200 State Horticultural Society. 



to be present. The Ozark Fruit Growers' Association shipped two 

 hundred and twenty-five cars of peaches and had success from every car 

 load sent out. 



S. R. Young (Industrial Agent Missouri Pacific Ry.) — The ques- 

 tion of transportation and rates is an all absorbing one throughout the 

 fruit belt of the United States. This question is the first to be considered 

 by a man when he thinks of planting an orchard, and usually, he has 

 many imaginary grievances stored up. The first question asked is, are 

 we going to have better fruit rates when in reality he doesn't know what 

 the rates are. When the market is bad and you get poor returns you 

 want to kick about the transportation charges ; when the prices are good 

 you do not think of complaining. Sometimes the bad returns are due 

 to bad packing and bad picking. I am going to speak not only from 

 the standpoint of the railway, but also from that of a commercial fruit 

 handler. I at first condemned the railway and got their ill feelings. I 

 began with the local station agent instead of going to the proper official, 

 when I gave it to him pretty rough he would say that he would take it 

 up with his superiors; later I wrote a rough letter to the general agent 

 and- so got turned down. I always got the worst of the deal, but was 

 finally whipped into submission, and I then began to learn how to handle 

 them so as to get favors. I soon saw that I had to change my tactics 

 according to the proverb that you can catch more flies with molasses 

 than with vinegar. Fruit growers make the mistake of going to the 

 wrong officials to make their complaints and not asking the right offi- 

 cials in the right way. The railway officers are not fruit growers, but 

 are financiers, they do not know the competition of the market nor the 

 perishableness of the fruits and for that reason we should go to them in 

 a business way and explain our matters fully. The railway companies 

 are beginning to appreciate the horticultural men and are willing to help 

 them as they do not want to kill the goose that lays the golden &gg. In 

 the last few years they have appreciated the great goose of the horti- 

 cultural interests of the United States that gives more golden eggs than 

 any other. 



In the matter of refrigeration we do not want to overlook the fact 

 that it costs a large amount of money to ice from point to point. It 

 takes five tons to ice the car at the start and three tons to re-ice it on 

 the route, this costs $24.00. The timber to brace the car costs $3.50 and 

 $1.50 for the man to do the work. The cost to ice and ship a car of 

 peaches from Olden to Boston costs $100.00 or $85.00 to New York, 

 $65.00 to Chicago. Some of us once asked the railway company to let 

 us do our own icing and it was granted, but we did not do it. I 



