140 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



in bushel baskets, grapes all in eight-pound baskets, or anything of that 

 kind. There has been something said, in fact I have heard considerable, 

 regarding an ideal package for fruit. For instance, Michigan apple 

 barrels to be all according to one standard, the Michigan peach baskets 

 to be all one kind, always the same the world over, and so on with all 

 the packages. It occurs to me that uniformity in this sense is desirable. 

 For instance, the Chicago market, perhaps, demands a fifth-bushel pack- 

 age for peaches, and don't want anything else. The Buffalo market, for 

 instance, demands a bushel basket. On the other hand, fancy fruit should, 

 be put up in a fancy package, while for the very common fruit, intended 

 for the canning factory, a larger package is more suitable and less expen- 

 sive. I don't believe in shipping a fancy grade of fruit in rough baskets or 

 a poor grade in fancy baskets, nor even in small packages, where the 

 expense of the package is almost equal to the value of the fruit. I believe 

 this idea holds good regarding all fruit packages. Then, too, I believe 

 that the market to which we ship should control this — their ideas must 

 be complied with. It is so in other lines. 



I was talking the other day with a representative of a Chicago packing- 

 house, and he told me that they put up the hams from that house in 

 twelve or thirteen styles. One market wanted one style and another 

 another, and they couldn't get the prices unless they catered to the 

 wishes, whims, and fads of the people with whom dealings were had. 



On the other hand, I believe a bushel basket should always be a bushel 

 basket, and contain fifty pounds, as the laws says. An eight-pound 

 basket must hold eight pounds, and not six, eight, or ten. Uniformity in 

 that sense, I believe, is desirable; and as I understand it, that was the 

 object of the law enacted at the last session of the legislature. That 

 law emanated from a fruitgrowers' association, an Allegan county horti- 

 cultural society. It was brought in there by their representative, and at 

 first view it seemed to me that we were going a good distance out of the 

 way to enact any such law as that until there was a demand for it or 

 a big complaint from the consumer. There certainly was never any 

 organized effort on the part of the consumer to have such a law enacted, 

 but in talking with the legislators it was evident that it was simply for 

 the protection of the honest growers and packers of fruit, the idea being 

 that the majority of people, fruitgrowers and packers, wanted to do the 

 honest and straight thing in packing their fruit, wanted to give an honest 

 package, but once in a while an individual would put on the market a 

 "snide" package. Instead of the eight-pound grape basket, he would 

 get one that held a little less, and put it on the market and sell it as an 

 eight-pound basket. By and by the other packers and growers find it 

 out, and they get some of the same size, or a little smaller, and pretty 

 soon the package that was ''snide" will be the standard, and so on down, 

 until we get them down in some instances so that the package is worth 

 more than the fruit. 



I understand that some of the package manufacturers object to this law 

 and declare that they will defy it. It seems to me that this is entirely 

 out of place, and that it is the duty of the fruitgrower and packer, and 

 horticultural societies throughout the state, to demand enforcement or 

 recognition of that law, coming from them as it does. All that it requires 



