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