PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 147 



same house was represented by another man. This man came along 

 and offered me ten cents per bushel more. " No, I want such a price." 

 By and by a third man came from the same house, or rather this time it 

 was the proprietor, and he offered me five cents per bushel more than 

 his house had offered the first time. Finally I got within five cents of 

 what I wanted, and fifteen cents more than I was first offered. We 

 encourage the buyers to come to us. 



Q. If they don't come, what do you do? A. Well, we did it, and did it 

 through the organization. The commission men in Grand Eapids went 

 so far as to buy up some of the outsiders, so that they should stay out 

 of the market. They said to these outside men, " We will buy for you; 

 we can buy cheaper than you can," and in one or two instances these 

 outside buyers paid them five or ten cents per bushel to buy for them. 

 It is a ver}^ rare thing for a Grand Rapids grower to consign his goods. 

 We wouldn't want to send them away. W'e are more afraid to ship than 

 you are to trust the Michigan man to buy direct. You could hardly get 

 any of our people to ship last year. One Detroit firm stayed there and 

 bought during the entire season. The commission men tried to buy him 

 off, but he said no. One of the firms said to him, " You stay away and I 

 will buy your fruit as cheap as you can." He said he would give them a 

 trial. He stayed off the market, and this commission house bought the 

 fruit. He went to the commission house and asked what they proposed 

 to charge him. Ninety cents, they replied. He said, '^ But I could buy 

 them for seventy cents." The next morning he came himself and bought. 



Mr. Morrill: The Grand Rapids growers adopted a form which they 

 use as a letterhead. It is an advertising scheme in which they, in their 

 business, call attention to what they do. Mr. Munson has one of these 

 with him. It is a cheap and easy way of letting people know what you 

 have. Of course we have buyers. You can find fifteen or twenty and 

 up to a hundred, almost any time, but we want more. 



Mr. Munson : Four years ago we formed our society, and I was elected 

 secretary, to serve two years. Of course a great deal of the work falls 

 upon the secretary, so I worked out this plan: I wrote to commission 

 men in the large cities all over the country where we are likely to ship; 

 I sent one of these return postal cards, asking them to give me a list of 

 all their reliable commission men or merchants, in their place, and this 

 return card was directed to mvself. Almost invariablv we received a 

 reply. To these men was sent a circular something like this (exhibiting a 

 large letter sheet). Upon one side we give our connections from Grand 

 Kapids, the time for leaving of the trains, freight rates from Grand 

 Eapids to their place, for car and less than car, and by express. Each 

 state is arranged alphabetically. On the other side is a letterhead we 

 use in our correspondence. Our commission men are not commission 

 men, they are brokers; and nine tenths of the fruit in our section is sold 

 on our markets. Last fall we had from five to twelve, and one morning 

 fifteen, thousand bushels of peaches on our market. One reason why 

 men from other places say they like to go to Grand Rapids is, several 

 concerns will send a man there and keep hira the whole season, and he can 

 buy a mixed assortment of fruit and vegetables of all kinds, and they 

 claim that they can buy such a load in Grand Rapids better than in any 

 place they have ever been in. 



