290 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



it would be advisible to have a law passed here in Minnesota so 

 our fruit would be graded No. i, 2 and 3 and put this fruit in 

 barrels. I see by a recent report I read that they passed such a 

 law in Canada last fall. I thought I would bring this matter before 

 the society at this meeting to see what the members thought of the 

 proposition. 



Mr. Bryant : — There is so much involved in that question that 

 I do not feel like making an attempt to answer it. It is a question 

 that is well worth discussing, but I think the gentleman would 

 get a good deal more satisfaction by writing to the National Apple 

 Shippers' Association. 



CO-OPERATION IN SELLING FRUIT. 



H. B. HOTCHKISS, EAU CLAIRE, WIS- 



Let us look at the past and the present conditions of the fruit 

 grower and then consider his great possibilities in the future under 

 systematic control of marketing his fruits. 



When the grower starts in the work of production in a newly 

 settled district, or in a district where there has heretofore been no 

 fruit grown, he has practically a monopoly of the trade and gets a 

 good price for his fruit. Why? Simply from the fact that the 

 commission houses have looked up these good markets away from 

 the growing districts and having no competition put up the price 

 and hold it there. Wait a few years until every farmer in this new 

 district puts out an orchard and a berry field and puts the fruits on 

 the market, and see the condition of this pioneer fruit grower 

 change. Soon the home market is glutted, and the supply cannot 

 be used, and prices, once profitable, drop below the cost of produc- 

 tion. 



Some sharp, shrewd dealer finds that there is a shortage in fruits 

 in nearby towns, buys up this surplus crop, often at ridiculously low 

 prices, ships to these short crop or non-producing districts at the 

 old fancy prices he used to get and reaps a profit which under a 

 systematic control of marketing by the producer would have kept 

 his business on a profitable basis. 



Does not this lesson teach us that we growers have been at the 

 mercy of the dealer with no mercy shown? 



Let us follow up the condition ,of the producers by reviewing 

 oUr own experiences. 



After finding the condition our affairs have arrived at, a few of 

 us growers get together and organize a fruit growers' association 

 with the object of bettering our condition. We secure the ad- 

 dress of a few commission houses in some of the larger cities not too 

 far distant and ship our fruits to them. They in turn sell to their 



