'LET'S IMPROVE QUALITY 

 OF OUR FRUIT " - ECKERT 



DEMAND for better quality fruit 

 from members of the Illinois Fruit 

 Growers Exchange was voiced by Presi- 

 dent A. O. Eckert at the organization's 

 annual meeting in Carbondale last 

 month. 



"Let's improve the quality of our 

 fruit," he said. "We have done an 

 excellent job thus far, but there is still 

 plenty of room for improvement. 



'Let's make our product so good that 

 people from all over the country will 

 demand Southern Illinois fruit." 



Principal speaker at the meeting 

 which attracted 200 fruit growers to 

 the campus of Southern Illinois Normal 

 University was President Charles B. 

 Shuman of the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association. 



A bright future for cooperatives and 

 cooperative marketing was pictured by 

 President Shuman. He congratulated 

 members on their progress and for- 

 ward-looking program designed to im- 

 prove quality, processing and market- 

 ing. 



Three new directors were added to 

 the board of the Illinois Fruit Growers 

 Exchange and a fourth new man was 

 elected when Talmage Defrees, vice 

 president and member of the board for 

 15 years, declined to run again. 



New members of the board are Wil- 

 liam Beauman, Johnson county; Dwight 

 Kirtland, Clark; Lyman Creed, Wash- 

 ington, and Dr. L. A. Floyd, Bond, 

 who replaced Defrees. The three new 

 members were added to give better rep- 

 resentation to heavy fruit-growing dis- 

 tricts. 



Illinois Fruit Supply Company, the 

 cooperative which furnishes supplies to 

 the growers, paid patronage dividends 

 of $20,433.52 at the annual meeting on 

 sales of 1383,733.42 for the past year. 



Storage and freezing of fruits to take 

 advantage of more profitable market- 

 ing periods of the year was considered 

 one of the major factors in the near 

 future by many of the growers present. 



Manager Larry Colvis explained the 

 progress that has been made so far on 



the construction of a cold storage 

 building which is 

 expected to be com- 

 pleted in the fall. 

 When completed 

 the building will 

 have space for 80,- 

 000 bushels of ap- 

 ples and facilities 

 for quick-freezing. 

 lAA Field Secre- 

 tary George Metz- 

 ger commended the 

 fruit growers on 

 their preparations 

 for future developments in the fruit 

 business and emphasized the interest in 

 frozen fruits by relaying a message to 

 Manager Colvis from Cecil Musser, re- 

 cently appointed head of the Illinois 

 Cooperative Locker Service. 



Metzger quoted Musser as saying 

 that he was looking forward to doing 

 an extensive business with the Fruit 

 Growers Exchange by selling frozen 



Richard McBrlde 



fruit raised by Southern Illinois grow- 

 ers through his organization's 80 re- 

 frigerated locker plants scattered 

 throughout the state. 



Manager Colvis announced that the 

 Illinois Fruit Growers Exchange had 

 employed the services of two experi- 

 enced men to handle the organization's 

 sales work beginning in June. 



Richard S. McBride, 35, recently dis- 

 charged from the armed service, and 

 his uncle, D. F. McBride, 47, will come 

 from their homes in Texas this summer 

 to take over the selling job. 



The hiring of the Texas men came 

 after some discussion by the board of 

 directors brought out the fact that 

 while Illinois fruit and vegetable mar- 

 keting is almost all done between May 

 and November, marketing in Texas is 

 generally from November to May. 



It looked like an excellent set-up for 

 Illinois to use Texas salesmen during 

 its slack season and vice versa. The 

 McBrides liked the idea too and an 

 agreement was made. Dick will arrive 

 in June and stay until November and 

 D. F. McBride will come to Carbon- 

 dale in August for the peach harvest. 



Both men have been in fruit sales 

 work all of their working lives and are 

 thoroughly experienced selling fruits 

 and vegetables in truck and carlot. 



Other speakers on the annual meet- 

 ing program were: S. C. Chandler, 

 state entomologist; President Chester 

 Lay of Southern University, and ^ Fred 

 Bierer, Fruit Exchange Supply Com- 

 pany manager. 



Manager and board of directors of Illinois 

 Fruit Growers Exchange are shown during 

 recent annual meeting in Carbondale. L. to 

 R. (front): D. B. Kirtland, Clark county; 

 President A. O. Eckert, St. Clair; Manager 

 L. L. Colvis; L A. Floyd, Bond; Secretory- 

 Treasurer F. G. Anderson, Union; (second 



row), H. E. Hartley, Marion; Orin Hertz, 

 Washington county farm adviser; Vice Pres- 

 ident E. D. McGuire, Jackson; William Beau- 

 man, Johnson; (bock row), Trevor Jeffrie*, 

 Jefferson; Arthur Foreman, Pike; Lyman 

 Creed, Marion; and R. B. Endtcett, Pulaski. 

 Not In picture is Chester Boland of Edgar. 



26 



I. A. A. RECORD 



