WEST MICHIGAN FRUIT GROWERS' SOCIETY. 181 



The agent at Chicago attends to all details of the business there. He adds up 

 the freight, cost of loading and unloading, etc., and assesses it pro rata on 

 each package ; and makes a daily report of this to the shippers, so that they 

 may compare with it the statement of returns made by the commission mer- 

 chant. Each town on the line, of course, has an agent, but one agent in 

 Chicago does business there for the whole, keeping each town's affairs sepa- 

 rate, although in the association, if such it may be called, are included towns 

 in the extreme south of Illinois, in Tennessee, and even further south. But 

 the fruit trains proper originate at Cairo. We carry upon our plan freight of 

 any sort, for anybody, and in collecting take only enough for expenses. 



E. Morrill : Some Benton Harbor parties went to Supt. Mulliken, of the 

 C. & W. M. road, about these matters, and were told by him that his com- 

 pany would haul cars for the fruit growers as cheaply as for the express com- 

 pany if they would care for them in the same way. Mr. Cooley's letter, 

 however, seems to settle against us the question of our right to require this 

 of the railway company. The interview I speak of was held in February, 

 1888. I learn that the existing contract between the railway and express 

 companies will soon expire. 



N. Goodrich, of Chicago (agent there for the "granger" system): In order 

 to have fruit reach the market in best order, it is necessary to watch it all the 

 way to the merchants' hands. We have found the granger system the best 

 to that end. The Illinois Central railway furnishes good cars, well ventilat- 

 ed. The growers about each station meet yearly and elect a president, secre- 

 tary, treasurer and executive committee to dothe business. The total expense 

 of a car on the night freight line is $52.50, being $45 for the car, $2.50 for 

 loading and $5 for unloading, the latter including expense of laborers, clerks, 

 collecting, etc. The commission merchants send their own teams for their 

 goods. Once in a while a package is lost somehow, but usually every one is 

 accounted for in good order. I have unloaded fifteen cars of strawberries 

 (15,000 crates) and had them on the way to the merchants in thirty-five min- 

 utes. On our plan, ten-pound baskets of grapes are carried from Villa 

 Ridge to Chicago, 300 miles, for two and one-half cents per basket. Here 

 you put 1,000 to 1,200 baskets of fruit into a car; but at Villa Ridge 1,500 to 

 2,000 are put in. The greatest advantage, however, is in getting into mar- 

 ket early and having careful handling. For twenty-pound boxes of tomatoes 

 our average price has been five cents as against the railways' charge of twelve 

 cents as ordinary freight. With us the package used for peaches, early 

 apples and tomatoes is the third-bushel box. 



Wm. Corner : We should no be discouraged at our prospects, for we are be- 

 ginning to see the light. The handling of our fruit is especially bad, and all 

 our pains go to naught by such work at the last. 



R. Morrill : The gentleman is correct ; it is not so much in the difference 

 of two or three cents per basket as in the handling. I send my fruit mostly 

 by boat, not by express, for I don't dare to. I have seen fruit pitched about 

 by expressmen when every throw cost the owner twenty-five to thirty cents. 

 The boat service from Benton Harbor is very good. Complaints have been 

 made to the express managers, but if they have paid any attention to them 

 they have not succeeded in making their employes do as they should. Every 

 preceding effort on our part is lost by such inexcusable abuses in trans- 

 portation. 



