WINTER MEETING. 205 



thing to do in the premises and that is to see that all infected fallen 

 fruit is destroyed before insects shall have time to enter the ground 

 and form a new crop to prey on the fruit another year. 



A man now has no moral right to turn loose a swarm of fruit- 

 destroying insects into the orchard of his neighbor, and should have no 

 legal right to do it. If he will not destroy his insect-infected fallen fruit, 

 then there should be a means provided whereby a proper officer of the 

 law should see that is is done and the cost assessed against the land 

 and the same collected as any other tax. 



Those in the newer settled sections of the State cannot realize how 

 very destructive insects can become, but they stand a splendid show to 

 learn. Those in the older sections have found it out with a vengeance. 

 I have seen wagon-loads of apples brought into the St. Louis market 

 that did not contain one bushel of sound fruit. 



Another very serious problem that has to be solved is that of 

 transportation. It has become so in many localities at certain seasons 

 that a shipment of fruit has bat little more likelihood of bringing a 

 just return than a ticket in a lottery or raffle. The fixed charges of 

 transportation, commission on sales, expense or crating, picking and 

 packing of fruit have first to be met, then if there is anything left, and 

 quite frequently there isn't, the grower comes in for his share, which, 

 by the way, is never so heavy that it costs him anything to get it trans- 

 ported home from the express office. For instance, the express charges 

 from West Plains to Kansas City are $L per hundred, $20 per ton, an 

 earning capacity of $400 in hauling a car-load 300 miles, honestly worth 

 not over $40. The fixed charges per crate approximately are 34 cents 

 express, crate and picking 55 cents ; if they sell for $1 per case (and 

 thousands have sold for less), then the commission is 10 cents, a total 

 of 99 cents, and the grower receives the munificent remuneration of 1 

 cent for 24 quarts of berries. When they sell for less than charges he 

 receives an invitation to remit balance. 



This is another hard job laying before the Missouri State Horti- 

 cultural Society, which is to secure just and equitable rates of trans- 

 portation 10 enable the fruit-growers of our State to compete in terri- 

 tory that legitimately belongs to us. Can we do so now? Go into 

 Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas, and you will find that 

 the shippers of Southern Illinois, with the splendid equipment and fa- 

 cilities of the Illinois Central railroad, and the equally splendid dis- 

 tributing facilities of Chicago, and these fruit-growers can place fruit 

 into many portions of these states at a profit, when we cannot reach 

 them only at a loss. Do you know what you will meet when you go to 

 a Missouri road for express freight rates similar to that accorded ship- 



