REPORTS OF DISTRICT AND LOCAL SOCIETIES. 541 



from the three-bushel barrel of apples down to the pint berry-box. I believe it would 

 be a great advantage to the shipper. The cost of gathering, freight, and cartage would 

 be the same. If the commission on sales is more we would not complain. 



If it rested with the members of our society, the question could be settled at once in 

 favor of large packages. But we are only a small part of the fruitgrowers of the 

 country. The great majority will continue to put up their fruit in the package that 

 they can see the most money in. I can see but one class that is benefited by the small 

 package, and that is the pickers. And they very often get all there is in the crop. 



About fifteen years ago the same question was discussed in the grange of which I 

 was a member. After much discussion we came to the conclusion that there was but 

 one way to secure a uniform package, full size, that was through the manufacturer. I 

 was a member of the committee to labor with the manufacturers. I spent a number 

 of days and was at some expense. I visited every manufacturer of packages in Ber- 

 rien county, and without an exception they pledged themselves to manufacture nothing 

 but the full-size packages, and that the style should be uniform. I was one of a num- 

 ber who pledged themselves to use nothing but the full-size basket and crate for the 

 season. I stuck religiously to the contract. Some of the strongest advocates of the 

 large-size packages were among the first to switch off to the small one. It was but a 

 short time before the market was flooded with a trifle smaller package than had been 

 in use before. The excuse of the manufacturer was that their patrons demanded 

 something smaller than the full-size, and if they would not furnish it the growers 

 would get what they wanted in some other place. Some even complained that, through 

 the action of that committee, they had lost money, as they started out in good faith 

 and manufactured more full-size crates and baskets than they could sell. After my 

 experience of that year I concluded to do as a large majority of growers do. That is, 

 to use the package that would bring me the most skekels. 



Fruitgrowers are not all shippers. Very many of them never ship a package of fruit 

 to market. They sell to speculators, who will pay the same price for a small package 

 as for a large one, with perhaps the exception of apples. Even our small packages are 

 repacked, in Chicago, into smaller ones and sold to the consumers. 



I know of no way to remedy the evil. Some say, have a law passed making it a 

 crime to offer fruit for sale in any other than full packages. We have a law prescrib- 

 ing the legal size of an apple barrel. That does not prevent the putting on the market 

 of a much smaller package of apples. The law only prescribes the legal size. Again, 

 what is known as the " snide " eight-pound basket for grapes, with the raised rest, will 

 hold ten pounds of well-clustered and well-packed grapes, and perhaps less than eight 

 pounds of grapes that have been thinned by rot or frost, and the eight pounds sell very 

 often for as much as the ten pounds, unless the shipper of the ten pounds has a repu- 

 tation of shipping nothing but first-class fruit. The reputation of the shipper has 

 more to do with the selling price of the fruit than the size of the package. 



I believe the fruitgrower who cultivates the crop, and who has to contend against 

 frost, drought, flood, and other elements, that often seems to combine against him, 

 together with all of the insect enemies, low prices, and the greed and avarice of the 

 commission man, who holds the hard earnings of the grower in the hollow of his hand, 

 has the legal and moral right to offer his fruit for sale in any size or shape of package 

 he may select. 



Mr. White, representing a Detroit company, said that if his company- 

 were offered sufficient encouragement they would manufacture paper fruit 

 packages here. 



Mr. Comings: If they manufactured the wooden berry box also they 

 might work in their paper box by degrees, if it was found desirable. 



Mr. Pixley: Parties who had dealt with the Mt. Pleasant company 

 last year were in favor of dealing with them again; but that the St. Joseph 

 company bought them out; now we have formed this new organization. 

 We expect to keep the $5,000 as working capital, each member to pay for 

 whatever he orders, 



Mr. Mead: I am in favor of contracting with any good party who 

 would offer packages at lower rates, and standing by him, regardless of 

 prices offered by other manufacturers. 



W. A. Bkown: Heretofore any effort in this direction has been headed 

 off, but we never tried it with money invested. 



