46 STATE HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. David, purchase some peaches last fall to send to a friend in Chicago, and 

 in some way circnmstances got tlie better of his friend's conrtesy, and he was 

 obliged to reveal the fact that the peaches were almost worthless, except a few 

 good ones on top? It was a Michigan farmer. Wlio was it that told me his 

 peaches were mostly small, that he hardly got large ones enough to top out his 

 baskets? It was another Michigan farmer. Who ships berries packed in the 

 bottoms of the boxes instead of the tops? Michigan farmers have done it. 

 Who stood on this floor at one of our local meetings not three months ago and 

 declared that in opening a barrel of apples only a few days before, in his own. 

 cellar, for his own use, packed in his own orchard by his own hired help, he 

 found the two heads to be fine stock and all the rest worthless culls? Had one 

 of those naughty scalpers from South Water street raided our beautiful penin- 

 sula State and got away with our reputation? No; it was a Michigan farmer 

 that time ! Where did my neighbor buy apples to ship to a southern city two 

 or three years ago, and lost heavily on them because they were " snide-packed ?" 

 and who shipped two cars of apples to a northern city only last fall, and on. 

 their arrival his consignee wrote him that it would not be easy to dispose of 

 such stock, and that he had better come up and see about it? Were they packed 

 in Chicago? Mr. President, you can stand at one of the windows of this hall 

 and almost pitch a New Testament into the very sheds where the jobs were 

 done. Those apples grew in orchards whose treetops have been more than once 

 lighted up by the flames of blazing churches in Bentou Harbor. Churches ! 

 Warehouses ! Manufactories ! Dwellings ! Ships sunk in the lake, and dead 

 men, stark and stiff, on the wet sand! Logical sequences? Gentlemen will 

 arrange that matter just exactly to suit themselves. 



I have sometimes questioned whether, after all, there may not be such a thing 

 as eternal justice, and if there is, the wonder is to me that one stone is left upon 

 another that is not thrown down. 



Evening Session. , 



Meeting was called to order by the President soon after eight o'clock, who 

 explained that a meeting of the Executive Committee rendered it necessary 

 that the President and Secretary be absent. Vice President Lanniu was called 

 to the chair and H. G. Reynolds officiated as Secretary i^'f'O tern. The ques- 

 tion of 



FRUIT PACKAGES AND THEIE SIZES 



was discussed and Mr. Comings addressed the meeting at some length, giving 

 an epitome of the history of the gradual change in packages in Berrien county. 

 He closed by offering the following preamble and resolutions, which were 

 adopted one by one and then as a whole : 



Whereas, The common use of a great variety of sizes of barrels, boxes, and bas- 

 kets for shipping and selling fruits and vegetables, has become a great evil, not only 

 to consumers, but to all dealers and growers; 



And "WHEREAS, We believe the branding or marking of all fruit or vegetable 

 barrels or packages with their actual capacity will tend to do away with a great 

 portion of the fractional sizes now in use, and will tend to the adoption of a few 

 standard sizes, which if so branded vvitli actual capacity, will remain in general and 

 common use in all the States, to the great benefit of the business; 



And WHEREAS, We believe this may be accomplished by a united effort of all the 

 principal dealers and growers, as well as manufacturers of barrels and packages; 



