348 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



soon learn ^vhether a shipper's brand can be depended on and deal with him 

 accordingly. If the commission merchant finds that the shipper's brand can 

 be relied upon, he receives and sells the packages without opening them, is 

 enabled to guarantee the fruit to his customers without examination, thereby 

 securing greater dispatch and more satisfactory prices. 



Commission men have their retail customers who require the best the mar- 

 ket affords, and who are willing to pay a better price for the article, so that 

 shippers who put up their fruit to meet the want will profit accordingly. If a 

 grower puts up culls, the fruit should show just what it is, so that there is no 

 deception. In packing peaches the box should be filled slightly above the 

 edges so as to be pressed down when the cover is nailed on. The operation is 

 greatly facilitated by using a press for this purpose. 



In the business of packing women do better than men, working more rapidly 

 and evincing more skill in selecting the fruit. One of the most profitable 

 peaches — Vv'hile one of the poorest in quality — grown in Western Mich., is 

 Hale's Early. They always sell at good prices. It is of great importance that 

 a fruit raiser shall secure a reputation for sending to market fruit that shall 

 always be true to the brand. The above are some of the points brought out 

 in a discussion by the Lawton Pomological Society, on packing and marketing 

 fruits. 



LOW HEADS AND GOOD FRUIT. 



Cost of transportation and marketing apples and pears is about the same, 

 whether the fruit is poor or good. Fruit carefully picked by hand is worth 

 twice to thrice that shaken from the trees, or, what is still more barbarous 

 and injurious, beaten down with poles. In the latter case, the bruised parts 

 are not fit either for eating or cooking; and if the fruit is to be kept during 

 winter, these cause it to rot more rapidly than it otherwise would. The true 

 way is to grow fruit trees with branches so low as to enable one to stand on 

 the ground — or at most, on short steps — to pick it off ; then neither shaking 

 nor pole beating is required; and if the fruit drops prematurely ripened, the 

 distance to the ground is so short it does not get injured by the fall. Some 

 contend that the trees should have high branches, to admit of plowing beneath 

 them. But it is never necessary to plow nearer to the tree than the outside 

 branches, and then the roots are not broken and badly injured. Let grass 

 grow up under the trees and rot there. It makes an excellent mulch, highly 

 beneficial to the growth of the tree, and a soft, clean bed for the fruit to fall 

 on. — " A.'^ in N. Y. Tribu lie . 



PEACHES MAIIKETED IN ALLEGAN COUNTY. 



The following from the Allegan Journal : 



The figures indicating the production of peaches in this county and the 

 prices paid for them, produce astonishment even among those engaged in the 

 business of growing the fruit. We read of a man who got $1,000 for the 

 peaches on less than four acres, without the trouble of picking or marketing 

 them ; of another, whose sales from an orchard of ten acres amounted to 

 $4,700; Senator Lewis has good cause to estimate the value of the peach crop 



