Fruit For The Million

Frora the Chicago Times. The magnitude of the doraeatio fruit trade of this city is not as fully appreciated as it desertes, though the Times has proviously alluded to it. withiu a very fow years past Chicago has become the entrepot and distributing point for green fruit unsurpassed in extent by any city on the continent. Multiplied railway connections give us such rapid and direot coinraunication with a widö range of lattitudo and longitude, that we draw the earliest and' latest fruitage of vine and orchard in marvelous abundance. At our very doors lay the luxuriant fruit-growing regions of Michigan, and the sbipmenta from there alone make Chicago one of the greatest if not the greatesi domestic fruit market in the land. As buo stands confessedly without a rival in grain, pork, and lumber transactions, so does she Beem dostined in the trade under consideration ; and, as there are those in the former lines whose brain and enterprise entitle them to position as leaders, there is an autocrat in the green fruit trade also. David Henning, Esq formorly of Ann Arbor, Mich., but now a resident of this city, whose office and headquartcrs ars located in the freight depot of the Michigan Central Railroad, is handling a fruit business which is simply immense. For upward of twenty years he has been engaged in packing and shipping green apples from Michigan, and in nis present operations he bas come to be the most extensivo dealer of this fruit in the world. At over sixty prominent points, and covering in his purchasos the largest part of the fruitgrowing sections of Michigan, he has buyers located, whose business is to secure the fairest and best of the erop, grade the fruit properly, as to quality, and pack it in barrels in such a manner as will insure safe transportation wherever it is required to be shipped. At many of these stations Mr. Henning has erected spacious warehouses in which to receive his fruit, as well as to store the large number of barrels necessary for the business. THE BTJYERS. These stations are managed by men who are experienced judges of fruit, and thoroughly skilled in packing it for markut. It is the pride and boast of this apple king that he has a corps of buyers who cannot be excelled in ability, some of them having been in his service in this capacity for fifteen to twenty years. They are now occupying between sixty and seventy stations on nine different railroads running through Michigan. Perhaps it is unnecessary to say that it takes money to buy apples, and Mr. Henning has over one hundred thousand dollars actively employed in the business. During the season the remittances of currency to the stations amount from six to eight thousand dollars perday. Upon shipment of each car-load of fruit a list of the varieties is forwarded in adyance, which enables him to anticípate sales and order certain cars to points boyond without unloading. These variety lists are also of special value in making office sales, as customers can select such assortments as will best suit thü trade in their respective locations. "WEERE DO THE APPLES GO ? Mr. Honning's trade reaches from Vermont to the territories, and from Minnesota to Texas. The Texas drover, the Colorado miner, the hardy lumberman in the pineries, and the granger in Iowa, all have a toothsome enjoyment in the consurnption of his fruit. The largest share of his trade is done through orders by mail or telegraph, so well is his brand knowu and esteemed. The readers of the Times will be interested in SOME FIGURES respecting this trade. During the past six or seven years Mr. Honning's purchases and shipments have aggregated a hundred thousand barrels each season, and some years have exceeded that number. The probabilities are he will handle over a hundred thousand barrels the present season. On Thursday of last week his receipts from all stations for a sigle day were eighty-two full carloads, or twelve thousand two hundred and seventy barrels ; while his sales on Saturday, the 17th inst., were forty-six car loads, or six thousand nine hundred barrels. A serres of interesting calculations might be made up from a single season's business. For instance, a hundred thousand barrels would make about seven huudred car-loads, or a single train over five miles long, or thirty-four trains of twenty cars each. These barrels hold an average of three bushtjls each, and it would be a fair day's work for a man to piek five barrels, showing that it would take one man over sixty years to piek the fruit handled by Mr. Henning in a single season. To make the barrels which hold them, allowing a man to make ten each day, it would absorb thirty-three years, or his ordinary lifetime. WHAT IS A BARREL y Mr. Henning is an emphatio enemy to small barrels. One might say that a b irrel is a barrel, anyhow, without regard to size, but such is not the case, siuce it is certain that three bushels are more than two and a quarter, and the grocer or family man, or whoever the consumer may be, is personally interested in this point. In New York the law regulatest the size of tbe barrels, and uiakes those of legal dimensions, which hold from two bushels and a quarter to two and a half. This imposition Mr. Henning especially abominates, and long since deterinined to give consumera a fair show ; consequently he makes his barrels in his own shops, all of the largest size. He attributes his success] in the business to simply two or three points, namely, the large size and substantial style of his packages ; the best of talent and skill in putting up the fruit, and a conscientious effort to give consumera what they pay for and what they expect. CIDER! Mr. Henning is also extensively interested in the manufacture of this delicious fluid which our easliest recollections associate with a straw. His milis in Michigan are fitterl up with the most approved machinery and appurtenances for the manufacture of eider, and the quality of his product is unexceptionable. His shipments to all parts of the west, northwest, and south, indícate its popularity. It is put up in casks, barrels, and half barrels, and shipped in car-load lots in iced refrigerator cars.