STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 47 



vantage, the lateness of the season, as the time for gathering 

 apples had passed. They would go to a man and say they wanted 

 such and such fruit which they knew he raised. If this man had 

 been asked in the summer to contribute this fruit the selection would 

 have been better. Anyone who knows about this would know the 

 difficulties under which the committee labored. While the fruit in 

 many respects was not up to what they desired, it was the best they 

 could stcure with the means at their command. They secured 

 forty- four to fifty barrels and stored them at the cold storage at 

 Boston, and they came out in fine condition. On the twenty- 

 seventh of March I was delegated to go and inquire into the condi- 

 tion of the fruit and &hip them afterward to Chicago. We had 

 trouble in securing a car for shipment, as we were obliged to have a 

 refrigerator car, and after one was secured we found after being 

 loaded it was marked lor the shop, as it was disabled. All the way 

 along it seems as if luck was against us. After a while we got the 

 fruit started on its way. I immediately followed. Oa arriving at 

 Chicago, I had the number of the car, and for some two weeks I 

 tried to find on their books the number of the car that had been 

 shipped, but never could. The fruit was taken out in the night. I 

 was not present when it was done, nor could I find out just when it 

 was to be done. They told me when I went to look at the fruit that 

 it arrived in very bad condition. I knew we secured the fruit in the 

 car in barrels and boxes, so that no amount of hard handling should 

 be able to displace or break open the packages. They said the 

 packages were broken badly and had shifted verj' much. I put 

 the ideas together, that we could cot find the number of the car, 

 and t^at it had been marked lor the shop before starting, and con- 

 cluded it had been changed in transit, and that the fruit had not 

 been properly packed when it was changed, if you have an idea 

 of the number of cars going over the road you would be convinced 

 that they are not very careful for at one time in May there were 5,000 

 cars waiting to be drawn into the yards and unloaded and I think that 

 some of the very best fruits were lost in" that way and what we did 

 have, some of it was in bad condition owing to rough handling and 

 the delay in unloading at Chicago. We encountered serious trouble 

 even when there in gettiLg our table, as every one wanted their 

 work done at the same time. The space was changed several times. 

 We hardly knew what to depend upon. We would take such space 

 as they designated and then they would say that we could not have 



