STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 23 



(4) City marketing and distribution investiga- 



tions. 



(5) Studies and demonstrations in cooperative 



production and marketing. 



(6) Cotton handling and marketing investiga- 



tions. 



Standardization is of the utmost importance. Only when 

 products have been properly graded can they be traded in to 

 the advantage of 'both the seller and the buyer. This is no 

 truer of farm products than of mill and factory products. Un- 

 til standardization was introduced, the steel industry had a very 

 varied career. Now standard patterns and grades are manu- 

 factured in practically every plant of the world which can be 

 used interchangeably in any type of construction calling for a 

 particular pattern. Standards are necessary in order that the 

 I)urchaser of a given product may know within reasonable limits 

 what the seller proposes to deliver at a given price. Prices 

 cannot be made rational without them. 



Second only in importance to the establishment of standards 

 is the living up to them. On this point there is opportunity 

 for a great deal of educational work among farmers. They 

 must learn, as practically all large manufacturers have learned, 

 that only the highest quality brings the highest price and that 

 rigid adherence in spite of obstacles to the established quality 

 IS essential to business success. Too often the farmer sees 

 some temporary or apparent advantage in delivering a product 

 of inferior quality at a higher price. This practice must be dis- 

 couraged and the farmer must learn that even though it some- 

 times entails loss, his business contracts, for such they are, 

 must be lived up to. 



Another type of error which the farmer is very likely to 

 fall into is the failure to fulfill an agreement when he has con- 

 tracted to furnish definite qualities and quantities of product at 

 a definite price at times when the price has advanced. Too 

 often the man who has purchased from him is told under such 

 circumstances, substantially the following: "Oh, I sold that to 

 so-and-so day before yesterday. He offered me a cent a pound 

 more than you are paying." Business confidence and stable 

 conditions in marketing can never be established until the 

 farmer abides as scrupulously by his agreements as does the 



