WEST MICHIGAN FRUIT GROWERS' SOCIETY. 175 



'Wednesday Afternoon Session. 



Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 19, was held the liveliest and perhaps most im- 

 portant of the sessions, for a subject was taken up that is at present the 

 nearest to the pocket of every west Michigan fruit grower who sends his 

 product to Chicago by rail. It began with the subjoined^ able paper by K. 

 Morrill of Benton Harbor on 



PACKING AND MARKETING FRUIT. 



If we should write a text-book on the science of commercial fruit grow- 

 ing, we would divide it into five chapters, as follows: (1) Selection of soil 

 and location; (3) selection of varieties; (3) planting, fertilization, and culti- 

 vation; (4) packing; (5) marketing. We should do this to impress on the 

 mind of the reader the importance of each operation, as it is a fact that if a 

 mistake be made in any of the departments of our work it will surely follow 

 us through to the end and finally rest on our pocket-book, not in it. If a 

 mistake be made in either the first or second division of our work, it will fol- 

 low us as long as the tree or plant lives — say from three to twenty-five years. 

 If a mistake be made in our third division it can sometimes be remedied ; and 

 the mistakes in four and five can always be rectified if we only will do it, 

 although it will take time and perseverance to overcome the effects of wrong 

 methods practiced in these departments; and this brings us to our subject of 

 packing and marketing, which, I think, is a question in which the general 

 public should have a voice — in fact, so important has it been deemed that 

 legislatures have taken the matter in hand and said to a certain class of fruit 

 growers, *'so far shalt thou go and no further," and it certainly seems as if a 

 large class of fruit growers do place themselves within the legal term of 

 *' obtaining money under false pretenses." 



Now, brother fruit growers, I said this was public business, and I will 

 try to demonstrate it. First, we will all acknowledge that the proper way to 

 improve any business is to search out its defects and eradicate them. Next, 

 let us see what right my neighbor has to dictate how I shall do my business. 

 In order to do this I will claim that we have no right to do anything that 

 shall destroy the reputation of his fruit, thereby causing him to receive much 

 less money than he would if I were not in the business. Now, this is just 

 what has been already done by a certain class of men in this lake shore region. 



THKEE GRADES OF FEUIT GROWERS. 



Right here let me say, the Michigan fruit growers can be very properly 

 divided into three classes. The first is a class who pack everything strictly 

 "straight," from bottom to top, using a full regular package, put their name 

 on all their good fruit, and if they ship any of low grade, ''which all growers 

 must at times," perhaps they put a numbered stencil on as they do not want 

 to build a reputation on inferior fruit; but they do put up this fruit of even 

 goodness throughout, ''no stuffing or deceit practiced on any grade." Now 

 this is all right, as there is a very large class of cheap custom in all our 

 cities, and while this class, in common with all other buyers of fruit, expect 

 to be cheated more or less, when one of them strikes a line of this kind of 



