SMALL FRUITS. 81 
SMALL FRUITS FROM A COMMERCIAL STANDPOINT. 
L. G. KELLOGG, JANESVILLE, WIS., 
President Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 
It is a stubborn fact that there are hundreds of car loads of straw- 
berries, raspberries and blackberries grown in Michigan and IIli- 
nois, and distributed in the markets of Wisconsin, Minnesota and 
the Dakotas at fairly remunerative prices, at the same time the 
same varieties of fruits are ripening in central Wisconsin and Min- 
nesota. With a love for horticultural pursuits and an adaptation 
for the business, is there not a giand opportunity for the com- 
mercial fruit grower to endeavor to supply at least a portion of this 
trade? 
With an ever increasing population and®a consequent growing 
demand for fine fruits, I do not believe the possibilities of the pro- 
duction and distribution of small fruits have been anywhere near 
realized. With the improved varieties, the improved packages for 
handling, and the rapid transportation facilities; it is now possible 
to distribute these perishable fruits from California to Maine and 
from the Gulf to the British Possessions. 
There has been a great stimulus in the establishment of large 
small fruit plantations the past three or four years, but these are 
scarcely keeping pace with the ever increasing population. People 
are becoming more educated to the fact that fresh, ripe, wholesome 
berries are much more healthful than meats, especially during the 
warm season. Look, if you will, in the markets of Chicago, St. Louis, 
St. Paul, Minneapolis, or other cities of the Northwest, and see the 
tons and tons of incipient, half-ripened California fruits, brought 
nearly 3,000 miles to market, and then ask yourself the question, 
will not fresh, delicious, well-ripened fruit produced on Minnesota 
or Wisconsin soil, with less than one-quarter of the freight rates, 
find a paying market for years to come? No, the fruit business is 
not yet overdone east of the Rockies, nor will it be for a century to 
come. 
I do not believe there can be an over-production of first-class fruit. 
The trouble lies in the fact we are producing too much inferior fruit 
as compared with the quantity of first-class, throwing it on the market 
in a haphazzard way asaresuJt of not being organized, and thus 
demoralizing prices. 
The quantity of small fruit that is sold without any margin of 
profit to the inexperienced grower is enormous. In the Chicago 
markets, it has been estimated during a single season by millions 
of quarts. 
We frequently hear the alarm of over-production sounded, and 
when traced to the proper source we find it the result of injudicious 
and improper distribution. The question naturally arises, how are 
we to avoid this useless competition and properly distribute these 
small fruits? My answer would be, through the co-operation, or 
organization, of the fruit growers. 
