114 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



They have seen that very thing in the northwest, and other 

 parts of the United States, that have put their fruits on tlie markets 

 and have become recognized as a section producing a quantity of 

 of good fruit_ They have done this through co-operation. We know 

 that the apples of the northwest, would not be sold at the present 

 time in all parts of the world, and on every market in the United 

 States, or they would not be on the markets here, taking the place 

 cf the Nebraska fruit, which used to be sold here, if it wasn't for 

 their plan of packing and distributing this fruit. They have done 

 this through co-operation. Now the growers of our state began to 

 realize if they wanted to get the most out of the fruit grown in 

 eastern Nebraska, that they would have to come together, and they 

 could not do it individually. 



In the first place, they are competing with one another, v;hen 

 they come to sell the fruit. Most of the fruit in this section, has b-''en 

 sold in the fall of the year, to buyers who come in here from eastern 

 markets. These buyers come in here and get the different growers 

 to competing one against the other. That has been especially true 

 when we had a heavy crop, and so we wanted to do away with this 

 heavy competition among ourselves. Then we wanted to establish 

 a. brand and standardize our product so that when we put it upon 

 the market, we would have something to gain favor upon the larger 

 markets of the country. Then we went ahead and organized, and 

 established our grading rules, and made them quite strict, so that 

 they would insure a good quality of fru't, and a good pack, and 

 then we established a brand and had labels made that would repre- 

 sent the different grades of fruit. We got organized and started doing 

 business the first day of August. To simplify matters, tJie first. year 

 we sold our fruit, or the great bulk of it, to one house in Chicago, 

 and we shipped all that fruit, — practically all of it, direct to this 

 house, or their storages, where they are storing in transit. Now 

 there is very little of this fruit that has gone on the market so far, 

 most of it being in storage yet. Still during the past month, I have 

 been receiving letters from a number of eastern buyers whom I have 

 never heard of before, asking for our association brand, which is our 

 number one fruit. So even with our short existence, and before the first 

 season is over, we have gotten the benefits from our standardized pack. 

 Now we realized when we organized that it would be necessary to 

 have a rigid system of inspection for this fruit. We realized that 

 on the uniformity and quality of the pack, would depend largely, 

 the success or failure of the association. So it was arranged that the 

 manager should have full charge of the packing of the fruit. Of 

 course, the grades were established by the association, and the printed 

 rules were given to the manager, and he was to be the man who was 

 to decide and interpret those rules. In order to do that, in the large 

 territory that we had, it was necessary to travel pretty fast. Espec- 



