TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL, MEETING. 91 



By this way, whenever the bulk of the berries ripen I am ready to dispose 

 of them. 



By the time our home-grown berries* ripen, foreign berries, mainly from 

 Bristol, Ind., are selling at ten cents per quart. I start at twelve cents 

 and drop to ten when the main crop ripens, and hold to this point through 

 the season. This has been the case for a number of years past, but this 

 season was an exception. Berries were very plentiful and sold mostly at 

 eight cents. The one thing to guard against in fixing the price is, not to 

 charge one customer more than another. That is something they can not 

 forget and will not forgive. When the people find out that they can not 

 buy for less than the price, they will stop trying to haggle over it. My 

 experience tells me that prices do not change as readily in a small place as 

 in the city markets. The people do not take it kindly. If I can get ten 

 cents for strawberries I do not raise after the crop begins to grow scarce. 

 It is a fair price, and the customers are the only ones supplied at those 

 times. So, if you stick to them at those times they will always look for 

 you to supply their needs. 



This year has been a bounteous season and a large ' acreage looked to my 

 town for a market, one grower having several acres of strawberries. I 

 kept a part of my plantation heavily mulched in the spring, to retard their 

 blossoming, expecting to supply the late market. The late frost of about 

 May 16 caught these vines at a critical time, and that portion of the crop 

 was almost a failure, while the rest of this patch and one other escaped 

 injury. 



With us the raspberries follow strawberries without a break, and a 

 steady supply is kept up. I raise both the black-caps and the red varieties, 

 mostly the latter, as there is quite a plantation of the Ohio at our place, 

 set out for the purpose of drying, but large quantities are sold in the fresh 

 state. The Shaffer, a purple variety, is liked by many of my customers. 

 I recommend it highly for home markets. With us blackberries have been 

 a failure more often than a success, and I do not raise them. But as the 

 grower has the market or a good list of customers looking to him for their 

 supplies, he should make the market continue until the last of the winter's 

 fruit is sold. Those varieties should be planted that give a succession, 

 and leave no breaks in the succession, if it is possible to prevent it, follow- 

 ing the berries and currants with grapes, plums, peaches, and apples. 



In our market quite a demand for grapes was made by mixing the black, 

 red, and white together in the same box. 



It is possible, when the grower is in daily contact with the consumers, 

 to experiment in many such ways to tickle the palates and please the fancies 

 of the customers, by combining and arranging the various supplies in 

 many such ways. 



REPORT ON EXHIBITS. 



The committee on exhibits made report as follows, which was adopted: 



The committee find on the tables, collections of fruits as follows: 



By Wm. B. Andruss of Allegan, thirteen varieties of apple, embracing Rubicon, 

 Dyer, Danvers Sweet, and Cooper's Market, besides the standard winter varieties. 



W. P. and Arthur Green of Eaton Rapids have eleven varieties of apple, two of 

 pear, and Catawba grapes. Of the apples are to be noticed Roxbury Russets and Bel- 

 mont; the pears are Angouleme and Clarigeau. 



Allen Crawford of Eaton Rapids, has twelve varieties. Here are to be noted 

 especially Grimes' Golden and Oakland; also Anjou and, probably, Mt. Vernon pear. 



