RECORD OF A JOINT MEETING. 9 



HANDLING OF PERISHABLE FRUITS. 



Joseph Lannin, of South Ilaven : If there was ever a year it is this, when 

 fruitgrowers should take action for mutual assistance and protection, because 

 of the great prospective amount of their product. The immense quantity of 

 fruit grown in and imported to this country shows that we are a fruit-eating 

 people, the only question being how to quickly and cheaply carry it from 

 producer to consumer. The exchange system is still in its infancy, both as 

 to transportation and system of sales. I have thought that each man could 

 make his own market, but my mind has changed and I now think combina- 

 tion is necessary. As it is at present, the merchant, carrier, and package- 

 maker all get their pay first and we take what is left, if anything. It be- 

 hooves us to do all we can honestly to make our share as large as possible. 



J. N. Stearns, of Kalamazoo, indorsed these views in all respects, although 

 he had made a special effort to provide his own market and had to some 

 extent succeeded. Doing so makes more work but he had had 100 per cent 

 fcetter prices by doing it. 



THE ^'exchange" PLAN OF MARKETING. 



W. A. Brown, of Benton Harbor: Success of the exchange system here 

 depends on co-operation of other localities. Our exchange has but 35 mem- 

 bers out of the hundreds of growers here, making by no means the unanimity 

 wished for. Mr. Whitehead is our agent in Chicago, and it is a question if 

 ^e will be able to pay him 665 per month. We do not ship many peaches, 

 though we expect to do so ere long. Berries are now fetching S3 to $3.50 per 

 crate in Chicago. While these rates hold none will go beyond Chicago, but this 

 will not be so, later, and we can well afford to pay one man $65 per month 

 if the Chicago commission men can pay 100 men to ride over this country 

 and tell us what to do. 



A. J. Knisely: We hope to arrange to have one cent per package kept out 

 by the merchants and returned to the exchange and expect this to be suffi- 

 cient for all expenses, any surplus to be distributed or deficiency to be assess- 

 ed. By means of the exchange our fruit receives superior care, both in trans- 

 portation and sale and it seems a disgrace that we have not acted sooner and 

 more effectively in this way. But we have a peculiar class of growers here. 

 They scoff now at spraying, as they scoffed also at laying down blackberry 

 bushes for winter, but they take up these things after others have delved 

 them out and they get both theory and proof in the papers. 



C. W. Whitehead, of Benton Harbor: I was appointed a committee to see 

 the officers of the C. & W. M. road, and was successful in getting a hearing 

 from them and an offer to let the fruit growers run their fruit train at the 

 same rate now paid by the American express company. But the growers 

 have failed to act upon this opportunity. Our plan of taking care of fruit 

 at the terminals is the true one. Much injury is done to fruit by express- 

 men in Chicago, which may be prevented by watchfulness of an agent. A 

 saving can be made on cartage — it may be got for a half cent, whereas now 

 from one to two cents are paid. The commission men do not own teams but 

 contract with draymen. By making these contracts ourselves we can effect 

 a saving, and by other such cuts can gain, in the total, thousands of dollars. 

 Last year I sent car lots to Minneapolis and St. Paul, 600 miles, for only 



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