The first raspberry growing for market at Bay Lake was back in 1886.  Nick Newgard, one of our first settlers, sold quite a few berries that year.  Bay Lake is seven miles from Deerwood, the nearest railroad point, and at that time there was only a trail between these places, and it was necessary for Mr. Newgard to pack his berries in on his back.  This same method was used in transporting supplies.

[Illustration:  Strawberry field on place of A. N. Gray, at Bay Lake.]

Mr. Newgard told me recently that he received a very good profit on his berries the first ten years, but each year the acreage increased and each year the growers’ troubles increased in disposing of the crop.

In 1909 there was an unusually large crop and, shipping individually, as we did at that time, it was a case of all shipments going to Duluth one day, flooding the market, then the next day every one shipping to Fargo and flooding that market, and at the end of the season when the growers received their final returns they found that they had received very small pay for their berries.

In the fall of that year the growers around Bay Lake called a meeting to see if some organization could not be formed to handle their berries and look after the collections.  The result of this meeting was the incorporation of the Bay Lake Fruit Growers’ Association.

When the berry season opened in 1910 we had a manager, hired for the season, on a salary, who worked under a board of five managing directors.  It was the manager’s business to receive the berries at the station, find a market for them, make the collections and settlements with the growers.  The result of this first year was so satisfactory to the members that the total membership increased that fall to almost 100.  This new system had eliminated all the worry, and we received a good price for our berries after the expense of our manager had been deducted.

We have just closed our sixth season, which by the way has been a very successful one, as the prices received have been above the average.  We now have about 150 members, and we have two shipping stations, Deerwood and Aitkin.  We market strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, gooseberries, plums, Compass cherries, apples, sweet corn and celery.

We have a nice trade worked up and have little trouble in finding a ready market for any of our products.

It is our aim, as growers, to give our customers all A No. 1 quality.  During the berry season we have an inspector whose duty it is to inspect the berries as they arrive at the station and any found to be of poor quality we dispose of locally for canning.  The grower of these berries receives a credit for the amount we realize.  In this way we keep the standard of our berries up, and we have very few complaints from our customers on soft berries.

As for losses on bad debts, we have thus far had very few.  We usually get a credit rating from the prospective customer’s bank and ship to him accordingly.  Our old customers file standing orders with us to ship them so many crates each day, and each year brings us new customers who have heard of the fine Bay Lake berries.