70 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Scpt.^. 



trade upon the reputation of the neighborhood and sell a. 

 poor product at a good price because the name of the neigh- 

 borhood helped to sell it. Needless to say, this soon de- 

 stroyed the reputation of the neighborhood and even the hon- 

 est potato growers suiTered in consequence. If they had had 

 a compact organization and a brand or trade-mark like that of 

 the Sun-kist oranges of southern California, they could have 

 protected themselves against these unscrupulous growers and 

 preserved their reputation. 



The fourth essential is that the consuming public be educa- 

 ted as to the meaning of the grades and the brands or trade- 

 marks. This also is something which requires organization. 

 A small farmer with vcrv little to sell could hardly af¥ord to 

 pay the cost of advertising. An organization of a thousand 

 or ten thousand farmers with a great deal to sell could ad- 

 vertise effectively. 



Aside from the interest of the farmer himself in this kind 

 of organization, there are certain economic principles which 

 are involved here. It is a matter of sheer economy of the 

 energy of the nation. Anything Avhich has to be sold on in- 

 spection is always sold in a very expensive way, in terms of 

 human energy, — t'.at is, it is a laborious process to inspect a 

 product every time it changes hands. If instead of having 

 to be sold on inspection, it could be sold on grade or reputa- 

 tion : that is, if the buyer instead of seeing the product 

 itself could order a certain quantity and a certain grade and 

 akways know that he would get exactly what he ordered, 

 there Avould be a vast economy effected in the work of selling. 

 Every commodity which is sold could sell economically on a 

 large scale. Every commodity of which the price to the pro- 

 ducer is only slightly less than that paid by the consumer, is 

 sold on grade or reputation rather than on inspection. The 

 reason is that it is economical of time and energy to buy and 

 sell in this way, whereas it is wasteful of time and energy to 

 inspect and examine a product every time it changes hands. 



I remember a case of some farmers in Xorth Carolina who 

 had hay to sell. They had been advised by the agricultural 

 experts to grow hay because North Carolina was importing a 

 great deal of hay from the Northwest, mainly through Cin- 

 cinnati. I'he North Carolina farmers had grown hay that 



