118 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



sigiiiiient and find this branch of the "lottery business" to your 

 hking, select one good, strong, honest firm and then make that 

 one your partner. Some make the serious mistake of dividing 

 their shipment among many firms that do business on the same 

 street, thus putting their fruit in direct competition with itself. 

 But let us l(Jok at the horticultural situation and see if our 

 old style methods are not in need of improvement. As a result 

 of careful investigation, I am convinced that a bushel of 

 peaches for which the consumer pays $1.50, does not net the 

 average Michigan grower, who ships on consignment, over 

 fifty cents ! lliis means that the grower pays twice as much 

 for getting his fruit to the consumer as he received for his own 

 share for producing it. Is such a condition fair? \\diat ordi- 

 nary business is there which will stand such a constant drain 

 and profitably exist? I Ijelieve that I have correctly diagnosed 

 the disease from which our business is suffering, l)ut what is 

 the remedy? Idiere's the rub. ^Vbstract propositions will not 

 satisfv us. We nuist have a practical plan, and such is what 

 I sliall attem])t to present. 



Individual Shipping on Consignment. 



Fifteen years of careful study of this market problem led 

 me to the observation tliat, under individual eft'ort, i.e., when 

 each grower markets his fruit independent of his neiglilxjrs, 

 the following faulty conditions exist: — (Diagram 1 ) 



Fruit is ( 1 ) of loiv grade. 



Packing is (2) poor, (3) not uniform, (4) /// many .•styles 

 of packages, (5) with consequent high cost of packages. 



Sliipping is in (6) h\^s than car load lots, (7) at high rates, 

 (8) with poor sendee^ (9) with heaz'y losses in transit, (10) 

 with no influence to secure better service. 



Marketing is done (11) on consignment, (12) with too 

 ■many niiddleinen, (13) no remedy against dishonesty, (14) 

 many shortages, with no system of tracing them. 



Such are some of the principal faults of our marketing- 

 plan, under individual effort, and any system which corrects 

 one or more of these faults must be considered a desired im- 

 provement. I know of no more forcible way of showing how 



