PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING J 41 



This one or that one did not get what he supposed he should have, etc. 

 They have operated ])iactically njion llie same plan. The fruit was 

 brought iu and graded in a central paeking-housi', and sold and handled 

 by the agent regardless of the wishes of the owners of the fruit. He 

 has absolute control of it under their rules. He says there soon grew 

 up jealousies and dillerences between the contributors which caused 

 them a very great deal of tiouble, and in the end he considered it 

 practically a failure, while they had had some temporary benefits. The 

 Oregon Fruitgrowers' association is another very large concern that has 

 taken the matter up in the same way. This year there has been estab- 

 lished a sort of fruitgrowers' guaranty association. Certain commission 

 houses or dealers are to handle the crop. They are appointed in each 

 town and city throughout the country, to which we are adjacent or to 

 which we ship, and the prices are guaranteed. Then, again, those of 

 us who were at Grand Haven last summer will remember the resolution 

 that w'as presented at that meeting memorializing congress for the ap- 

 pointment of commission-house inspectors, men to whom all our differ- 

 ences would be referred. For instance, in case I should ship a consign- 

 ment of fruit to Chicago and was not satisfied with the price received, 

 I would immediately enter my complaint to the inspectors; they would 

 investigate the matter. The horticultural society of Ottawa county was 

 considerably incensed because this state society would not adopt that 

 resolution at that time without further investigation. A year ago last 

 season, at Grand Eapids, we organized something of a society. While 

 there was no real organization, except that a dozen of us, neighbors, 

 went in together and agreed to put our fruit in and ship it through one 

 arrangement, and we did so. It was not graded at the central packing 

 house, we brought it in as we had a mind to. It was shipped in carloads 

 exclusively and all went to New York state. That was in the summer, the 

 fall of 1896, with our glut and our enormous crop; and while that one 

 time it worked very satisfactorily, I do believe that every member of that 

 association was fairly well satisfied with the prices w'e received. I think 

 our fruit brought us a net return of something like 69 cents per bushel, 

 the whole amount of fruit we shipped, something like' 9,000 bushels. 

 We shipped altogether sixty-seven cars through that agency, and got our 

 pay for it all right. At the same time, I do know that it would be an 

 absolute impossibility for the same people to get together again and 

 do the same thing. This may seem strange, but it is true. While, as I 

 say, it was fairly satisfactory, little matters came up, little differences 

 and little jealousies, and the same people could not and would not come 

 together in the same manner to do the thing again. There is necessarily 

 a loss in handling fruit in a glut, when you are rushing fruit and are 

 rushed in picking. I remember one time I had a carload of my own fruit 

 that went "warm" or ''hot" as they tell about, on the road. It was 

 fully ripe enough when it was picked, should probably have been shipped 

 the day before. It was iced, but perhaps not iced as well as it should 

 have been, and it was re-iced. Nevertheless it went down. It had to be 

 sorted, and the consequence was I lost ninety bushels of fruit out of 

 thnt one car. Well, there were some others had fruit in that day, 

 and it seemed to be somewhat peculiar that I should lose a whole carload 

 of fruit at that time. So those little matters come up. It is hard to 

 get together, it is extremely hard, unless there can be some strong 



