510 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. J. H. Crane of Fennville : I have been requested to give a resume" 

 of the Fennville association, and present some facts to this meeting. They 

 claimed in Chicago that the mode of handling the fruit by American 

 express was quite unsatisfactory, the fruit being late in going on the mar- 

 ket. When 1 came home we talked the matter over, and some twenty of 

 us, in 1889, agreed to unite and form an association. We organized, ap- 

 pointed a loading and unloading agent to look after the shipments. After 

 some correspondence the general manager of the railway, Mr. Mulli- 

 ken, decided to still let the express company handle the fruit ; but as there 

 was no fruit last year it did not matter. This year the executive com- 

 mittee held meetings with the management of the road, which had then 

 changed, and they agreed to guarantee a fair rate if the people would sup- 

 port the railway in preference to boats ; but up to the day of shipment 

 they would not give us rates. Finally they agreed to bill at 56 cents per 

 hundred pounds in full cars and 29 cents for cars not full, or $52 per car. 

 The loading and unloading was successfully performed, but the accommo- 

 dations were not so good as they should have been. A life membership of 50 

 cents and a tax of 50 cents per car was expected to sustain expenses. We 

 paid $2.50 for loading and $5 for unloading. Three hundred and ninety- 

 eight cars were shipped from Fennville. The total charge for freight was 

 $21,131.49, an average of $53 on each car of peaches shipped from Fenn- 

 ville ; while for a car of apples they charge us only $28. Why, we can not 

 understand. This made a rate of 3 to 3| cents per fifth basket. Short- 

 ages amounted to $57 and the sale of unmarked packages $61. Perhaps 

 3^ cents per fifth basket would meet all demands. We have now $250 in 

 the treasury of the association and may be said to be successful. 



Mr. Wiley : The first rate offered by the railway was five cents, which 

 was then well understood to be an arrangement between the boats and 

 railway ; and when the fruitgrowers obtained outside boats which came 

 here and agreed to take fruit at a less rate, then this combination was 

 broken and we got lower rates from the railway. 



Mr. Gardiner on the subject of transportation said : We have two 

 modes, by land and by water ; and they get our fruits to market in the 

 best manner. We have had cheaper rates on both, this year, than ever 

 before. I have shipped by both means, and we are under obligations to 

 both combinations, one for obtainining rates by cars and the other by 

 boats. By the obstructions in the water I think the fruitgrowers lost 

 $5,000 this year. The old line of owners, who said they could not live at 

 less than a five-cent rate, when the opposition boats came in reduced the 

 rate to 3^ cents and still they lived. With only two exceptions, m\ fruit 

 sent by the railroad was received in Chicago by 7 o'clock, and one of those 

 was an accident. I had three shipments of peaches on the pier at one 

 time, and lost on one shipment, during a storm, by damage, one fourth of 

 the fruit. But there is often fault in the packing as well as the shipping. 

 Some of the lower layers would make a pig squeal. I do not think the 

 packers dishonest. I call it lack of judgment. Some of the fruit on the 

 tree ripens before the rest. Pick that first, pack it carefully, go over the 

 tree several times if necessary. 



Continuing discussion of transportation, in the afternoon, Mr. Pearce 

 said: We at Grand Rapids took up the question of transportation about 

 the same time you did here, but dropped it for want of fruit. This year 

 we reorganized and looked up the commission men from Dunn's Reports, 

 and looked up their location, etc., and compiled these ; so when we went to 



