16 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



care being taken in handling, and many other advantages connected 

 with shipments in large lots. 



No one will doubt tor a moment that the more valuable a patron of 

 the transportation companies, the greater eti'ort they will make to please 

 him and secure his patronage. A fruitgrowers' union will even com- 

 mend itself to the commission man. He will exert himself to a much 

 greater degree to make good sales and prompt returns to a customer 

 sending him a carload at a shipment than he would for one sending 

 liftv or even a hundred baskets or bushels. The union can well afford 

 to send an agent with a carload or boatload to sell it, or see to its being 

 sold. This expense, when borne by a score or more of members, becomes 

 a small item, comparatively'. But there are other advantages in belong- 

 ing to a company, and probably as great as those already mentioned. 



The fruitgrower who picks, packs, and markets his own fruit is com- 

 pelled to have a packing-house. Graders in these times are a necessity 

 to establish a uniform grade throughout the season. He must not only 

 employ enough help to pick his fruit, but enough to grade it, pack, and 

 ship it. In a union where every facility is afforded for taking care of 

 the fruit after it is picked, fhe individual grower is relieved of all care 

 and responsibility in this respect, and can therefore devote his whole 

 time to the picking. That this is one of the most important matters 

 connected with successful culture and sale of fruits will be conceded, 

 I think, by every experienced fruitgrower. Fruit picked too green or 

 allowed to become over-ripe is unfit for market, and when shipped is 

 usually sold at a great discount, aside from the bad odor it creates upon 

 the shipper. We do not know of anything that will more certainly 

 ensure the highest market price for fruit than the care given in picking 

 the fruit at the proper time, and rejecting all knotty, wormy, and bad 

 specimens. Such fruit, delivered at the warehouse of the company in 

 good condition, can not fail to be classed as A No. 1, and when it reaches 

 the consumer to receive the highest meed of praise. But if the grower 

 ignorantly, negligently, and carelessly picks his fruit, so that it is not 

 good when delivered to the packing-house, no amount of manipulation 

 upon the part of the manager or the employes there can ever make good 

 fruit of it. Therefore it becomes a matter of the greatest importance that 

 the grower should be able to give his undivided attention to the harvest; 

 ing of his crop, and this can not be well done when he has, besides, 

 the grading, packing, and shipping of his fruit to oversee. 



How, then, will he manage? There is but one best plan, and we 

 know from experience that lies in the formation of a fruitgrowers' union. 

 That is best when incorporated, with a building situated as near the 

 shipping point as possible, large enough and sufficiently stocked with 

 graders and nil other necessary requisites to enable the management 

 to take care of all the fruit during the season delivered by the members 

 of the company. Here, then, we consider, is the solution of the whole 

 question. First, an organization of the fruitgrowers, who vnll be re- 

 quired to deliver all their marketable fruits to the warehouse for the 

 season; second, a commodious ware- and packing-house that will give 

 ample room to do all grading and shipping, and storage for baskets in 

 such quantities that will ensure no check caused from what is known as a 

 "basket famine". Baskets can always be purchased in car lots at the 

 l>oginning of the season much cheaper than afterward, especially if 



