ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 13 



hundred and thirty-two of our members, and others who own 

 peach orchards in our State, asking them to send me an esti- 

 mate of the size of their crop, and also to send me the name 

 of any of their friends and neighbors who might have a crop, 

 and for an estimate of that. I sent out those letters and asked 

 for a prompt reply. I received replies to about 62 per cent. 

 Some came in later. It is of no use, if you are doing business 

 in the fruit line, unless you are prompt. About 62 per cent, 

 replied promptly. The others took longer. Some of them took 

 two or three weeks. They might just as well have not replied 

 at all. But there were only about 62 per cent of the replies 

 which were of any value, and the estimates from those showed 

 that there were a little less than one million baskets of peaches 

 on the trees in the State at that time. The estimates from 

 the other replies which came in later showed that that figure 

 would have been increased two or three hundred thousand 

 baskets. After I got an estimate of the size of the crop which 

 was tO' be moved to market, I went at once to see the officers 

 of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co. and 

 received very cotirteous treatment, and they offered to do all 

 in their power to handle this crop, but they told me that with 

 the exception of two growers (and then I think it was the 8th 

 or loth of August) no one had notified them that they should 

 want any cars to transport the crop in. They had made no 

 special arrangements to ship anything ovit of the State, and 

 yet there was a million baskets of peaches which were liable 

 to be thrown into the market and for which transportation 

 would be demanded within a short time. They were glad 

 to get this information, and they at once took the matter up 

 with the stations at different points, and the whole thing was 

 taken up, and the best done that could be vmder the circum- 

 stances. 



Then after I had gotten this information in hand I compiled 

 it and sent it to the fruit trade journals of New York, to the 

 Commercial Bulletin, and to the fruit trade papers of Boston, 

 and also to the leading papers of our own State, and to the 

 agricultural papers circulating in this territory, and also with 

 the papers forming the Associated Press, so that news of the 

 condition of the crop throughout Connecticut was promptly 

 distributed throughout the country. It resulted in bringing 



