PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 199 



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•cents, twenty-five cents per dozen. Celery never sold for less than five 

 cents i)er stalk. We did not see one single large, juicy Crawford peach 

 all summer. As secretary of the society, it would be well for you to look 

 into this idea and thus give you another outlet. At present the bulk of 

 jour shipments are made to Chicago and Milwaukee. This is a growing 

 city. Thousands of people find employment in the packing-houses and 

 factories." All of which simply goes to show the consuming capacity of 

 that town. 



As an illustration of how this may be done, and is done by private indi- 

 viduals to a certain extent, I wish to quote from an article in the Ionia 

 Sentinel of last week, which says that Mr. Luther F. Hall has just 

 returned from central Illinois. Now, neither of these points is so far 

 away but we should be able to establish a good shipping line, and the 

 rates would not be so great as to consume all the profits. ''He has 

 returned from central Illinois, where he sold out a carload of elegant 

 Ionia county apples. This is the second car he has disposed of there, and 

 he is busy getting a third car ready for the holiday trade down in that 

 country. Luther says apples are a luxury in Illinois. He sold his car in 

 a college Town, and says it all but made him weep to see the way the 

 people recklessly handled and craved that precious fruit, which up to the 

 time it left the car had received such careful treatment. When Luther 

 pitifully protested, and vowed the fruit would never keep through the 

 winter under such a jostling, the people did not even take issue with him, 

 but eagerly came back for more. Mr. Hall said he opened a car of 75U 

 bushels on Friday morning, and by Saturday afternoon he had sold the 

 entire shipment except fifty bushels, in lots of from one to twenty bushels, 

 nt from thirty-five to fifty cents per bushel." 



These things simply go to show the possibilities of fruitgrowers of 

 Michigan, if they can overcome the obstacles which exist in the way of 

 shipping facilities, and the tendency they have to distrust one another 

 and to refuse to enter into any association or combination for shipment. 

 I think it will be said to you here that there are large numbers of men in 

 this vicinity who selfishly take advantage of the good work that has been 

 done by this shipping association, to sell their fruit by the means it has 

 established, and yet not contribute so much as one dollar toward the 

 expenses of that association. Such things are common among us and 

 they are exceedingly shameful to us. I know that my friend, Mr. Wylie, 

 has had very poor success in my own county of Allegan, with the actions 

 of men who agreed to enter into such an organization and then dropped 

 out of it the moment there was some little selfish incentive offered to 

 them, or they could see a trifling advantage for the time being; and they 

 threw aside the valuable work he and others did, and because for a 

 moment they could make a fraction of a cent on shipments, or something 

 of that kind, they refused to co-operate any further. ^Vhether this can 

 be overcome to any great measure without overcoming human nature is 

 an interesting question, and whoever undertakes it will doubtless find 

 himself a martyr to the cause, will find that he has expended money, 

 labor, and time, as Mr. Graham here has, for the benefit of the public. 

 But they can have the satisfaction that a groat many reformers have, that 

 Ihey may have accomplished something, and if there are rewards for such 



