186 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Where fruit is carried by rail it should be shipped in car lots, direct to the 

 consumer, instead of to a distributing point and reshipped. This requires 

 extra time and double toll to the shipper. To do this would require a union 

 and concert of action on the pait of the growers. It would be necessary for 

 some one or more, at each fruit center, to have the general management, not 

 only at the starting point but also at the terminal point. In this way better 

 rates could be procured, the cost of delivery at the terminal point cut down 

 forty or fifty per cent, and the leading markets relieved by shipping to out- 

 side points. These arrangements have been successfully made in other local- 

 ities and under circumstances similar to ours. I think the time is coming 

 when concert of action among growers, in the shape of a shipping organiza- 

 tion, at least, will be an indispensable necessity. 



We are having a monthly crop and weather report, issued by the secretary 

 of state, which gives in detail valuable information not only of the crops har- 

 vested and secured, but also the acreage and condition of the growing crops 

 generally. There is no reason why we should not have equally full reports, 

 through that medium, of the fruit crops, both prospective and otherwise, from 

 every fruit center in the state. This information is in the hands of Michigan 

 fruit growers, and they should see to it that these reports are duly forwarded 

 to the secretary of state and in due time. 



G. Eichards: Every business has a trust or combination except that of the 

 farmers, and it seems impossible to get them to organize. Why are they so 

 slow to see the benefits of organization? I see no way but to make a beginning 

 among the few who are now ready, then to pack honestly and secure an 

 agent who will handle the organization's fruit and no other. Do this and 

 let the unwilling ones go. They are bound to be nothing anyhow. 



A. C. Glidden: *'A boycott is a conspiracy, say the courts. Are not trusts 

 conspiracies also?" ^Mr. Glidden made strong argument in support of this view 

 and said he believed that this would be the ultimate solution of the whole 

 diflficulty. Organization is entirely feasible, he continued, and its good re- 

 sults are already apparent; for at even this beginning, this mere talk about 

 these affairs, you have brouglit the enemy before you, while at no other 

 time has he given your complaints the least attention. Hold your ground and 

 you can readily gain more. 



Wednesday Evening Session. 



After an introductory piece of music by the band, the first order of the pro- 

 gramme was a paper by Benton Gebhardt of Mears, on 



THE PLUM ORCHARD. 



The original parent of the cultivated plum of our gardens and orchards, 

 is a native of Asia and southern parts of Europe ; but it has become fully ac- 

 climated to our climate and soils, as a great many of our very choicest varieties 

 have originated in this country and many parts have produced fruit in abund- 

 ance. That the soil and climate of the middle and southern States are admir- 

 ably adapted to this fruit is sufficiently proved by the almost spontaneous 

 production of such varieties as the Washington, Jefferson, Coe's Golden Drop, 



