which is done for nothing, and 

 yet some of the legislators begrudge the pittance of $1,300 for office 

 expenses for two years ! 



QUESTIONS OF MARKETING. 



Upon the subject of marketing, Mr. H. Bird jr., of Douglas was called 

 out. He said there was talk in his vicinity of having central packing 

 houses to which all fruit should be taken and sorted and packed, thereby 

 securing uniformity, but nothing has yet become certain. There is much 

 agitation on account of the Chicago ordinance with regard to packages, 

 a new law requiring all fresh fruits in baskets to be sold by the bushel or 

 aliquot parts thereof, dry measure. This would exclude the fifth-bushel 

 baskets commonly used for peaches. But the fifth basket is not a " snide' 

 package in any sense. It is made a full fifth of a bushel and does not 

 purport to be more. The Saugatuck and Ganges societies have decided 

 to send a man to Chicago to secure, if possible, acceptance of the fifth 

 basket, which they are willing to brand and guarantee to hold a fifth 

 of a bushel. They believe the ordinance is aimed at the cheats of 

 repacking practiced in Chicago. 



Mr. C. J. Monroe: We have had many experiences in marketing, at 

 South Haven, and laid many plans for improved methods, but as yet have 

 established none of them with certainty. We have studied the plan of the 

 California union but find it not at all suitable to our case. We have also 

 investigated those of Maryland and Delaware, but they are not exactly 

 what we think we want. We have great difficulty in getting growers to 

 hold together in a union for shipping. But just now a number are agree- 

 ing upon a trade-mark and an agent to look after the fruit, both in the 

 packing houses and the market, and protect the trade-mark. He will also 

 look up parties in the interior, to whom shipments may be made; at home 

 he will inspect the fruit and the packing of it; in Chicago he will watch 



