20 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



your fruit because there is no profit in selling. Now the brand gives 

 the retailer a talking point. When the consuming buyer tells him he 

 can buy fruit cheaper, he will say not that brand of fruit, Michigan 

 grown, carefully packed in central packing house, etc., so while retailer 

 is talking for himself he is also advertising your brand. A central 

 packing house lielps to solve the labor question. In case a grower 

 should be sick and unable to attend to marketing his crop, it would 

 make no difference, his fruit Avould be sold just as well, whether lie 

 was conscious or unconscious, and if he Avas alone the Exchange could 

 send pickers to his farm and care for his fruit without ever bothering 

 his household. Suppose you had a quarantine against your house; 

 your crop would be handled without going near the house. The more 

 fruit the Exchange has to sell the better. When a buyer or retailer be- 

 gins using your brands he wants them daily or weekly all through the 

 season and you ought to have the goods. When a buyer cannot get 

 fruit of you he Avill soon get in the habit of trading elsewhere. You 

 save all the exijense of handling empty packages to farm. 



Having a packing house in lown you can give the buyer the jjackage his 

 district likes and that wnxj change daily. When you pack at home you 

 use package at hand regardless of whether it is suitable for the market 

 that is ])aying the best price. At the town packing house you get your 

 help easier. I believe today we can hire help cheaper in town than we 

 can on the farm. Onr women help are expected to work until time to 

 quit and not knock off an hour to cook dinner at home. They can bring 

 their dinner or go home for noon as they choose. If we are packing 

 evenings, as we are all through peach season, we furnish supper for 

 them at nearby restaurant and they take an hour's rest, but are not 

 allowed to go home. If they go home they will work and they need 

 their hour's rest just as much as the men. We want efficient help and 

 we take jtrecautions to see that we get what we are paying for. 



We never have, but it would not be much of a trick to run our i>ack- 

 ing house night and day. 



We find one variety of fruit sells another. It is not the apple or peach 

 alone that makes the successful business. The dealer that is pleased 

 with the pears and plums gets interested in ordering other fruits. The 

 small fruits give us a chance to get started gradually and the buyer 

 who likes our apples is ready to start next year using all kinds of fruits. 

 Then they call for beans and potatoes and you find enquiries and orders 

 for all kinds of farm produce. 



No one grower will make the Association, nor will the lack of some 

 prominent grower hinder you in the least. 



Give your manager loyal and steadfast support; stand back of him 

 as you wonld of your country and you will soon have your buying and 

 selling on a sound basis, the financial end will demonstrate that your 

 income is steadily increasing and the farm paying a proper return. It 

 is a mistake to try and manage an Association or any other busi- 

 ness on insufficient capital. 



A farm harvesting 500 bushels of small grain yearly would figure on 

 having a binder. A membership in the Exchange would not cost any 

 more with this difference. Your binder would steadily decrease in 



