Winter Meeting. 201 



thought we would save $25.00 a car by doing it but we would have 

 lost $50.00 a car. In the drouth year Armour's handled the icing and 

 re-icing of our cars in first-class shape at the usual cost. If he had 

 done it ourselves that year we would have had to ship the ice for south 

 Missouri from Iowa at a cost of from seven to eight dollars, so it was 

 better for us that a regular refrigerating company should do this part 

 of the business. In Michigan a few years ago I was in the peach 

 business and found that I could ship a car to Missouri and ice it for 

 $20.00. The railroad company did not have stations to re-ice for peaches 

 and strawberries at the proper time so that I found that where I saved 

 $50.00 in not re-icing I lost $100 in spoiled fruit. 



Louis Erb — The Commission Merchants' League mean to compel the 

 railroad companies to re-ice. For a car of Jonathans shipped to New 

 Orleans in September, four tons of ice were used at a cost of $10.00, and 

 it went through in the right shape. 



S. R. Young — Fruit business is a peculiar business, there is always 

 much to learn. I am a student and learn something new. every year. 

 Apples do not require so much ice as peaches and strawberries. What 

 I say I have learned from my own experience. The railway companies 

 have learned that ft is necessary to work in conjunction with the growers. 

 It is the inclination of the railway companies to work for the interest of 

 agriculture. In the last few years they have arrived at the conclusion 

 that their interests and those of the grower are identical and both inter- 

 ests advance together. 



W. A. Gardner — We have had an example of the diflference between 

 refrigerating charges by Armour and by the Illinois Central Railway. 

 The railway from Milan to Chicago charges $30.00, while Armour's com- 

 pang charges $60.00 from Humboldt to Chicago, the same distance. It 

 will not be long until all the railway companies will be furnishing their 

 own cars and then we will get refrigeration at cost. The Armour com- 

 pany is not in it for their health. There is much difference between the 

 private car lines and those of the railway and we should do all we can 

 to encourage them to furnish the cars. 



N. F. Murray — The papers this afternoon are of a high grade, but 

 I want to refer to an item mentioned by Mr. Erb. I know of a case 

 where the charges were only $11.00 more on a car shipped from Mary- 

 land than on one shipped from St. Joe to a nearby town. The rail- 

 road companies will not do much until we go to them in an organized 

 way. The growers should be organized and look after their business. 

 We have never gone to the Burlington as an organization without getting 

 concessions. We have secured the reduction from $100 to $70 on a car 



