140 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Mr. Morrill: Did you handle plums in that manner? 



Mr. Hale: Yes, and apples. We do not grade potatoes, and yet we 

 could handle them in the same manner. 



Mr. Morrill: You have not had time, then, to establish much of a 

 line of business of your own sales, persons to whom to ship? 



Mr. Hale: We have done that in a small way. The year before, when 

 we organized first, we made arrangements for certain houses to handle 

 our fruit. 



Mr. Morrill: You mean by that, commission houses? 



Mr. Hale: Commission houses, and what we have consigned we con- 

 signed to those same houses, but we sold on orders in different places 

 and did not have any go back on us. 



l\rr. Morrill: Have you solicited those orders, I mean tried to estab- 

 lish a trade? Mr. Hale: Yes, sir. 



Mr. Morrill: And successfully, so far as you went? 



Mr. Hale: Well, I think I shipped the last two carloads to LaCrosse,. 

 Wisconsin, and the buyer w^as very well satisfied, and wrote me a very 

 flattering letter as to how the fruit was received, that it was just as 

 represented, and his customers took to it. 



Mr. Morrill: There was some amount of poor peaches? 



Mr. Hale: Yes. As fruit commanded a better price this year, we put 

 the low grade upon the market for what it would bring. 



Mr. Morrill: In bushel baskets? 



Mr. Hale: Yes, in bushel baskets, for whatever it would bring. 



Mr. Morrill: You got something out of it? 



Mr. Hale: Got something out of it, after paying our expenses. 



Q: Would not an evaporator work in there all right? 



Mr. Hale: It might. I am not sure about that. 



Q: Suppose one grower has peaches without color and another has^ 

 the same grade that are very niceh' colored. Would that come in and 

 play any part in grading? 



Mr. Hale: I think that Mr. Hawley's paper has covered that point. 

 We have a certain market in which we can sell them, whether ripe or 

 green, vellow or white. We did this vear. 



Mr. Graham: I wish to say this in connection wdth this system of 

 cooperative packing, that fruit exchanges have become the popular thing 

 in the fruitgrowing sections all over the United States. Probably you 

 will all remember the American Fruitgrowers' association that was or- 

 ganized a year or two years ago, in Chicago. It is still in existence. 

 While Michigan kept out of that association, I went over as a delegate, 

 but refrained from going into the association with our local society. 

 That is an association of associations. They })ropose to take charge of 

 and handle, under a general manager, all the fruit that is grown in the 

 United States. They do not deal with individuals directly, but with 

 the associations entirely. They claim they are nuiking a great success 

 of it. but I know notliiug about it personally. I met there at that 

 meeting, among others, a Mr. Fay of New York, who had had charge of 

 the Chautauqua Grape-groA\ers' association for years; and while in 

 Michigan they look ujion the .Chautauqua Gra]K'-growers' association as 

 being one of the great successes in lunidling fruits, he said they had a 

 vast deal of difficulty. At first it was all light, the first year or two 

 it worked very smoothly, but very soon ( ainc a great deal of jealousy. 



