BY LEWIS A. REISNER 



FI«M idher, lAA RKORD 



A GOOD sized crop of peaches — but 

 not a record breaker — moved or- 

 derly from southern Illinois or- 

 chards to market through the Illinois 

 Fruit Growers Exchange at Carbondale 

 during early August harvest season. 



With a wind storm lashing through 

 orchards in midst of peach harvest 

 causing loss through windfall and 

 limb-rub, estimates were lowered from 

 the early season 1 million bushel fore- 

 cast, and the 1946 peach crop was 

 placed at 800,000 by growers and buy- 

 ers. 



This meant a total harvest of about 

 half last year's record crop of 1,600,000 

 bushels. 



Most housewives at such markets as 

 Danville, Decatur and Rockford were 

 buying peaches hauled from orchards 

 by trucks, as about half the crop moved 

 to market in this fashion. 



Remainder of the crop was shipped 

 to the large terminal markets, like Chi- 

 cago, in pre-cooled, refrigerator cars 

 and sold to distant city buyers. 



Growers were able to bring in the 

 harvest with local help as evidenced 

 by neighbors helping Raymond "Buck" 

 Moniger at his packing plant next to 

 an orchard on his 400 acre farm south 

 and west of Carbondale near Murphys- 

 boro. 



It was 9 at night. Lights were burn- 

 ing. Packing crews were finishing a 

 long, hard day. 



There was a thread of good natured 

 joking, not a little at the expense of 

 the boss himself, big, easy going, good 

 natured Moniger, as the crew packed 

 his 6000 bushel peach crop. 



"This is the sight we wait all year 

 to see. We don't mind the long hours 

 during the packing season," he said. 



"FRUIT EXCHANGE 



BBT MARKET" 



Pickers, mostly local help, work long hours 

 In hot orchards, earn good wages, work by 

 hour or bushels picked. They pluck golden- 

 red peaches from tree, place them in can- 

 vas bogs. 



"because these few days are the reward 

 for a season's work, expense and wor- 



He explained the packing process. 

 "Fhe peaches pass on roller belts 

 through a defuzzing machine that rubs 

 the fuzz from the fruit and at the same 

 time dusting them with a mild pre- 

 servative powder. 



Peaches then move slowly up an in- 

 cline where defectives are picked out 

 as well as the average sized peach for 

 the particular pack being crated. 



The peaches then pass over spaced 

 rollers, the smaller, undersized ones 



dropping through. 



Since Moniger's were packing two- 

 inch. No. 1 peaches at the time, the 

 rollers were set at a distance of two 

 inches — hence the name of the grade — 

 No. 1, two-inch. 



Buck is enthusiastic about the Ex- 

 change. "We joined when they first 

 moved to Carbondale. About ten or 

 eleven years ago. 



"They sell all our peaches. It's the 

 best market we've found and we've 

 tried them all." 



He buys all his supplies directly or 

 indirectly from the Exchange Supply 

 Company and shares in the patronage 

 dividends. 



They've made good money during 

 the last five or six years but they're not 

 forgetting that peaches dipped to 27c 

 a bushel in the grim early '30's. 



They certainly would not recom- 

 mend the wave of speculation that fol- 

 lowed the last war. 



"Everyone rushed in. Doctors, law- 

 yers, everyone," one grower recol- 

 lected. "And just offhand, they lost 

 their shirts." 



Present experienced growers may be 

 setting out new orchards, but only to 

 replace old ones, or to give a son a 

 start. 



Few are overly optimistic, just hop- 

 ing for a fair, steady market, with a 

 gradual decline from today's high 

 level. 



Emile Vancll, Exchange secretary, checks 

 receipts with platform salesman Lowell 

 O'Neal. Peaches are sold from loading 

 pifrtform by bushel or trvck-lood lots. Sales 

 were brisk. 



Thomas brothers rest after bringing in 

 wagon load of peaches from field to pack- 

 ing shed en father's farm. They're part- 

 ners with father, C. J. Thomas, successful 

 Carfcondale erdtardist. 



Packers sort, remove defective peaches. 

 Fruit moves by belt and roller through 

 defuxzing machine, over sorting rollers, 

 into market basket. Last fob is to ring-top, 

 deliver to market. 



SEPTEMBER, 1946 



13 



