REPORTS OF LOCAL AND DISTRICT SOCIETIES. 507 



and good prices — $1 per bushel, net. It costs us just 15c to place our 

 fruit in Milwaukee. Plums bear every year. I bought the product of an 

 orchard for $1 per bushel and cleared $1 on each bushel, and that was a 

 success. Some shippers put in knots and leaves, and when they get their 

 returns we laugh at them. 



Mr. C. J. Monroe of South Haven : I have had a wide experience in 

 the line of fruitgrowing, and I think that for the amount invested there is 

 more profit in fruitgrowing than in any other general business. It was a 

 succcess this year, but I think we must look well to the matter of thin- 

 ning for fear of bad results in the future. In the matter of marketing I 

 think, taking all things into consideration, there is but little difference in 

 results in shipping to Chicago or to smaller interior markets. It is a great 

 mistake to ship to many parties. Better take one commission house and 

 pack the fruit so as to make a reputation. I shipped to only one man in 

 Chicago and my peaches netted me a little more than one dollar per 

 bushel. 



Mr. C. L. Whitney of Muskegon : I think we should take notice of 

 this thinning of peaches. If you take the flesh and the pit and reduce 

 them to ash, you will find much the larger part of the volatile oil in the 

 pit. Formation of the pit exhausts the tree and soil and the sooner a 

 tree is thinned the larger the peaches and the less the tree is exhausted. 



The next topic was " The fruit exhibit at the West Michigan fair : its 

 quantity and quality, and how to be improved." 



Mr. Whitney : I have taken the pains to examine the books and get 

 the facts. I never saw so fine an exhibit. The table extended nearly 

 quarter of a mile, plates six in depth, with large quantities under the table. 

 The whole number of entries was 890, by 855 exhibitors, and $740.75 in 

 premiums were awarded. There were of collections 455 plates — 325 plates 

 of apples, 95 of pears, 48 of grapes, 60 of plums. Total of single plates, 

 1,168 ; and 48-J bushels of apples competed for a single premium, all west 

 Michigan fruit. 



Mr. Lannin : The greater part of the early fruit brought from a distance 

 suffered by the heat, but the quality of the fruit was excellent. Mr. Geb- 

 hart of Oceana county had some of the finest plumsl ever saw — finer than I 

 ever saw from California. The finest apples I ever saw were from Old 

 Mission — perfect, and by the bushel. The peaches were also fine. Mr. 

 Pearce of Grand Rapids exhibited the finest Delaware grapes I ever saw. 

 Some bunches weighed nearly a pound. Pears I claim to know something 

 about, but I was astonished at some Flemish Beauties from up north, and 

 I think if we can exhibit such at the World's Fair we will astonish some of 

 the other states. 



A paper was read by E. Hutchins, on "Transportation and marketing 

 fruit," which is here given in full : 



The subject of the transportation of fruit is one of great moment to the grower. The 

 older settlers will remember the time when peaches were allowed to go to waste in the 

 small orchards then cultivated, because transportation facilities were lacking and the 

 home market was inadequate. Sometimes, indeed, an intrepid buyer would hazard a 

 shipment in one of the sail vessels then frequenting the coast; but the risk of losing 

 the fruit before it could be landed across the lake was too great to warrant the pursu- 

 ance of the business continuously. Occasionally, on account of high winds, the fruit 

 would decay at the dock before a boat could land; and in comparatively recent years 

 orchards planted in some portions of the south have been wholly unremunerative 

 because rates of transportation were too high to leave any profit in shipping the 

 fruit. In the state of Texas whole peach orchards have been cut down, because 



