16 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the handling of the packages and see to shipments beyond, and care for 

 the members' interests with commisson houses. The trade-mark will 

 guarantee uniformity, will bear a request to report any misuse of it, and be 

 so placed that opening the package will destroy it, making impossible its 

 application to another package. 



Mr. Bird described a similar organization at Glenn, in Ganges town- 

 ship, which has been highly successful in two seasons and will be in oper- 

 ation again this year. 



Mr. Rice said there is a marked difference in size of berry boxes also- 

 There should be a requirement of law for their marking with their true 

 capacity. 



Mr. Monroe: I am pleased to know that Benton Harbor and Douglas 

 are both at work upon this system, for it surely hastens the time, which 

 must come, when the three counties (Berrien, Allegan, and Van Buren) 

 will co-operate in some such measures. It must certainly come. At South 

 Haven we shall try to establish shipments to the interior and yet avoid 

 gluts at any boint. For instance, one of our shippers once sent a ship- 

 ment of peaches to Battle Creek. They sold well and he sent more. At 

 this time many others had sent to the same market and all got unsatisfac- 

 tory returns. So no one sent any more, and presently the Battle Creek 

 dealers, the market being wholly without the fruit, began telegraphing 

 for more. Some claim that gluts are beneficial to the consumer, but this 

 instance illustrates the error of that assumption. There was one day an 

 overstock and the next day none at all. Both shipper and consumer are 

 best served by a constant and only a sufficient supply. Our new associa- 

 tion will try to prevent such injurious competition as this, in the interior 

 markets. We will guarantee the uniformity of the fruit in each package, 

 either number one or number two, meaning to exclude all cull fruit. 



Mr. Bird: The idea of a central packing house is to provide uniform- 

 ity of grade and an equal chance for prices between the large and the 

 small shipper. 



Mr. Monroe: The large shippers get the better prices, because 

 commission men desire to hold their business and because purchasers can 

 secure from them larger quantities of fruit of uniform grade (what one 

 man would pack as No. 1, another would put with No. 2); but this larger 

 price is made up by the merchant from the smaller shippers. There is 

 great need of cooperation of fruitgrowers, for a bad, diseased orchard will 

 ruin a good orchard in the next field. So, too, growers as a whole must 

 get good prices in order to have the business satisfactory as a whole. 



