PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 157 



is of better quality than that not wrapped. It not only protects it from 

 injury, but it will make it better quality. The wrapping retains the 

 flavor. Why do the Florida people wrap their oranges? They wrap 

 oranges with skins as thick as sole leather because it retains the aroma. 

 With a pear, the longer that fragrance escapes the poorer it is. The 

 peach, pear, or plum which is wrapped is better than if not wrapped. 



Mr. Morrill: I was just wondering what the California pear would 

 taste like if it were left unwrapped and shipped here. 



Mr. Dunlap : Wrapping is a good thing for good fruits, but I was on 

 South Water-st., Chicago, last year, and I noticed some handsome peaches 

 in baskets; and I asked my commission man where those peaches came 

 from. He replied, California, and they were being sold as Michigan 

 peaches. The wrappers had been taken off, and they were selling them 

 for Michigan fruit. So, though we might imitate California in some 

 respects, don't let us imitate them in the quality of the fruit. In regard 

 to commercial fruitgrowing, there will be failures in it in the future as 

 in the past, by a great majority you might say, of the growers, and it 

 will be because they have not attended to the essential matter of mar- 

 keting their fruit in proper shape, and marketing it where it is the most 

 profitable. That was illustrated last year, by the market in Illinois. 

 Apples were sold so cheap in the orchards that the growers were almost 

 completely discouraged. Handsome fruit was sold for fifty and sixty 

 cents per barrel. The great bulk of it was sold for less than seventy-five 

 cents per barrel. The buyers placed the fruit in cold storage and sold 

 it later on, and doubled and trebled their money. That could have been 

 done by the grower himself, if he had been posted as to the proper place 

 to market that fruit and how to care for it. We should consider these 

 questions if we are going to make the future a success. 



Mr. Morrill: I would like to correct one impression that Prof. Van- 

 Deman has, and that is that California does get our market away from 

 us. I can find shippers here who, with peaches no larger, have received 

 |2 for California's |1. Double the price, pound for pound, for two or 

 three years, Michigan fruit and California fruit Ijang side by side on 

 South Water-st., and we know nothing about the quantity that could be 

 sold that way. There have never been enough first-class peaches to 

 supply the demand, at prices far above the California fruit, and their 

 transportation charges would be a good revenue for us. So, speaking 

 for Michigan alone, I think the prospect for first-class fruit is as bright 

 as it ever was, but the lower grades may not be so successful. 



Mr. Graham : I don't know that I can add anything to what has been 

 said here. I quite agree with Mr. Morrill and the others. There is now 

 and there will be plenty of room and a good market for good fruit. I 

 don't think, however, that the great majority of the people of Michigan 

 are capable, with their present methods, of growing that variety of fruit. 

 The location and the methods employed make them unable to grow that 

 quality of fruit. We have heard a great deal for a long time about grow- 

 ing the best quality of fruit. At the same time we know that the great 

 majority of the fruit grown today is only of very medium grade, and it is 

 a question whether it is getting any better. The bulk of the fruit that 

 goes into market is very common, ordinary fruit, and I am always sorry 

 to see men planting large tracts to fruit where the location is not first- 



