Summer Meeting. 125 



tive association, will own the surplus, should there be any, after expenses 

 are paid. This will be distributed pro rata, or used for any purpose the 

 stockholders may provide. 



The peach crop is light this season. No car load shipments will be 

 made from Missouri and none from Arkansas north of the Boston moun- 

 tains. South of that range something- over 100 cars will be shipped. If 

 next season is favorable for peaches in this same Ozark country, there 

 will be fully 3,000 car loads to market, and the O. F. G. A. will handle 

 a large part of the crop, in as much as the members of the association 

 will produce several hundred of these car loads. 



The apple crop, as we are painfully aware, is distressingly short 

 this year. There will be a third of a yield in Arkansas and a fifth of a 

 crop in Missouri. Even such a production will give 2,000 car loads to 

 market. The O. F. G. A. has been urged so insistently to help the apple 

 growers, it will be at the service of members. Last year, with a light 

 crop, the majority of orchard men lost money. With good management, 

 our apples should be marketed at a profit. This work will De taken up 

 with earnestness at once, in as much as getting ready is half the achieve- 

 ment. Certain varieties of Ozark apples are far superior to apples of the 

 same varieties grown in other states. Other sections excel in certain 

 other varieties. So there will always be a demand for our Gano, Ben 

 Davis, Jonathan, Ingram, York Imperial and Arkansas Black apples. 



WORK IN HAND. 



The Ozark Fruit Growers' Association has important work in hand, 

 work more difficult to perform than the successful marketing of a berry 

 crop. It has undertaken to help in an effort to secure a reduction of re- 

 frigeration charges, which are from a third to one-half too high ; higher, 

 in fact, in some instances, than the freight. If the present rates of icing 

 charges are to be continued, the grower will have to go out of business. 

 The private car line should go and the railroads should furnish cars with- 

 out extra charges except for the ice used. The 2,500 members of the 

 Ozark Fruit Growers' Association unanimously protest against the ex- 

 cessive refrigeration charges. The cost of freight and refrigeration on a 

 minimum car of strawberries from Springfield to Kansas City is $144; 

 <fo Detroit, $302! And yet the private car line is more merciful than the 

 express companies, which frequently take all the fruit sells for. Armour 

 is liberal compared with express companies — and Armour does give 

 good service! Let us appeal to Congress, to the Interstate Commission,, 

 and to the voters against excessive charges. 



We must allude to another very important effort the Ozark Fruit 



