500 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



by the representatives of the several localities. These reports were full of 

 interest at the time, and gave useful information regarding the liability to 

 frosts upon low lands and the sensitive nature of the peach upon such 

 lands. 



Mr. Adams of Shelby had lost his plums in the lower part of his 

 orchard, while a row but five feet higher was bearing full; spring frosts 

 hurt the plums more than the peaches; plums will stand harder winter 

 freezing than the peach. 



T. Ressegar of Carter said seedling peaches were doing as well as plums. 



Mr. Meisenheimer thought the condition of the plum at the time of the 

 frost had something to do with its killing. 



The reports being closed, the president named the standing committees 

 as follows: Upon resolutions, A. Hamilton, J. L. Hopkins, D. Falconer, 

 and L. B. Eose; on fruits and flowers, C. L. Whitney, Walter Phillips, 

 and J. B. Houk. 



G. C. McClatchie, president of the Mason County Horticultural society, 

 opened the evening session by a hearty address of welcome to all attend- 

 ing, to which Secretary Whitney of Muskegon and Walter Phillips of 

 Grand Haven responded in well-chosen words fitting the occasion. 



Mr. Phillips then presented the following paper upon " Marketing 

 Fruits": 



First, it will be admitted by all fruitgrowers that at certain times of the year our 

 leading markets— Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit — are so oversupplied with fruit that 

 the net returns hardly pay the growers for raising, packing, and shipping. This will 

 not apply strictly to the growers that always put first-class stock on the market; for 

 the market is seldom if ever oversupplied with first-class fruit. But it will apply to 

 the great bulk of our fruit placed on the markets. 



In consequence of this state of things, we are told that the fruit-raising industry is 

 largely overdone. This may be true in certain lines, but will not apply to energetic, 

 active fruitgrowers who raise first-class fruit and put it on the market, honestly packed 

 in a clean, attractive package. 



We are willing to admit, however, that in any of our markets, at any time when there 

 is a large supply of fruit, graded as common stock, it has a tendency often to drop the 

 price on good 6tock. 



Now, as a remedy for oversupplied markets, and also to enable us to obtain better 

 prices for our fruit, I would recommend, first that we grow fruits of good quality; 

 second, we snould not only have our fruit trees and vines in a vigorous, healthy, bear- 

 ing condition, but we should thoroughly and evenly distribute the fruit over the tree 

 and vine that the fruit will be not only of good quality but also of good size and first- 

 class general appearance. 



Again, I would recommend, in planting fruits of whatever kind, that we plant a suc- 

 cession as regards their ripening and coming into the market. 



Again, we should not only have fruit of good quality, good size, and first-class gen- 

 eral appearance, but said fruit should be packed honestly and in clean, attractive 

 packages, be handled carefully, and arrive in market in good condition. And after all 

 the above has been complied with, the great problem to be solved, to enable the wide- 

 awake fruitgrower to get a fair margin on his capital and labor invested is a more thor- 

 ough and complete distribution of his products direct to the consumers. 



Our present system of distribution is so defective that it leaves one half of the fam- 

 ilies in the states lying west of us, where fruit is not grown to any large extent, 

 without any fruit at all. Also, under our present system of distribution, before our 

 fruit reaches the consumers in the west it pays a heavy toll in Chicago or Milwaukee; 

 and this is not all, the fruit being delayed in transit at these places, and also in being 

 handled and shipped. Consequently it arrives in the western markets, at the homes of 

 the consumers, in a damaged condition, and sells at prices too low to leave any margin 

 to the fruitgrower. For, remember, in the end, invariably all of these losses are 

 charged up to the hard-working producer. 



I would recommend, first cooperation of fruitgrowers in the form of organization for 

 the purpose of more evenly distributing our fruits direct to the consumer, and also the 

 marketing of the same under well chosen rules. 



