THE ANNUAL MEETING. 169 



profit is there in care?" My belief is that nearly all the profit in fruit is in 

 the care given to picking, packing, and shipment. This society has a work to 

 do in educating the apple growers to a higher standard of handling fruit. 

 Michigan is a great fruit State, and should lead out in this matter. It pays to 

 select carefully. Apples like these upon the tables will sell in our village of 

 Kalamazoo for six dollars per barrel to-day. Every package should be what 

 is represented. I bought two barrels of greenings the other day, and told the 

 seller I wanted excellent fruit. When delivered he charged me only $2.50 per 

 barrel, and I was quite satisfied with the price, but when the apples were 

 opened I wished I could have paid four dollars per barrel and got selected 

 apples. The result is I shall buy no more apples of that man; his reputation 

 injures him. 



Secretary Garfield read the following note from our venerable friend S. B. 

 Peck, of Muskegon, upon 



EFFECT OF A REPUTATION IN MARKETING FRUIT. 



In 1869 my brother, Frederick B., sent, among many other barrels of pears 

 to his commission agent in New York, one of specially selected and uniform 

 ispecimens, containing 153 by count. This was sold to a retailer for fifty 

 dollars. In 1870 another barrel of the same count sold for the same price, 

 and in 1871 another barrel counting 126 sold for forty dollars. These pears 

 •were of his own raising, of the Duchesse d'Angouleme variety, and the barrels 

 intended to hold two and a half bushels each. The fruit was simply laid in 

 bare, the head pressed in and nailed. As to any secret about the prices, the 

 facts were that his name as grower and shipper, with the count on the head, 

 was before known as a reliable guaranty as to count, size, and condition. It 

 is further related that the retailer on opening one of these barrels readily sold 

 to one person twenty of these pears for one dollar each. My brother then 

 lived in Ontario county, N. Y. 



E. H. Scott described the large, successful fruit house of Mr. S. W. Dorr, 

 -of Manchester, saying it had paid for its construction in the work accomplished 

 sby it in one season. 



A. D. Healy: I am not very much in favor of fruit houses which take 

 fruit over the natural season. I have seen too much of this fruit upon the 

 markets ; it will not stand it long ; decay sets in rapidly when it is taken from 

 the house. This kind of storage should be in, or near, a large city, where the 

 fruit can be placed immediately upon the fruit stands. 



Mr. Woodward : I am quite in sympathy with this idea. Well selected and 

 vwell handled apples in ordinary fruit cellars will keep their full season. Hog 

 apples will not keep and ought not to. Too many poor apples are put up for 

 spring market, and we don't want any fruit houses to keep this character of 

 iruit. Canadian apples sell better in England than ours, because they are 

 better selected and handled. We have a bad name abroad, and until we put 

 more care into this department of the fruit business even our best packers will 

 •suffer. 



Mr. Buell explained his method of handling apples. The apples are picked 

 and laid carefully upon a table, where they are assorted and placed perma- 

 nently in barrels. It requires experience to even assort apples properly. 



Mr. Sheffer : Dealers come in here and go to a good grower and buy his 

 .apples, paying so much for No. 1, and something less for No. 2. The dealer 

 .goes to the next farmer for a bargain and says, " I have bought Mr. A's apples 



