PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMxMER MEETING 27 



Unless (here is a local inarkei, and *;enei-ally there is not, that will 

 absorb the fruit, it must be sliij>i»e(l lo a distant one. and it is essential 

 to success that transjtortation sliall be direct, ample, and cheap. There 

 is no use at all in attempting to raise grapes for market unless the facili- 

 ties for transi)()rlation are every way favorable. The profits to the pro- 

 ducer are too small, even under favorable circumstances, to justify one in 

 expecting success too far from a main line of railway or regular lake 

 transportation. The increase of trouble and expenses will be too great 

 for profit. 



in lliis matter of transportation, there has of late been immense 

 improvement generally. Kailway managers and vessel owners have 

 learned how to provide the facilities and to lessen the cost, so that now 

 fruit of all kinds goes to market very cliea])ly and very satisfactorily 

 as compared to what producers were compelled to endure a few years ago. 



During the latter part of the season of 1896 the Michigan Central 

 carried our grapes from Lawton to Chicago for ten cents per hundred 

 pounds, and it is expected that this rate will ])revail for the season of 

 1897. The distance is 121 miles. A'ia the South Haven and Eastern 

 railway and across the lake the cost was thirteen cents per hundred 

 pounds. Over both routes the fruit is well handled and effort made to 

 exclude delav. Twentv vears ago it cost several times as much, and 

 there was nothing like the promptness and care on the part of the 

 companies that prevail now. 



Then, too, in the business of raising grapes for market, great advance 

 has been made in the matter of packages. The Climax basket as now put 

 up was an accomplishment vastly to the advantage of the vineyardist. 

 We once had to put up our grapes in boxes or flimsy baskets and to cover 

 the baskets with tarlatan or mosquito netting (a slow and tedious opera- 

 tion), and the baskets were not strong enough or so made as to render the 

 fruit secure. Now the Climax basket, holding eight pounds, made neat 

 and strong, costs onl}- -f 18 per 1000 : I once paid ffiO per 1000 for a much 

 poorer basket of the same kind; and prior to that the frail, wire-handle 

 basket with flimsy covers was even greater, I think. The truth is, that 

 under the conditions that ])revailed twentv to twentv-five or more vears 

 ago, it would not have been possible to have marketed the grapes which 

 are now raised. The facilities for harvesting and marketing the grapes 

 have developed with the increase of production. It may be added that 

 the market itself, the demand for the fruit, has had to be created. 

 People have had to acquire a taste for gra])es. They have had to become 

 an article of everyday table use, to be bought and consumed by all 

 classes of ])eople, to be as freely eaten by the laboring ])eople as by the 

 wealthy. Thirty or more years ago comparatively few ])eople knew 

 anything about grapes. Country people were familiar with wild grapes 

 in the woods and city people with hot-house and imjjorted grapes. Avhile 

 now the grape has become the most common and familiar of fruits. The 

 mass of the peo])le have had to learn to eat them and to like them and 

 to find them to be a necessity in the household economy, and thus the 

 market has grown. 



The raising of grapes requires some skill and a knowledge of the 

 work, and thus experienced labor has had to be developed extensively. 

 Planting, trimming, trellisinc' the vines. i)icking the fruit and packing 

 it i)roperly. are matters that had to be well learned by a large number 



