MEN WHO HAVE SUCCEEDED-VI 



J. H. HALE 



ELECTRIC CAR TRANSPORTATION — WHOLESALE PACK- 

 ING—GRADING PEACHES — MUSIC IN PACKING SHED 



HAVING once by personal contact and 

 association established a name and 

 reputation for my peaches among 

 the most critical consumers, I have since 

 1889 entrusted their distribution to com- 

 mission men in the various cities. I in- 

 sisted upon these agents visiting the 

 orchard several times each year, so as to 

 be in full touch and sympathy with 

 all the work of production and preparation 

 for the market, and thus be in position to 

 place the fruit intelligently before the con- 

 sumers. 



An electric car line from Hartford having 

 been built along our street in 1895, with a 

 siding right at the farm, I determined to get 

 rid of the long wagon haul by night to the 

 city ; and by special contract with the rail- 

 way people, three cars were arranged to 

 hold the peach baskets. These cars were 

 loaded through the day and early in the 

 evening. In the early morning a motor car 

 would haul the loaded cars to the city, 

 where, along the business streets, just be- 

 fore the cars were required for passenger 

 service, fruit would be unloaded and stacked 

 up in front of the leading stores. My son, 

 who looked after the loading would also 

 check it out, and see that the empty cars 

 were back on the home siding before a new 

 day's work had begun on the farm, so that 

 as far as I can learn, this was the first farm 

 in America to make daily use of electric cars 

 in transporting its produce direct from the 

 farm to the city markets. 



The service has been maintained ever 

 since, and the fruit travels in better order 



and at less cost than on wagons. The new 

 style market wagon has already attracted 

 much attention. In the season of 1901 

 peaches from the Hale orchard at Seymour, 

 Conn., were transported by electricity to 

 Bridgeport, fifteen miles away, and the time 

 is not far distant when electric car lines are 

 to be an important factor in the country. 

 "Thinning out" the little green peaches 



Fig. 2387. Carrying Peaches by Electric 

 Railway. 



is carefully practiced. Three hundred large, 

 perfect psaches from one tree will weigh 

 more pounds, fill more crates, and sell for 

 more money than would 1,000 or 1,500 

 peaches from the same tree overcrowded, 

 and the quality is far superior. 



After the thinning season, crate making is 

 continued, wagons fixed, barracks and 

 camps put in order, and everything braced 

 up for the coming rush. A trip is made all 



