SUMMER MEETING. 53 



PACKAGES. 



E. H. Scott: We use a 32-quart crate and the Disbro basket, or a similar 

 cheaper one, made at Dexter. 



L. H. Bailey, Jr., exhibited the " ripe fruit carriers" described in the Report 

 for 1885, page 234. It is similar to the egg crate in common use, there being a 

 pocket of pasteboard for each fruit 



C. W. Garfield: At Grand Rapids growers are divided as to which kind of 

 quart they shall use. The majority use the wine quart, saying that retailers 

 will use that quart anyway. A few still put their berries in full dry quarts, 

 believing it the only honest way, and thinking that they get enough better 

 prices to pay. 



Geo. Perry: Mr. Johnson, of this city ( Lansing ), has for ten years tried to 

 educate the dealers to use the dry quart, but he cannot. 



W. W. Tracy: The difference between the two quarts is much more marked 

 in large berries than small. People notice it much more readidy in large 

 strawberries than in raspberries, the loss being much greater on the larger 

 fruit. 



The following note on the topic was read from G. G. Bennett, of Grand 

 Rapids: 



Omitting our grandparents' method of picking and marketing strawberries 

 in pails and baskets, I will speak of the more modern methods of those about 

 •Grand Rapids, who make strawberry growing a business. This will involve 

 packages, picking, preparing, and selling the fruit, which is half the battle in 

 the strawberry business, and by far the must perplexing. 



In regard to boxes, some use the wine and some the dry measure quart; and 

 some both, or any box they may have. 



The difference between the two sizes is ten cubic inches. Of course, the 

 users of the wine quart are called dishonest by their more conscientious broth- 

 ers, who are informed that they are fools for selling by dry measure to the 

 srrocer, who turns out the fruit in trays and remeasures them to his customers 

 in the tin wine quart cup, gaining a quart on every five or six bought. 



Some prefer the shallow boxes as the fruit carries better in them. Others 

 prefer the deeper boxes, and heap them up, thinking that gives better satisfac- 

 tion. Here let me add that the different sizes, or proportions of boxes is a 

 great aggravation to the berryman when he comes to putting them in the crates. 



Some think it pays to sort or grade the fruit, but few do it. 



After the berries are on the wagon conies the tug of war. An inexperienced 

 person would say that the battle was over; but let him get on a load of his own 

 berries, and reach the market at 4 a. m., and find a hundred or more loads 

 ah^ad of him, and he will change his mind, that is, if he tries to sell, not give 

 away his fruit ; and especially when the buyers are all supplied and gone, and 

 he has to drive around to the stores with his load, and parhaps all over town, 

 and peddle it out from house to house. After he has got rid of a few loads in 

 that way, he will have had a taste of some of the sweets in the strawberry 

 business. 



To sell, not give away, requires a good man — yes, the best man you have. Some 

 have their regular customers, and market in that way to private families, but that 

 can only be done with small lots, and when a man is not needed badly at home. 

 Of course, a man expects retail prices when he peddles. We have some who 



