354 STATE IKJRTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



required for handling is nothing compared with the loss on fruit damaged 

 by bad transportation. He referred to twenty-five cars of strawberries 

 from Tennessee, that were so damaged as to be worthless by bad transporta- 

 tion. They arrived at a late hour and demoralized the market for several 

 days. Fruit arriving late makes confusion and much trouble in many 

 ways. He anticipated some improvements this season in handling the 

 fruit at Chicago. He said there had been a marked improvement, the past 

 two years, in the packing of Michigan fruit. Mr. Goodeich commended 

 Mr. Crane's paper, and said he had returned to the association S860, which 

 had been expended in improvement of the road leading west from Fenn- 

 ville. What buyers in a Chicago market most desire is a good, average 

 grade of fruit (peaches) not fancy grades, and would buy such fruit, in 500 

 and 1,000 basket lots. 



Mr. Crane spoke of certain concessions the express company had 

 received from the Michigan Central railway company, in the way of rates, 

 the benefits of which had not been given to the growers, but which Mr. 

 Crane hopes to secure this season through the railway company. 



Mr. E, HuTCHiNS spoke of the desirability of getting special rates for 

 fruit by express to points not receiving large quantities, thereby relieving 

 the Chicago market to some extent. This matter had been up a year ago, 

 but nothing was done about it. Mr. Crane replied that Mr. Angell of 

 the express company had been interviewed about the matter, but it was too 

 late in the season. 



President Wiley read the following paper on the cost of getting our 

 fruit to the consumer. 



COOPERATION AMONG FRUITGROWERS. 



In a previous article, read before this society, I made slight reference to the necessity 

 of cooperation among fruitgrowers in marketing the products of their farms and 

 orchards. The rapid progress made by our national government in the last few years in 

 oi>ening to settlement the vast area of cheap and fertile lands of the west, together with 

 the extensive system of railroad building that has been going on. reaching out to every 

 part of the country, has brought about great and important changes in the market 

 value of most kinds of farm crops. By the aid of rapid transit and refrigerator cars the 

 fruitgrower of California and other distant points is placed nearly on a level with his 

 ■eastern competitor, so far as the markets are concerned. From the east the business 

 has been moving westward until the people of the Pacific coast and Mississippi valley 

 have become the great producers of the continent, of products that supply the world'a 

 markets. 



The struggle for pre-eminence is daily becoming more tierce in every line of business 

 and, as a result, fruitgrowers of Michigan have been brought to face a condition in the 

 leading markets of our country that twenty-five years ago would have been thought 

 impossible to occur. 



The teaching of our leading fruitgrowers and writers upon the subject of fruit 

 ■culture and markets has been all along that, as the country developed and population 

 increased, prices for fruit would be maintained if not advanced. Now just how far and 

 to what extent these predictions are being fulfilled I will leave for growers that have 

 had experience in the last few years to answer. 



Many theories have been advanced as to the cause that has brought about this great 

 and unlooked for change in our markets; but the results have been such as to call the 

 attention of fruitgrowers to the importance and necessity of renewing their efforts to 

 obtain a better and less expensive system of marketing their fruit. 



Now I believe it can't be said, with due regard to facts, but what the fruitgrowers 

 •of western Allegan county are as a rule enterprising and progressive and fully alive to 

 their interests in everything that goes to improve their business or their general condi 

 tion as citizens. 



But notwithstanding this spirit of improvement that is to be seen on all sides in th» 

 surrounding country and in this village, for some reason, not easy to understand, a mat- 



