proceedings' of the annual meeting 135 



CO-OPERATIVE FPvUIT PACKING. 

 BV MR. i:i)\VAi;i) IIAWLEY OF FENXVILLE. 



The profits of fiiiitj^rowing depend hugely upon the manner in which 

 the fruit is placed on the market, and carelessness or dishonesty iu 

 packing, lack of uniformity in the size of packages used, rough handling, 

 or dilatory delivery by transportation companies, will cause loss iu 

 handling a crop that otherwise would prove profitable. 



The evils of our past system, or rather want of system, have been of a 

 nature that could not be overcome bv individual action, and those of us 

 who have long realized that our methods of marketing i)eaches were 

 unbusinesslike and ruinous have felt powerless to inaugurate a radical 

 improvement. 



We all know the history of the Michigan peach basket, beginning as it 

 did w itli the honest old third-bushel round basket, and how the ingenuity 

 of the manufacturer produced a basket exactly' similar to all apjjear- 

 ance, but which he assured us would not hold quite so much fruit as 

 the basket the other fellow was selling, and that no one would notice 

 the difference when placed upon the market. The other fellow\ how- 

 ever, soon " caught on," and a yet smaller basket was the result, until 

 we have now nearly arrived at the vanishing point as to size of packages. 



Another weak point, and one that has done the most to bring the 

 Michigan peach into discredit, is the disgraceful manner in which much 

 of the fruit has been packed. Various grades of peaches have been found 

 in the same packages, the poorer grade at the bottom but not to be 

 distinguished (in appearance at least) when placed by the side of the 

 well-packed basket of the conscientious grower. Can we wonder that 

 Michigan peaches are at a discount in the large markets, or that low- 

 prices for Michigan fruit continuously rule? 



The painstaking and the careless, the honest and dishonest, the '' snide " 

 package and that of full measure, all suffer alike from this state of 

 affairs. Peaches in packages of all sizes and shapes, packed well or 

 badly, are dumped upon the market in a mass, sold by the commission 

 man in lots as they run, and the sales '' averaged," and about the same 

 prices returned to each grower, irrespective of the intrinsic value of his 

 fruit. 



The system of cooperative packing will, it is expected, change all this. 

 One of the axioms of business today is, " In union there is strength." As 

 an individual peach-grower I can not establish a brand for my fruit 

 that will become known, but a number of us with a large volume of fruit 

 can do this. The packing-house does aw^ay with home-packed fruit, so 

 far as the members of the company are concerned. We have a large ware- 

 house situated close to a railroad side-track, fitted with improved con- 

 veniences for grading, sorting, and packing the peaches in as uniform 

 and tasteful a manner as is possible. We have no difficulty in procuring 

 the best trained help to do the work, for we can offer steady employment 

 throughout the s,eason. which the individual grower can not always do, 



